An Explaination Part 2

Oof sorry this took longer to write then I thought and I still am not sure it is any good.

So what exactly about Billy Joel’s music makes people hate it? I think it is the complete lack of irony in his music. He is direct and honest. With any of his songs you can guarantee he felt that way when writing it. When he wrote “Piano Man” he was just one more lonely person in a bar of losers at a dead end in life (at the time he was working at the piano bar to wait out a bad contract). When he wrote “Allentown” he was concerned about the working class of those steel and coal towns that were facing difficulties. The hipsters of today can’t believe that people can be so direct without being ironic. You can’t be a balladeer with out mocking the form. You need to be a Bruce Springsteen who hides his mockery of the working class and chest beating patriotism behind a sound and image that makes him THE working class hero. You need to be John Lennon’s “Imagine” and not Paul McCarthy’s “Silly Love Song” or George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord”.

Romanticism is a big part of understanding Joel’s music. His music is not here to analyze but to just be understood upon listening. “River of Dreams” is a very religious sounding song and includes lines about the “Jungle of doubt” and Mountains of Faith”. Now these are not actual references they are just there to give the feel of spirituality. Joel is not a literary master like Nick Cave so he doesn’t try and be. It is not surprising that he writes his music first and then writes the lyrics (the exception being “We Didn’t Start the Fire” which is why the melody on that one is pretty much nonexistent).

Okay I need to take some time out here to address something that has been bugging as I do research about why people hate Billy Joel. Stop talking about “She’s Always a Woman to Me”, just stop! Have you ever actually listened to the song? You are trying to do it in a critical way and you say you don’t like it and that is fine but seriously stop calling it misogynist. If you are going to analyze the music that is very subjective and emotional but if you are going to start commenting on the lyrics it is time to show you actually understand what is being said. We live in a world were there are traits that are feminine and masculine, and a lot of these things are not based on society but on some preprogramming in our brains. This song is telling a woman who many consider a bitch that she isn’t; that she still can be successful without sacrificing her feminine traits for masculine ones. (I could write an essay on the way most feminist act and how they are actually hurting the cause of making feminine and masculine equal and are instead discarding feminine and making themselves masculine but this is about Billy Joel not that so lets move on).

Another thing I have heard against Billy Joel is how much they don’t like his voice. Well I find that a little hard to believe because he doesn’t have “a voice” he shapes his voice to the song he wants to sing. (Here is a great clip of him talking about how everyone is trying to sing like Ray Charles). He is a great interpreter of musical styles, as seen on the album An Innocent Man and the incorporation of Beethoven’s “Sonata Pathétique” into “This Night”.

His music is also a snap shot of his life and mind set something that makes him very accessible. It is fascinating and real instead of abstract and far away. I am going to mention a song of each of his albums and what they show us
On “Tomorrow is Today” he is a suicidal (was actually a suicide note he wrote) early twenty something that is deciding if it is worth it all
On “Piano Man” he is lounge player Bill Martin who keeps getting told he is to good to be here but knows this is the only way he can get out
On “The Entertainer” he is a traveling musician that knows what needs to be done to make it and has no illusion about how fickle fame is
Then you get to Turnstiles with “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” and “New York State of Mind” and you see this estranged son of New York ready to come home.
With “Vienna” we get a man who realizes that growing old isn’t something to be scared of as long as there is a place we can still be useful (inspired by him seeing an old woman sweeping the streets when visiting his Dad in Vienna and upon asking why this old woman was sweeping the street being told “She has a job and feels useful and needed”)
“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” again finds him thinking about his relevance and trying to stay up to date without sacrificing what he likes about music
On Nylon Curtain Billy Joel shows his sympathy for those he can’t fully relate to anymore but still wants to try and understand on both “Allentown” and “Goodnight Saigon”
All of An Innocent Man is nostalgic to the nth degree, recreating sounds of Joel’s youth by the likes of Frankie Valli and Smokie Robinson
The Bridge is Joel in a creative dry spell needing to bring on guest stars such as his hero Ray Charles on “Baby Grand”
“We Didn’t Start The Fire” is Joel looking over his life and realizing how much has happened since he was born
And Finally we have what I think is the most touching song Joel every wrote “Lullaby (Goodnight My Angel)” a lullaby he wrote for his daughter Alexa after she asked him about death when Joel was putting her to bed.

This isn’t the best thing I have ever written, there was no way it could be. I am here to defend how I feel about Billy Joel’s music and I doubt I will ever be able to convince those that don’t like him to come over to my way of thinking. So who knows if this is convincing, or relevant, or even coherent but it is all I can do. Just do me a favor, before you judge Joel put on something besides his Greatest Hits. Listen to the second half of Glass Houses, 52nd Street or Cold Spring Harbor. Don’t judge after “Just the Way You Are” listen to “Falling of the Rain”, “Half a Mile Away”, “All for Leyna”, “Vienna” and “Lullaby”. If you still don’t like him then leave him but he is my favorite and expect to see his music show up here again.

