Hi. Jody (not Beth) Rosen here. As it happens, no, I don't think Elvis is above the criticisms I level at Joel. He's even more pretentious in some respects, and even more of a promiscuous genre-hopping hack, particularly in the post-1980 phase of his career. I mainly invoked Costello in the piece in the context of my embarrassing high school epiphany, when the scales were lifted from my eyes and I realized how monstrously wack it was to worship Billy Joel.
I could go on for hours about Costello's problems -- biggest problem: despite his exalted reputation, his lyrics are pretty atrocious -- but I do think it's pretty inarguable that EC made AT LEAST four fantastic albums (I can think of eight that I love); AND he does have a certain toughness about him, at least on the early albums; AND he was an original, at least back in '77-'79. Whereas Joel has always been derivative and gauche.
Do love BJ's tunes, though -- esp. "Movin' Out." (Also, Billy's "Sometimes a Fantasy" is my third favorite Cars song.)
― Jody, Thursday, 1 December 2005 21:36 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 1 December 2005 21:39 (eighteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 1 December 2005 21:42 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 1 December 2005 21:46 (eighteen years ago) link
I'd add this:
- My biggest problem with Costello's lyrics is that they're suffocatingly pseudo-poetical. The guy just can't say anything straight. (Notice that when he comes close to simplicity -- e.g., "I Want You" -- it's great.) The lyrics mostly worked on the first several albums, because they were just plain sharper, and more evocatively ambiguous. But they've gotten increasingly baroque and pretentious and just plain crap. Of course, on the best records the the lyrics don't really matter because his tunes are so great, and most importantly, because he has Bruce and Pete Thomas playing the shit out everything. Those guys are GODS.
― Jody, Thursday, 1 December 2005 21:56 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 1 December 2005 22:01 (eighteen years ago) link
― k/l (Ken L), Thursday, 1 December 2005 22:15 (eighteen years ago) link
― o. nate (onate), Thursday, 1 December 2005 22:25 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 1 December 2005 22:32 (eighteen years ago) link
Which one?
― Edward Bax (EdBax), Friday, 2 December 2005 02:54 (eighteen years ago) link
― danielle the animal steel (Jody Beth Rosen), Tuesday, 17 January 2006 21:11 (eighteen years ago) link
― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Friday, 5 January 2007 01:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Friday, 5 January 2007 01:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― PappaWheelie MMCMXL (PappaWheelie 2), Friday, 5 January 2007 02:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains, Wednesday, 9 May 2007 16:56 (seventeen years ago) link
OLD ILM WAS WRONG: Part #1 in an ongoing series
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 25 June 2007 13:23 (sixteen years ago) link
lower bottom right = my dude
― sanskrit, Thursday, 12 July 2007 23:21 (sixteen years ago) link
the days of old, the days of fixed img
"and every time i've held a rose, it seems i only felt the thorns...and so it goeeees. and so it goes. and so will you soon, i suppose. but if my silence made you leave then that would be my worst mistake. so i will share this room with you, and you can have this heart to break."
― Tape Store, Thursday, 5 June 2008 05:19 (sixteen years ago) link
That fixed image is my proudest achievement on ILM.
― Pleasant Plains, Thursday, 5 June 2008 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link
my best song is Summer Highland Falls― Bill Joel, Monday, April 12, 2004 12:35 PM (4 years ago)
you are so so right
― Cocktor Dassantino (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 14 January 2009 22:41 (fifteen years ago) link
No love for "Allentown"?
― Tantrum The Cat, Thursday, 15 January 2009 01:06 (fifteen years ago) link
All about Piano Man.
― chap, Thursday, 15 January 2009 01:22 (fifteen years ago) link
my dad told me a story abt "S,HF" song when we were listening to turnstiles in the car. he said he saw an interview with BJ in which he (joel) kinda laughed at this song, saying something to the effect of "it shows how little i knew about songwriting at the time, with the lyrics being all melancholy and the piano being all peppy and upbeat." maybe it's just me but uh thats's part of why this song works!
― Cocktor Dassantino (k3vin k.), Thursday, 15 January 2009 02:06 (fifteen years ago) link
lol @ the pic btw
Piano Man is the ultimate wanna-be Bob Dylan song.
― thirdalternative, Thursday, 15 January 2009 05:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Jody Rosen and JBR are not the same person. I think that's mentioned in the FAQ somewhere.
― o. nate (onate), Friday, 2 December 2005 07:50 (3 years ago) Bookmark
loool
― Lemonade In Hammocks (electricsound), Thursday, 15 January 2009 05:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Search "Laura."Search "Allentown."
The rest depends on mood.
