Posted on 05/09/2017 1:12:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
What does the typical Billy Joel fan look like? It’s a serious question. We can, I think to at least a small degree of accuracy, guess what the typical Sex Pistols fan looked like back in their heyday, or the typical Spice Girls fan in theirs. But, what about Billy Joel? His music is so nondescript, so family-restaurant friendly, so bland, so cheesy, that its lack of concrete identity aside from its popularity and its blandness makes it difficult to imagine just who buys his albums, just who packs the sold out arenas.
Let’s think about it this way perhaps – Billy Joel is the suburbs of music. The term “ugly” is so often misapplied to the suburbs (some, at least). I say misapplied, because the suburbs, as I’ve lived them, are not positively ugly, like, say, Jean Dubuffet’s “Art Brut,” but rather they have a sort of negative ugliness, which is to say, they lack any qualities whatsoever. The “ugliness” of the suburbs is in reality nothing more than the banality, the boringness of the suburbs. As opposed to brutalism, which can often be ugly, but in a positive, fascinating sense, if the suburbs are oppressive, it is only because there is nothing to latch on to, nothing interesting. This seems to me the best description, by way of analogy, of Billy Joel’s music – negatively terrible. This, again, does not bring us any closer to visualizing the typical Billy Joel superfan, but it at least let’s us theorize about why we can’t.
In any event, the occasion for these thoughts is, of course, Joel’s birthday. The man seems, like the suburbs, timeless – he’s still around, still making music, still selling out shows. Long after we’re gone – cockroaches, Joel, office buildings, and, probably, (I shudder at the thought) The Eagles. But my hatred for Joel’s music doesn’t run as deep as some. Despite his eternal dullness, he does have some okay songs. No, if you want some real, wonderful, joyous vitriol, look no further than Ron Rosenbaum’s 2009 article for Slate, “The Worst Pop Singer Ever.” Rosenbaum is the author of books like “Explaining Hitler” and “How the End Begins: The Road to a Nuclear World War III,” so when he writes about Joel’s music, well, he knows what he’s talking about. The article is one of those perennial internet gems, the epitome of “evergreen content” – so long as Joel is around (forever), this article will be necessary. But enough from me – Happy birthday Billy, and here’s Rosenbaum.
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Billy Joel is right about at Springsteen level for me. When the radio in the car starts one of eithers’ songs, it takes me less that one second to punch the button to change the station. Now I agree with you on Bolton and most of Stewart except I attended a concert in the San Diego Sports Arena in 1968 and the middle act was the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart and they just killed it. “Shapes of Things” and “Ain’t Superstitious” still flow through my head sometimes.
A million times better as a song than Try and Love Again. And Day Dream Believer kind of sucks.
I agree 100%. Both Bolton and Stewart suck IMHO, and you can throw Springsteen in the same dumpster with the other two.
I love Joe Walsh too. This is one of the best from Darryl’s House:
http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/currentep.html?ep_id=75
I like Billy Joel. All his albums from Piano Man to Storm Front are great (except maybe An Innocent Man which is okay)
Cool, gonna enjoy that.
Many of his songs have already entered into the Great American Song Book. In another 30 years singers and musicians will be doing covers of his music with the same love that they now do Gershwin, Porter, Arlen, Mercer...
I think he’s a poet...I love his work.
Excellent.
I know the nuns at my wife’s former Catholic girls’ high school banned “Only the Good Die Young” when it first came out.
“As a result of his bagging Christy Brinkley, his music turned to junk.”
At first I agreed with you, but then I looked to see when they got married, which was in 85, and his music had changed quite a bit by then. It was almost exactly 5 years earlier, in March of 80 when he released “Glass Houses”, which was the last album of his original sound and style. Maybe he started dating Brinkley right after that?
Lol!!!
“the same goes for you Sting!”
Christie Brinkley returns to SI Swimsuit ... and this time she’s bringing her daughters!
https://www.si.com/swim-daily/2017/02/06/christie-brinkley-returns-si-swimsuit-2017-with-daughters
The legendary Christie Brinkley, 63-years-young, is returning to the pages of SI Swimsuit, and out to prove that age is nothing more than a number.
I’m no big fan of Billy Joel (like a few of his songs very mildly) but this loathing of him is waaaay over the top. Yes, he’s a pop musician not Tolstoy. Rosenbaum tries to put so much weight on everything, when it’s all meant to be enjoyed more “lightly”.... yes sometimes Billy Joel has big pretensions in his lyrics but I just don’t take him so seriously, so he does not crush me with disappointment. He has some catchy tunes. I can’t understand putting so much time and attention into him if you (Rosenbaum) already know you loathe him.
LOL!
You are so lucky. I was very saddened by Mr. Speedy's suicide. He was a huge influence. I keep his Concerto and a number of other pieces in my repertoire.
What was he like in person? He seemed like a down to earth bloke who loved motorcycles and might be unflappingly polite away from his onstage persona.
... and I have never sensed all this “contempt” that some seem to find oozing forth from Billy Joel. Some sardonic amusements and mild social commentary, sure, but not of the searing contempt that Rosenbaum et al. get so offended by.....
It’s just another example of an elite enlightened one reinforcing their shitty tastes by denigrating the favorites of fly over country people. While I’m not a big Joel fan, wouldn’t trash him. For that matter, if I thought an artist/musician really sucked, I’m definitely not going to waste any of my precious minutes listening to their every work so I can spend even more hours writing a tome ranking on them.
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