I can. Because I hate the bastard thing too. Take "Just Like Heaven" and "Friday I'm in Love" and squeeze all the joy and/or intriguing angst out of them and leave a limp sucked orange wedge. Then stick it in the trash. Behold! "Mint Car."
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:55 (twenty-one years ago) link
"The Perfect Girl" has that fantastic synth riff plus the ultra-euphoric "I THINK I'M FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOU" part; it's easily the best song on side 4 of _Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me_.
"Friday I'm In Love" has that killer guitar riff and one the best bridges The Cure ever produced, mixed in with OTM observations about the prosiac magic of love ("It's such a gorgeous sight/To see you eat in the middle of the night").
"Mint Car" has a god-awful rinky-dink guitar riff fluttering around some DEEPLY tenuous screeching that can't even be saved by blatant Daan-pandering in the shape of egregious double entendres (aka the third verse). Also, it's too slow.
"The Lovecats" is still their best twee song, anyway. ("A Chain Of Flowers" might be their best melancholy twee song.)
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:16 (twenty-one years ago) link
I believe I should end this post with a Geir-like :)
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:22 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
Cure album tracks kick major ass. BOW BEFORE THE GENIUS OF "World War", "Another Day", "Secrets", "The Figurehead", "Siamese Twins", "Faith", "All Cats Are Grey", "At Night", "Piggy In The Mirror", "Dressing Up", "Shake Dog Shake", "The Top", "Kyoto Song", "The Blood", "The Kiss", "All I Want", "How Beautiful You Are...", "One More Time", "The Snakepit", "Like Cockatoos", "The Perfect Girl", "Last Dance", "The Same Deep Water As You", "Prayers For Rain", "Open", "End", "From The Edge Of The Deep Green Sea", "Want", "Treasure", "Bare", "Out Of This World", "The Loudest Song" and "The Last Day Of Summer"!
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:37 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 April 2003 20:42 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:43 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:43 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 18 April 2003 21:45 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:25 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:26 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:29 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 23:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 18 April 2003 23:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
the upthread billy joel-frank zappa comparison, on the other hand, is very much off-the-mark (their mutual love for doo-wop and perfectionism notwithstanding). george gershwin and paul whitehead =/= edgard varese and eric dolphy. and zappa's "smugness" isn't as pointless as joel's.
― Tad (llamasfur), Saturday, 19 April 2003 05:56 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 21 April 2003 12:32 (twenty-one years ago) link
― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 17:36 (twenty years ago) link
I will give him one dud mark for his Guido/Italian Moolie dialect at the end of "Big Shot". And dud anything after An Innocent Man.
― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 18:08 (twenty years ago) link
― jazz odysseus, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 18:34 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0416/catucci.php
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0416/eddy.php
― chuck, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link
I don't detest Costello, but he really hasn't ever done much for me. Unlike Joel, I can only name ONE Costello song I ever really liked, and the title won't come to me now. There's black female backup singers in the video. Maybe someone can help me here so I don't have to leave ilx to figure out the name of that damn thing.
Disintegration, on the other hand IS perfect.
― bimble (bimble), Wednesday, 28 April 2004 05:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― sexy waitress connie stevens (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 17 March 2005 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link
I mean, where else are you going to find these sounds all done by the same artist?
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 17 March 2005 03:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 04:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:20 (nineteen years ago) link
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0606,wood,72051,22.html
― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 6 February 2006 18:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Pete Scholtes, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Charlie Howard, Friday, 4 May 2007 18:01 (seventeen years ago) link
I'd also like to note that Billy Joel claimed to be a Suede fan in a Rolling Stone article. -- Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 16 April 2003
WOW! good man. where can i read the article in question i wonder?
― pisces, Thursday, 12 July 2007 01:07 (sixteen years ago) link
i like the use of the word 'claimed'. as if saying you like a particular band still leaves room for a jury's verdict :)
― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 12 July 2007 19:31 (sixteen years ago) link
All For Leyna and Sleeping With the Television On are eternal classics.
I live happily without Piano Man and Just the Way You Are, which are about MOR songwriting skills. But the horny, nerdy teen on side two of Glass Houses (I was 14 at the time) . . . that's the real truth about Billy, me, and a lot of other Queens/Long Island boys who'd rather not admit it!
― Kenny, Monday, 30 July 2007 20:44 (sixteen years ago) link
I apparently have never weighed in, so since the opportunity arises: Why such a hatred for songcraft and production values?
(Me in Hongro mode)
If recording enough standards to make for an extremely solid Greastet Hits Vol I & II (that woulda been even solider with a few substitutions) is enough for classic status, then Classic it is.
(Not to mention fucking ATTILA!)
― Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, 30 July 2007 21:49 (sixteen years ago) link
I, always being in Hongro mode, have to say that in terms of songcraft and production values, Billy Joel is only average. He has a long way to go compared to, say, Crowded House or 10cc.
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 30 July 2007 22:50 (sixteen years ago) link
He has a long way to go compared to, say, Crowded House or 10cc.
Or ABBA or KISS or Andy Gibb or INXS or Biz Markie.
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 30 July 2007 23:07 (sixteen years ago) link
he's no elton john either, to take the most obvious example.
be that as it may, here are arguments in favor of billy joel's songwriting craft:
travelin' prayer new york state of mind scenes from an italian restaurant root beer rag (assuming instrumental craft counts as craft) sometimes a fantasy sleeping with the television on don't ask me why all for leyna the longest time tell her about it a matter of trust river of dreams all about soul
and arguments against:
there are a lot.
but, come on, the dude could write and sing songs.
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 00:18 (sixteen years ago) link
I, always being in Hongro mode,
quote of the day!
― fact checking cuz, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 00:20 (sixteen years ago) link
I like "Movin' Out" when it plays on the soft rock station!
― Tape Store, Tuesday, 31 July 2007 00:28 (sixteen years ago) link