IT'S BETTER THAN DRINKIN' ALONE: The Official ILM Track-by-Track BILLY JOEL Listening Thread

killer song. my first karaoke performance coming out of the pandemic closure years!

dunno if this was ever posted, but I loved this story about the struggle to make Piano Man a hit: https://keithyates.com/the-time-a-stiff-caught-fire/

Some might say a struggle best left alone

wow, that was quite a read. had no idea it played out like that at all.

Sometimes the authorities say,
“Best leave this one alone”

It's better than leaving alone

That was a great read!

did anyone watch the televised MSG 100 concert?

watching now, idk i guess i’m
a dork but it’s kinda nice

Vienna was lovely <3

That "Piano Man" story is readymade for a Netflix treatment. The scrappy group of Fresno longhairs who made Billy Joel a star

I don't know if this belongs here, or on the Vampire Weekend thread, or on the Christgau thread, but there's an amusing pre-VW blog post by a young Ezra Koenig defending Billy Joel's honor against the snide attacks of Mr. Christgau, which segues into a rant about the pointlessness of negative reviews in general:

https://internetvibes.blogspot.com/2005/10/critical-beatdown.html

ha yeah I remember it! I think we discussed it a few years ago.