Anyway, yes, the song about the high school sweethearts is Scenes From An Italian Restaurant, which is a great song for the bizarre oopmah music middle bit about his sweet romantic teenage nights. The fast part is reminiscent of certain Ben Folds songs, take as you will.
The best Billy Joel song is Only The Good Die Young.
― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 18 April 2003 02:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 11:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
Strange but true!
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
See now, I consider this song to be full of threatening spite and anger. A perfect example of why Joel really rubs me the wrong way. On the surface is this snappin' beat, but closer examination reveals a real sinister meanness.
I mean look at these lyrics:
"The demon in your mind will rape you in your bed at night?""The moon is red and bleeding?""All the evil seem to live forever?""Only the good die young?"
waitaminit, that's iron maiden... here we go:
"don't let me wait""locked you away""Only the good die young""I run with a dangerous crowd""Only the good die young""You didn't count on me""they say there's a heaven""Some say it's better but I say it ain't""The sinners are much more fun""Don't let me wait"
I mean, it's this threat, really, couched in this kind of Greaser back-story vernacular. Liek West Side Story, on via some long-island wino. Like "Uptown Girl," which for me is the most henious of his songs.
Obviously, I have little bit of a complex with this. And I'm intentionally going over the top. But even "Always A Woman" makes me uncomfortable now, that stereotypically "fragile" song about women "changing their minds," gives me the chills just thinking about it.
― david day (winslow), Friday, 18 April 2003 14:23 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:00 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:17 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:39 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:18 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:20 (twenty-one years ago) link
I'd have to call Dud on BJ, with the possible exception of "Say Goodbye To Hollywood."
― mike a (mike a), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:01 (twenty-one years ago) link
Three times now "Uptown Girl" has come up on my weekly walking-on-bus-or-at-computer-lab mixtape within five minutes of being on this thread. The power!
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:44 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:51 (twenty-one years ago) link
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