An Explaination Part 1

“Some people hear my greatest hits and say they don’t like Billy Joel. If I only heard my hits I might not like Billy Joel either.”

-Billy Joel

Billy Joel is my favorite musician of all time. Just plain and simple I would rather listen to him then anything else and I get a bit of flack for it. So here I am to defend my love of his music; to defend the fan favorite and critically hated “Piano Man”.

Billy Joel was the first discography I ever completed. The first CD I bought with my own money was Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol III. So before I get into the more universal defense let me explain the special relationship I have with this music. Every person who listens to music intensely will have a story about the album or song that was their musical awakening. Mine was with Billy Joel. Growing up I mostly remember listening to music in the car, The Beatles 1 and the Once Upon A Song compilation are two of the ones that I remember being played the most regularly. Of all the CDs my favorite was Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol I & II. Now it wasn’t with these songs that I had that “AH HA” moment. It was after being a little sick of listening to the same CDs over and over I went looking through my parent’s collection and found their copies of The Stranger and Glass Houses.

First I decided to listen to The Stranger; it had more songs that I already knew so I figured I should finish it first. The first four songs I listened to again even though I had heard them hundreds of times on Greatest Hits Vol I. Then I got to the song Vienna and was very impressed, not blown away (this song would be come important to me later in my life) but very impressed. I finished up the CD and moved on to Glass Houses. Now this one had seven songs I didn’t know compared to the three on The Stranger.

I listened to the first four songs with only Sometimes a Fantasy (a ridiculous and fun song that is about phone sex) to distract from the songs I already knew. Then I got to track five, All for Leyna. I finished it and instead of proceeding to the next song I hit back and listened to it again, and again, and again, and again… My mind was blown and so much clicked. I all of a sudden was thinking about music in a whole different way. It was no longer a passive entertainment that I did while playing video games or while on a family trip. Before this people would ask what type of music I liked and I would say “I don’t know. I don’t really listen to music that much” this song changed all that. I was captivated the piano, by the bass, by the synth, by the singing (lyrics not so much it would take me years to realize my favorite song ever was about obsessing over a one night stand) just completely captivated by the music.

I have listened to every recording by Billy Joel and have not disliked a single one. I want the reader to understand why I am here to defend. I want those who will still hate Billy Joel after I expose you to some of his less known works that it is ok to still hate because I doubt most can love this music like I do. I want everyone to understand where I stand and that I will always be a champion for this music. I also want people to understand that just because I like all the songs doesn’t mean I think they are all great. I will be examining why others may be repulsed by his music while other are drawn to it.

So tune in Wednesday folks to see part two of my explanation of why I like Billy Joel

Talent vs. Genius

In the world of music there are many ways to critique the sounds you hear; whether it is by the strength of the hook, groove or lyrics or the complexity and sheer technical perfection of the playing and lyrics. Now in a perfect world you could have both in your music but that is seldom the case. If you want to feed your heart you listen to Janis Joplin not ELP and if you want to feed your brain you reverse it. This distinction is why I tend to think of how skilled a band is by their genius versus the amount to talent they have.

Just to give you an idea of the distinction
some bands/artists I consider to have very little genius but tons of talent include:
ELP
Iron Maiden
Aretha Franklin
Van Halen
Eagles

Some bands/artist I consider to have a lot of genius but very little in the way of talent:
Leonard Cohen
Janis Joplin
Lou Reed
Klaus Schulze
Daniel Johnston
The Birthday Party

Now I want to be clear that I like all of those listed above. The only difference is how I enjoy the music. The first list is full of people who have very few songs in their entire catalog that are bad. But there is also a lack of truly outstanding tracks to keep me enthralled (not to say they don’t have any Hotel California, RESPECT, and Run to the Hills are all stand outs). This makes listening to them in depth hard and usually leads to the songs melding together.

The second list on the other hand is full of people who have some truly great songs that should never be missed; however there is also a lot of misses and just plain bad music in their repertoire. In exchange though they offer something else such as meaningful lyrics or heart felt honesty. Leonard Cohen is responsible for some of the ugliest pieces of music but the fact that he is always lyrically interesting saves even his most atrocious works. On the other side Janis Joplin manages to give 120% of herself into each and every song she sung making even the most lame and pedestrian lyrics seem like a spiritual call.

Now most people/bands don’t lie on either extreme and rely on their pool of both talent and genius to pull them through. There is only one band that managed to, for a short time, reach the peak of technical perfection with their talent and emotional perfection with their genius. And no, it is not the Beatles who lose a little (but not a lot) on the talent side do to some real weak numbers on their early albums and Revolution 9. I am talking about The Who. From 1967-1973 they came out with 5 completely timeless albums that are packed with impeccable playing, clever ideas, unmistakable hooks, and all the heart that they could muster. This is a topic I could ramble on for hours but this initial post seems to have hit all the basic points.