Billy Joel C/D?

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"Always A Woman" is misogyny incarnate, really. He seems to think this girl is really evil, bad, poisonous. "She'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleedin'." Well Jesus, Billy, why don't you stay away from this horrible bitch? Because she's a woman. You know, you can't expect much better from women.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

Bob Dylan to thread.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:28 (twenty-one years ago) link

Heh. Yeah. But I'll forgive Bob for it, because he often turns the same gun on himself.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:31 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hold that thought.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 15:40 (twenty-one years ago) link

"Captain Jack" rocks! DJ Sammy should cover it. Or ARE Weapons.

― Arthur (Arthur), Friday, 18 April 2003 16:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

fuck this Billy Joel shit. I can't belive Dan doesn't like Mint Car. That song is great! WHAT THE HELL???

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 17:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

Most artist have absolutely terrible moments, and "We Didn't Start The Fire" is Joel's

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sadly, an unberably twee Cure song is still unbearably twee.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 18:20 (twenty-one years ago) link

And you know, "She's Always A Woman" isn't the only evil-woman-with-a-knife song he's written - there's also "Stiletto."

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

I like the Cure at their most twee ("The Perfect Girl," "Friday I'm In Love," "Mint Car"), cuz it allows me to forgive their most dour moments.

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

Its a power for Eeeeevil, though, Anthony. In fact, the only way to make "Uptown Girl" more EEeeeeeevil is for Slayer to do a cover version.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

I feel bad that you guys can't cut the poor guy a break when he writes a really good song.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:48 (twenty-one years ago) link

I gave him a break when he wrote that sarcastic song about "how to become a rock star"; He had his chance after that and blew it. He should just give up and go to Vegas, because he is NOT the Balls-out rocker he *thinks* he is.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:50 (twenty-one years ago) link

That said...who thinks a Slayer cover of "Uptown Girl" would rule, even if only as a novelty tune?

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Friday, 18 April 2003 19:51 (twenty-one years ago) link

I can't belive Dan doesn't like Mint Car.

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

I like the Cure at their most twee ("The Perfect Girl," "Friday I'm In Love," "Mint Car"), cuz it allows me to forgive their most dour moments.

"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

The other three songs ARE better, but you both have a screw loose. But then again, you both probably own every Cure album (I have over six so I'm a bit nuts myself). People should just stick with "Staring At The Sea" and "Galore." Cure album tracks aren't THAT good.

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

You are wise to do that, since your note about Cure album tracks causes Dan and I to cry...and then EXPLODE WITH RAGE. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yeah, except in my case substitute crying for an Alex-in-NYC-sees-a-post-praising-Destiny's-Child spittake.

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

I can definitely give you Perfect Girl and Want.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

You forgot "Six Different Ways".

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

goddammit, what happened to all the Billy Joel hating!? Don't we have enough threads about the fuckign Cure already?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 18 April 2003 20:42 (twenty-one years ago) link

Apparently not.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

No. We never do.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

does anyone know where i could find "friday i'm in love" on the interweb (and no i don't have soulseek)? i want to hear it like now.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

The Cure were definitely a great singles band, and I can't even say that about Joel (whose most Cure-like song is probably "Pressure," which is horrible).

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 20:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

If ILX only hated the Cure half as much as you hate Billy Joel, I'd be so happy.

― Rockist Scientist, Friday, 18 April 2003 21:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

There are plenty of Cure-haters around, RS. They just fear to speak up in my presence.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Hi Dan!

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

I CRUSH YOU

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

(bounces back like a gopher)

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

No matter how tempting, I am not re-enacting "Caddyshack" with you.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 18 April 2003 22:29 (twenty-one years ago) link

at least throw a Snickers bar in his pool.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 18 April 2003 23:01 (twenty-one years ago) link

Goddamnit, the entire reason the internet was created was for textual reenactments of Caddyshack. Now get to it.

― Ally (mlescaut), Friday, 18 April 2003 23:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

the billy joel-elvis costello connection, while not an exact fit, is better than some recognize. and i say that as somehow who likes a lot of elvis costello's music (though he's been generally useless since 1986). the similarity lies in their adherence to classic pop forms more than personality, though. and BJ is nowhere near as creative in musical arrangements as EC.

