Billy Joel doesn't sing on his anti-war song

cnn.com ^ | Dec 7, 2007 | AP

[RDTF]

NEW YORK (AP) -- Billy Joel has released a new pop single, the anti-war "Christmas in Fallujah." Just don't expect to hear his voice on it.

Billy Joel gave his newest song, "Christmas in Fallujah," to 21-year-old Cass Dillon.

At 58, Joel felt he was too old to sing the song, which was inspired by letters the Piano Man received from soldiers in Iraq. So he gave it to Cass Dillon, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Long Island.

"I thought it should be somebody young, about a soldier's age," Joel said in a statement on his Web site. "I wanted to help somebody else's career. I've had plenty of hits. I've had plenty of airplay. I've had my time in the sun. I think it's time for somebody else, maybe, to benefit from my own experience."

-snip-

"Christmas in Fallujah" went on sale Tuesday on Apple Inc.'s iTunes. Net proceeds will be donated to Homes for Our Troops, which builds homes for severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

[hoagy62]

I just listened to it.

Color me unimpressed. The song is depressing. It isn’t ‘anti-American’, per se....but it does view the soldier as someone who is stuck in a hopeless situation and has the lack of ability to do any good.

If Billy truly wrote this, consider his career officially over.

[Paul_B]

Thanks. What a total crock of crap. Our youth are being fed this poisonous drivel on a constant basis.

p.

[Borges]

Joel’s best music is nothing like Manilow’s drivel.

[Borges]

He’s the closest thing to Irving Berlin the Rock Era had.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“We came to bring these people Freedom
We came to fight the Infidel “
WTF? Fight the Infidel? Does he have any clue what an Infidel is?
We came to fight ourselves?

[Clemenza]

William Martin Joel of Levittown should get back to writing Four Seasons and Carol King rip-offs. He hasn't produced a truly great album since "An Innocent Man."

He remains a great live act, but needs to cut back on the booze and trashy women.

[Clemenza]

Springsteen on the other hand, has written complex and searching songs, and has displayed a solid musical knowledge of blues, jazz, and other uniquely American forms without crushing them under the weight of his ego.

BS is basically warmed over Dylan with a side of Stax. I find him to be the most BORING of "rock legends" and that's saying alot (considering how tedious much of the work of Led Zep and the Who truly is).

The only reason why he succeeded and Southside Johnny did not was his stamina as a live performer. He truly was the hardest working man in showbiz (with all due respect to James Brown) in the 70s and 80s.

[Borges]

This song is a third rate echo of the ‘Average Joe caught up in unfortunate circumstances’ aura he gave his best ‘political’ songs (Allentown, Goodnight Saigon, The Downeaster Alexa).

[Borges]

I’ve said it before...he’s written more pop standards then any American songwrirter of the last 35 years.

[evets]

"A bottle of red, a bottle of white ...

I think I've got a bottle of Pineapple Schnapps in the backseat...

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Billy Joel has never made a single song that didn't make me want to snap off the radio as soon as I heard the first opening notes.

Same thing with Springsteen with the exception of maybe one tune. You gotta be an east coast Vinnie to like either performer. I think they both suck.

Preach it, bro! Couldn't agree more.

[Borges]

That was hilarious.

[Borges]

I remember Joel compared himself to the Ramones back in the 70s.

[Cecily]

I love watching old YouTube clips of Billy Joel in concert. He does sound great live. I love his other Christmas song at the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqNzATVfwwo

[Borges]

He used to. His voice is long gone. The victim of alcohol and cigarette abuse.

[andy58-in-nh]

Springsteen's best work (IMHO) was on three albums: Born to Run, Darkness on the Edge of Town, and Nebraska. The first is a masterpiece of monumental human energy and production values. The second features even better guitar work than on BTR and good, gritty urban poetry. The third is a stark and spare exploration of Americana, and a big musical risk for him at the time.

And yes, Dylan probably did it first (arguably better) on Highway 61 and Blonde on Blonde, but Springsteen is a better guitarist if not as sublime a lyricist. I have to agree in retrospect on Led Zeppelin (although how much of their tediousness is the result of being sickeningly overplayed on FM Radio is hard to say). Early Who is still pretty cool to listen to, though.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

I remember Joel compared himself to the Ramones back in the 70s.

You are freakin' kidding me! Da Bruddas wiped the floor with BJ.

True confession: in my early punk days, I pulled a Johnny Rotten and wrote "I Hate" on a Billy Joel t-shirt and wore it proudly.

[B-Chan]

Me, too. I have never been able to figure out the popularity of either performer. Pretentious, vulgar, and cliche, both of them.

To be honest, I did like Billy Joel’s “tribute to doo-wop” period, but only because he was not writing in his own style, but in a Sha-Na-Na pastiche.

You have to be a real person to write real music — which is why Texas is the greatest music state.

[Borges]

Remember Glass Houses? Joel was writing concise 3.5 minute pop tunes at a time when the airwaves were flooded with awful Prog Rock and disco. His best stuff is timeless. A lot of people think Just The Way You Are New York State of Mind are actually old 1940s standards.

[Borges]

NY would have something to say about that. Tin Pan Alley and all.