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

For those geoblocked by YouTube:
https://soundcloud.com/theklossessions/billy-joel-we-didnt-start-the-fire
I dug into the series after that - some are amazing, check out "Once in a Lifetime" and "Killer Queen":
https://audioboom.com/channel/the-session-with-christian-james-hand

omg, the once in a lifetime episode is fantastic.

The "Panama" one was fantastic.

jfc, listen to bob costas defend billy joel with his very heart and soul in his interview with dave marsh, looooooool

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

it's a wide-ranging interview, but the billy joel bit is at the beginning.

actually, at the very beginning is...

the youtube comments, too

the whole thing with billy joel, his fans, and the critical perception of billy joel, and his fans reactions to that...i love all of it.

Billy Joel stiff?! You're joking...

habyss
habyss
3 years ago
I agree with him.

Brian Holt
Brian Holt
8 years ago
Dave Marsh sucks! He couldn't do what Billy Joel did ... He should retire his big mouth!

what's crazy is that bob costas argues that the critics dislike billy joel because he's too popular, and has had too much success. but if you watch part 1, which is mostly about Bruce Springsteen, Costas takes the exact OPPOSITE stance - that Bruce Springsteen is bad (in 1989) because he’s too popular now. it’s such a ridiculous hypocritical take, on both Costas, in both cases.

you know what. FUCK YOU BOB COSTAS

This Bob Costas hatred must be a Missouri expat thing.

If you think I'm ever going to take Dave Marsh's side in an argument, then you're going to have to see me LATER.
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WITH BOB COSTAS.

And you can not handle COSTAS

lol pplains

just seeing his name is pavlovian for me, regardless of whatever opinion he has (inevitably smug & wrong)
FUCK YOU BOB COSTAS

"You know, Ivan Pavlov put his name in the history books with a series of experiments on conditioning, that quite frankly and by his own admission, was completely accidental. However on the opposite side of the spectrum, it was hard work and determination that paid for greats like Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, and one William Martin Joel of Hicksville, Long Island..."

Ivan Pavlov

Nasser and Prokofiev

Bob didn't start the fiyah

oh man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1ExN7ugxw

71 years young today!

https://i.imgur.com/opIcHLi.png

It's been a while since I've seen a keyboard player dancing like that while playing. Reminds me of my '80s youth. I have to wonder if he's actually playing anything though, or if the volume's all the way down on his keyboard.

Well, there IS that spider web keyb pattern so popular in the mid '80s; you can hear it on the original.

HWUNN
TWOOOO
HWUN TWOOOO THREE FAWWWH

otm

O mate, I think that's Dave Lebolt?

I'll be honest, I'd never heard of Dave Lebolt before, but I found another video of him playing with Joel so yeah, seems quite possible. I was just impressed he can hit the right keys while jumping around like that. I guess that's why he's a pro.

Henley singing "She's Got a Way" at the Kennedy Center Honors, listening thread singularity!

LIBERTY SPEAKS.

“I was the ‘angry old man,'” he tells Rolling Stone...

fun read, thanks!

and cool that they're on better terms now.

that is so great

<3

It turns out that he heard something that he thought was true, but wasn’t true. I never heard that, so I couldn’t have defended myself. It was one of those things. If it was true, it would have been cause for dismissal, definitely, but it wasn’t true.
Q: I imagine you don’t want to share what it was publicly.
A: No.

Cross-posted w/ election thread just for a giggle

From 538:

Another small batch of Pennsylvania ballots has been reported in Lehigh County (home of Allentown), and once again Biden is winning enough of them to possibly take the lead in the Keystone State.

Well we're waiting here in Allentown

and we're gonna make a stop in Nevada

But I know something that they don't know
I know a voter in New Mexico

Your sister's out, she's on a date
You just sit at home and refresh Nate

We didn't stop the counting

... for the longest time

The night is still young, doc.

Combed my hair in a pompadour
Like the soon-ex-potus wore

But the ballots wouldn't quit
And Trump had a fit
When they cut him down to 225

You just sit at home and refresh Nate

excellent work by both YMP and Vinnie imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nJZwRIy8G8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jpeQt3Lxls

Maybe I'm Amazed and Live and Let Die are Billy's two contributions to the 2014 tribute album The Art of McCartney. I haven't really dug into the backstory of this album, but Wiki indicates it has roots back in 2003 so I'm not clear when this would have been recorded.... anyway though, what the hell is going on with his voice on these recordings? Is there some AutoTune business trying to get him back to his voice from the 70s, and in the process making his blowsy attempts at throaty emphatic singing sound like Belushi doing Joe Cocker? It's really distracting to me. The "Stranger" whistling thrown randomly into "Live and Let Die" really doesn't work for me, also.

(realized i never did go back and round up the various late-career curios at the bottom of my chronological spreadsheet. i mean, why not?)

"Let's see if we can blend 'The Stranger' into 'Patience' and really fuck up this Macca!"

https://i.imgur.com/bzAMGek.jpg

I generally like "Maybe I'm Amazed" but Billy misunderstands it here. He tries to bring the growl too early.

What is affecting about Paul's song is the tenderness of the verse and the way the chorus brings the grit.

By trying to bring growl into the verse, Billy leaves himself nowhere to go when the chorus arrives, and he just sounds hoarse and strained.

Rookie mistake. If you turn up to eleven you have no twelve.

I hate everything about "Live and Let Die" so I have never heard this version, and on principle I am not going to

What is affecting about Paul's song is the tenderness of the verse and the way the chorus brings the grit.

and his solid lead guitar

great points YMP.

(also feel like said rookie mistake is probably made by a LOT of people trying to cover this song.)

"When am I gonna take control, get a hold of my emotions? STOP LIGHTING THE AUDIENCE!
Why does it always seem to hit me in the middle of the ni-i-ight? STOP IT!
You told me there's a number I can always dial for assistance. LET ME DO MY SHOW FOR CHRISSAKE!"

what in god's name is this and why i have never heard of it? the terribleness of these covers is kind of a given, and puffin, alfred and doctor c all very otm. but what strikes me is that billy seems to have tried really hard to make something of maybe i'm amazed while appearing to have tossed off live and let die with no thought whatsoever with the three minutes of studio time he had left using a bar band that had just wandered into the studio hoping to score some drum heads or maybe an autograph. live and let die is the one he should have spent his time on. he could've covered that circa turnstiles and totally made it work.

totally. also.... why does he have two songs on a tribute album? that's kinda weird, right? scanning the tracklisting it looks like Heart does as well but i don't think anybody else does. i do like the idea of Wanda Jackson covering Run Devil Run so maybe i should dig into this a little more.