― billstevejim, Thursday, 15 January 2009 06:57 (fifteen years ago) link
S: Glass Houses
― Nhex, Thursday, 15 January 2009 07:28 (fifteen years ago) link
oh yeah.. Search the "Pressure" video
― billstevejim, Thursday, 15 January 2009 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
Pressure's a good song as well. As is Movin' Out.
― chap, Thursday, 15 January 2009 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
"Vienna" for sure:
― Eazy, Thursday, 15 January 2009 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link
I always have time for "Big Shot" and his other "Italian" sounds.
― u s steel, Friday, 16 January 2009 00:45 (fifteen years ago) link
"The Stranger" is an amazing album. Other than that, at least until the mid 80s, he would come up with great single songs. "The Nylon Curtain" contains a couple of often overlooked gems in "Goodnight Saigon" and "Allentown". Both excellent. And "An Innocent Man" holds up as a great collection of 50s/60s pop pastiches.
From the mid 80s onwards, everything except "The River Of Dreams" may as well be destroyed.
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 16 January 2009 00:47 (fifteen years ago) link
S: 1. Cover of Leonard Cohen's "Light As The Breeze" - better arrangement than the original. 2. Unabashedly Brill-Building songwriting on "The Stranger".D: "We Didn't Start..."
― Eazy (Eazy), Thursday, December 1, 2005 8:39 PM (3 years ago)
Oh, and thanks YouTube, here's that cover:
― Eazy, Friday, 16 January 2009 00:55 (fifteen years ago) link
I wouldn't give half a shit personally for anything he's done but I kinda respect his unabashed-tin-pan-alleyness in the era of rock "authenticity". Despite his being, apparently, a total dick. Nonetheless, also, props for "The Longest Time" charting, the first acapella song to have done so since (when? The Fifties?) and none since, I don't think (unless there's some boyband I dunno about that did it circa 1999, bells are ringing)
DESTROY: (tho it's such a big destroy, such an awful, insufferable cornball piece of half-baked overstuffed meringue-dressed-as-steak that it might count as a Search): that Vietnam song he did. Makes "Scandinavian Skies" look like "The Bird's The Word." "We smoked our hash pipes! And played our Doors tapes!" Yeah, Billy, I saw that movie too.
― staggerlee, Friday, 16 January 2009 02:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Nonetheless, also, props for "The Longest Time" charting, the first acapella song to have done so since (when? The Fifties?) and none since, I don't think (unless there's some boyband I dunno about that did it circa 1999, bells are ringing)
"Don't Worry Be Happy"?
― Mr. Snrub, Friday, 16 January 2009 02:27 (fifteen years ago) link
dwbh is acapella, longest time is not
― Lemonade In Hammocks (electricsound), Friday, 16 January 2009 02:31 (fifteen years ago) link
I fail.
And so does Billy.
― staggerlee, Friday, 16 January 2009 05:02 (fifteen years ago) link
I seem to remember a decent proportion of a BJ thread somewhere devoted to brilliance of Rosalinda's Eyes. The drum fade out with the verbed our woodblock sound is aces.
Here's a crappy YT home made vid.
― MaresNest, Friday, 16 January 2009 12:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I find him totally inoffensive. Nobody really hates Billy Joel, it's just that some people have three CDs in their house and they are all Billy Joel. I mean, please.
― US EEL (u s steel), Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:40 (fourteen years ago) link
He did some good new wave and I noticed it meshes well with the other new wave I have.
― US EEL (u s steel), Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:41 (fourteen years ago) link
I recently took part in an exercise class in which 'we didn't start the fire' was played.
have you ever done burpees to the words 'chubby checker! psycho! belgians in the congo!'? it's most unsettling.
― m the g, Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:48 (fourteen years ago) link
That sounds like a blast!!
― US EEL (u s steel), Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:50 (fourteen years ago) link
it was preferable to the usual euro-trance mixes of taylor swift, but not by much.
― m the g, Tuesday, 15 December 2009 14:56 (fourteen years ago) link
nylon curtain is my jam
― I don't think this is funny..Much Clown Love Ya'll! (stevie), Tuesday, 15 December 2009 16:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Sounds about right.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 22 October 2010 19:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Not quite as pithy as Liberace's "I cried all the way to the bank". Also when did Billy Joel start looking like Bruce Willis in '12 Monkeys'?
― Les centimètres énigmatiques (snoball), Friday, 22 October 2010 21:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Billy Joel never takes no shit from nobody.
― http://tinyurl.com/whitepony (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 22 October 2010 21:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Also when did Billy Joel start looking like Bruce Willis in '12 Monkeys'?
um... 1990?
― O'Donnell and the Brain (HI DERE), Friday, 22 October 2010 21:21 (thirteen years ago) link