Lamest rock star ever -- I give you Billy Joel

sadness or euphoria wrote:

midnitelamp wrote:

and The Stranger

Agreed

I agree that every single one of those songs is awful

BJ is terrible wrote:

sadness or euphoria wrote:

Agreed

I agree that every single one of those songs is awful

With the amount of reasoning I would expect of someone who holds that opinion.

malmo wrote:

Billy Joel isn't rock, he's pop.

knew how to write a hook-ook-ook-ook.

sadness or euphoria wrote:

midnitelamp wrote:

[quote]sadness or euphoria wrote:

Would love explanations for how these aren't good songs

Vienna

And So it Goes

The Ballad of Billy the Kid

Summer Highland Falls

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Goodnight Saigon

and The Stranger

Have you ever listened to those songs?

You're just trying for a reaction, right?

Just horrific.

For some reason Billy Joel puts some people off. I think it's his attitude. But he has made some fantastic albums.

"Turnstiles" (1975) for one is great. And his song "Zanzibar" is wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yget4xVAulE

Billy Joel was a fabulous song writer. He'll be listened to forever. It's not exactly rock and roll - that's the thing. Cant' compare him to Mick Jagger...he's a pop guy. More like Elton John.

The traditional 'lamest rock star' is Richard Marx.

30 million albums. For this.

no rock, no roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8E_dkESwzg

I'll give you Billy Joel, but the notion that Dave Matthews is a true mediocrity with no good songs is patently absurd. He and his band are incredibly talented musicians in comparison to virtually any other band. Maybe Fishbone is similarly talented as musicians. A # of his songs are also terrific songs. Don't ever compare him to Billy Joel.

Fishbone, Everyday Sunshine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV5Nkah8nP8

Dave Matthews Band, #41:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpokiZv9vc

Tell me seriously that those are not extremely high quality musicians, and I am including Dave Matthews as a singer, for rock bands.

yesstiles1 wrote:

For some reason Billy Joel puts some people off. I think it's his attitude. But he has made some fantastic albums.

"Turnstiles" (1975) for one is great. And his song "Zanzibar" is wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yget4xVAulE

I think what puts people off Billy Joel is that he has a rock star sneering attitude...but writes silly pop. There's a serious mismatch there that confuses and irritates people.

I mean Elton John doesn't sneer and throw things and pretend to be cool. Easier to take.

agip wrote:

yesstiles1 wrote:

For some reason Billy Joel puts some people off. I think it's his attitude. But he has made some fantastic albums.

"Turnstiles" (1975) for one is great. And his song "Zanzibar" is wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yget4xVAulE

I think what puts people off Billy Joel is that he has a rock star sneering attitude...but writes silly pop. There's a serious mismatch there that confuses and irritates people.

I mean Elton John doesn't sneer and throw things and pretend to be cool. Easier to take.

Compare to this.

McJaco wrote:

Very True! His nursery rhyme lyrics, banal chord progressions, and annoying voice somehow became "music for the masses".

Nursery rhymes?

You mean like :

"Allentown "that presages Trump's election by 36 yrs?

"goodnight Saigon" as a tribute to Vietnam vets

"Vienna" about the purpose and meaning of the elderly that doesn't exist in USA?

All of his lyrics have meaning, unlike most of the crap written these days. Then those lyrics are placed on top of melodies that stay with you and have a relationship to the meaning. Then those lyrics actually rhyme, and are written in poetic fashion.

I am sorry you did not progress pass nursery rhymes.

McJaco wrote:

BTW, listen to the lyrics of "Only the Good Die Young" and substitute any other race or religion for Catholicism and you'll agree that the song would never be heard on the radio and literally condemned by all.

You can put in 'Baptist', 'Pentecostal' etc and it would still have meaning. Fact is he wrote it about a catholic girl not a muslim or baptist.

But continue to listen to your country and western, that's ok , I'm not judging

...oh, and one can single out the following too (despite all having special meaning).

Baby Grand, 2000 yrs, Miami 2017 (another presaging one) etc

Not all 121 are great, some are kitsch yes, but maybe those are the best remembered by the non fans

Zat0pek wrote:

People get way too hung up on genres or classification. ////

Joel still sells out every venue because he's a great live entertainer/musician/personality. But rock star? That's the wrong classification. Musician, songwriter, performer, entertainer, sure, but not the definition of a "rock star." "Rock stars" don't write and record things like Vienna, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant, Piano Man, Lullaby, or You're My Home but pop stars don't write and record things like Miami 2017 or Big Shot. Joel doesn't really have a clearly-defined genre that all his music would fit into which is one of the things I like about him. ////

100% well put.

What people don't understand is that when you are an overall lover of good music, rather than a 'rock', 'pop' etc...then Billy Joel ticks all the boxes because he is a musical genius.

"You say I'm not rock....I give you Turnstiles"...which puts the rock lovers really off

Same for lovers of other genres, as I have found. No one that I know that loves a specific genre, like Billy Joel like I do...yes they acknowledge his success, but they don't share the same passion for it.

I love how it can go from love ballad, to social ballad, to thumping rock, to quirky humorous sing along, and all are good

First off, Billy Joel at least deserves credit for improving greatly over his early stuff as a member of Attila:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDg-uiNsqQk

Attila sounds like it could almost be good, if it just wasn't so freaking terrible.

I'm not feeling the Billy Joel hatred. I grew up in the '80's. I never bought one of his albums, but I have to admit, he had tons of songs that I liked at the time. He's one of those guys you probably know the lyrics to 50 songs by, but somehow you feel the need to say you hate him anyway. It's sort of like saying "I really HATE the Beatles!" Which is fine if you hate pop music completely, but it's hard to convincingly say you like rock 'n' roll but hate the Beatles. Same with Billy Joel to a degree (although I don't think he's quite on the Beatles' level).

"You May Be Right" and "Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me" still sound pretty good to me today. "Matter of Trust" too.

People that can't stand Billy Joel: who exactly do you think is so much better than him? That, to me, is a good test of whether you're insulting him just to be cool, or if you have a legitimate reason. It's kind of like, if you say, well, Tom Waits is way better than Billy Joel, I'll completely agree with you...but it's not the same thing. If you have any love for artists that are trying to be popular and sell millions of records, it's hard to totally dismiss BJ.

Valid points by all you fine gentlemen.

The fat bee girl ruined the band Blind Melon. I still say they suck.

I've often thought Ed Sheerin might end up being remembered like Billy Joel - hugely popular in his time with many storytelling type songs that won't age very well

We strictly play '80's Joel!

midpack master wrote:

I've often thought Ed Sheerin might end up being remembered like Billy Joel - hugely popular in his time with many storytelling type songs that won't age very well

And the Beatles songs...how did they age?

You hear Billy Joel songs much more than Beatles songs.

The Beatles were famous because they were a a good looking boy band....few of their songs' lyrics are on par with BJ, few of them get you moving like his

this singer is pretty lame ...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfrj1z7q3YI ...