Say Goodbye To POLLywood - Billy Joel Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II, THE POLL

If I ever go to New York I will definitely do that.

I don't care what anyone says about that song, it SOUNDS like new york to me.

God, I fucking hate most Billy Joel. That said, you can't really grow up on Long Island without knowing most of his hits by heart and there are a couple I really love.

Movin' out (Anthony's Song)
Only the Good Die Young
My Life
Big Shot
You May Be Right
Tell Her About It
Uptown Girl
and
The Longest Time

Wait, maybe I don't detest BJ as much as I thought. :/

http://cdn.idolator.com/assets/resources/2007/09/billyjoel.gif

I was gonna say, that's a pretty long list ENBB

ONE OF US
ONE OF US

earworms gonna GETCHOOO

And I still know every single word to We Didn't Start the Fire.

me too
also I Go To Extremes, River Of Dreams, and All About Soul

but not by choice, it's just a terrible sickness I have

Some non-singles I like a lot: All For Leyna, Zanzibar...

it's funny how automatic the "i hate billy joel!" thing is, even from people who know and love quite a bit of his music. who else from the 70s/80s is in this boat and unrehabilitated by hipster appreciation? phil collins got rescued a few years back...

I HATE I go to Extremes though lol @ Lohan's tattoo with the lyrics from it. River of Dreams makes me want to vom. I don't know the last one. Are they all off the same album? I have never owned anything by him. I know all this stuff from the radio. I'm serious about Long Island radio playing tons of BJ. It's ridiculous.

2. "An Innocent Man"
3. "A Matter of Trust"

See, they could've just done Volume III as a 7" single.

Like, I've crossed the Throgs Neck Bridge and heard one of his songs within minutes on multiple ocassions. My entire senior class broke out into a chorus of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant at my prom more than 15 years after its release for Christ's sake!

Australian radio played the hell out of him for some reason, as well as my Mum playing his greatest hits all the time.

all About soul is terrible, I won't even put a youtube up, it'll ruin your life.

Phil otm

Where is Ramzi? He could back me up on this.

However, I'm not gonna lie and try to front that I don't do a little seat dancing if I happen to come across "Only the Good Die Young" on the radio.

phil collins got rescued a few years back...

It's very easy for hipsters to be ironic about liking Phil Collins. Phil wants everyone to like him anyway, he's so eager to please. There's nothing ironic about Joel, and he doesn't care whether people like him or not. That's too real for hipsters.

that is some questionable armchair psychology right there

what the fuck are you on about, snoball?

snoball doesn't care whether we like him, don't play into his game

I don't care what anyone says about that song, it SOUNDS like new york to me.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, April 9, 2012

I've lived in NYC since 1986 (I'm sure there are ILMers who were born here, etc, etc) but the sad thing is, that song really did capture the old New York (pre-Bloomberg and Giuliani), but that New York is gone now...it's become a tourist trap/rich person playground with hardly any local color left, now populated by morons from _____ who moved here after watching "Friends". I can't even listen to that song anymore for that reason, makes me too sad.

:(

what's wrong with "Friends"? Is it the theme song?

I think its their haircuts iirc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRb92CDLlq0

3. "A Matter of Trust"

oh hey, had completely forgotten about that one. on second thought, don't destroy everything after the nylon curtain, just most of it. great fucking song. the phrase "some love is just a lie of the mind" gets stuck in my head big time.

if the poll had included the other greatest hits I'd include "A Matter of Trust" (is that really Joel on guitar? The Bridge credits don't say so) and, er, Garth Brooks doing "Shameless."

Matter Of Trust is pretty good

2. "An Innocent Man"

this is just ghastly though. starts out nice enough, but dives off a cliff before a minute's up.

"An Innocent Man" is basically a good Joe Jackson ballad.

vegemite grrrl OTM re New York State Of Mind. the whole Stranger album *totally* captured the place for me before i ever went there.
i'm sure if you actually *lived* there you'd hate it or whatever like me with Joy Division.

uh-onnnne
twoooooo
ah onnnnetwooothreeeeefaw

Most of these are good. Could have replaced those (then) recent singles with "An Innocent Man" though.

Innocent Man chart single I don't remember at all: "Leave A Tender Moment Alone"

(And my sister owned the cassette)

I always forget that An Innocent Man was as much a part of the post-Thriller zeitgeist: five (!) singles, saturation play on radio and MTV, etc.

That one has the great Toots Thielman on harmonica. Xp

one thing that strikes me is BJ is he's like a cynical, judgemental McCartney. He writes a lot of good storytelling songs but he often writes from the viewpoint of a judgemental 'other' witnessing the bad behaviours/failed lives of other people.Bit of an ivory tower thing, idk.

I could be full of shit, it just occured to me this afternoon.

"Everybody Besides Me Started The Fire"

that whole Stormfront period was just uggggghhh so gross.

At least we don't have to googleproof it here.

If anything this thread has mostly convinced me that I probably should own the An Innocent Man album.

one thing that strikes me is BJ is he's like a cynical, judgemental McCartney. He writes a lot of good storytelling songs but he often writes from the viewpoint of a judgemental 'other' witnessing the bad behaviours/failed lives of other people.Bit of an ivory tower thing, idk.

Someone wrote a long and brutal takedown of Billy Joel based largely around this idea. I think it was semi-recently linked and discussed somewhere around here. It's certainly true of certain Billy Joel songs: "Big Shot", "Movin' Out", "Captain Jack", "Angry Young Man", "Piano Man", etc. But it's never been his whole artistic POV, even in his most cynical years. And I don't think he's any more condescending or bitter than say, Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello or Mark E. Smith (lol ringer).

Also, wish I'd seen Hillary announcing her run for senate as "you just stay at home and masturbate" echoed behind her.

xpost yeah I probably should have switched often for sometimes/occasionally...he writes some really wonderful sincere stuff too

I always wrestle with that becuase I love the phrasing and hooks of Captain Jack, but the tone of it kinda irritates me sometimes.

i liked Leningrad when it came out. sorry there it is.

remember when everyone had a song about Russia

hey I liked We Didn't Start The Fire when it came out - but now I'm old I can pretend I didn't know what I was doing, lol

I really love the timing changes in Moving Out, and HEART-ATTACK-ACKACKACK

WEEELL I'M OOON THE DOWNEASTER "ALEXA"

Attila still fills me with sheer glee

Innocent Man chart single I don't remember at all: "Leave A Tender Moment Alone"

yesterday at easter dinner with my in-laws the phrase "a tender moment alone" jokingly came into the conversation for some reason. We then had to go online to figure out where we picked it up from. Nobody remembered it was a Billy Joel song.