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

Goddamnit, the entire reason the internet was created was for textual reenactments of Caddyshack. Now get to it.
No, Ally. Because that just means that someone, somewhere will have to suck poison out of someone elses asscheek. And nobody wants that.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 21 April 2003 12:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

one year passes...

Homeowner expects Billy Joel to pay for repairs after accident
BAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) — A 93-year-old woman whose house was damaged when Billy Joel slammed into it with his car had never heard of the Long Island singer until the accident, but now she expects him to pay for repairs.
Maria Dono of Bayville returned from a shopping trip Sunday afternoon to find Joel speaking with police outside her house.
“He hit my bushes and the wall. He’d better come fix it,” Maria Dono told the New York Post for Tuesday’s editions. “I’m sure he has money.”
Claire Mercuri, a spokeswoman for Joel, said the 54-year-old singer’s “main concern” was to repair the damage.
“He’s taken immediate steps to make sure it’s repaired as quickly as possible,” Mercuri told the Post.
Joel had been driving on Bayville Avenue when his 1967 Citroen skidded on the wet road and hit Dono’s house. There was no evidence of alcohol or drug involvement and Joel was not suspected of any crime, Nassau County police said.
He suffered a small cut on his left ring finger but refused medical attention.
The wreck was the third car accident in two years for Joel. Last year, he was hospitalized after smashing his car into a tree along a highway on far eastern Long Island, and he escaped serious injury in a crash in East Hampton in June 2002.

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 17:36 (twenty years ago) link

"The Stranger", "Zanzibar", "Just A Fantasy", "Laura", all so classic. And quit comparing him to Ben Folds.

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

I remember thinking "Scandinavian Skies" was pretty good when I heard it, but it's a long time since I have. I've never heard the Attila album, either, and until reading this thread had doubted the guy who told me about it years ago. I'd heard an album by a Spanish group called "Atila" or something and had assumed this was probably the band he meant and the Billy Joel reference was just incorrect. Guess not!

― jazz odysseus, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 18:34 (twenty years ago) link

My personal (albeit completely unconfirmed, and probably wrong) theory is that, when Billy got in that tragic pre-pizza-slice car crash the other early morning, he'd just picked up a copy of last week's Village Voice from one of the boxes on the street, and he was reading the music section half-page with the following two pieces on it, which took his attention off the road for obvious reasons:

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

B-b-but it doesn't matter what they say in the papers because it's always been the same old thing!

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 27 April 2004 19:12 (twenty years ago) link

Joel has had his moments. As a 9 year old kid, I greatly enjoyed "Glass Houses". My favorite BJ song is on that album, entitled "All For Leyna". I played it at a party and people really seemed to like it. I also think "Allentown" has similarly stood the test of time. But yet it is true he's done some pretty awful things, especially that stupid We Didn't Start The Fire and I am SO relieved someone mentioned the REM "It's The End Of The World" connection.

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

ten months pass...

REHAB TIME FOR THE INNOCENT MAN

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 18:45 (nineteen years ago) link

A statement from the 55-year-old singer's spokesperson put his latest problems down to "a recent bout of severe gastro-intestinal distress".

― sexy waitress connie stevens (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:18 (nineteen years ago) link

He's such an a-hole.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link

I don't mind him.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Wednesday, 16 March 2005 23:25 (nineteen years ago) link

Bah humbug!! Here's me being an island. I like Billy Joel. Big deal if he's heavyhanded. Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2 is a personal favorite, and I'll defend him based on that. I like the...literary quality his songwriting has. I love Elvis Costello for the same reason. However, I'm fully aware of just how cheesetacular Billy Joel [Yes!!! And I still persist in liking him! Mwahahah!!] Suffice to say I'm not going to get terribly bunged about any ILM loathing of him. Over Elvis, maybe...Billy, not so much. But for the record: Classic.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 17 March 2005 02:48 (nineteen years ago) link

Breaking glass.
Motorcycles.
Helicopters.
Swedish airport ambiance.

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

On the Berlin albums Bowie and Eno did?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 March 2005 04:01 (nineteen years ago) link

yeah, but do ANY of the berlin albums have "sleeping with the television on"? or "all for leyna"? or "sometimes a fantasy"?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 March 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link

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