Best Song: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elton John at his very best. Both musically and lyrically Elton John and Bernie Taupin have always had two sides: the fun side that borders on lightweight and the serious side that borders on pretentious. And when it comes right down to it there was a serious problem getting those sides to play nice on a single album…except this one.
I mean the two best known songs (and two of the best) show these polar opposite sides and I don’t question them being on the same disc at all. Honky Cat is a great piece of honky-tonk with some very clever lyrics about being a bum. Rocket Man on the other hand doesn’t need an introduction. Elton’s most well known song and…well you all know it anyways.
The absolute best is Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters which is tied for the best lyrics in an Elton John song (with Good Bye Yellow Brick Road). It is an ode to New York, and who knows if it is praising the city or condemning it. The tickling piano and sparse bass serve as an amazing back drop until the mandolin shows up after the first chorus, which takes the song to a whole new level.
The rest of the songs are all great too. Well Amy is almost bad but it is saved by an exquisite Jean Luc-Ponty electric violin solo. Slave is a great country song showing that the problems with that genre lay with the performers not the genre itself. Also make sure you don’t skip I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself. It features some great juxtaposition between the cheerful music and lines like “I think I’m gonna kill myself/ cause a little suicide” before actually changing to be musically appropriate…for like 20 seconds.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American made, world played - Les Paul (and various others)
# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American Made, World Played
Best Song: Fly like an Eagle
Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).
But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.
Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.
Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.
As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.
(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)
Best Song: Fly like an Eagle
Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).
But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.
Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.
Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.
As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.
(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)
Friday, July 2, 2010
#49 "Weird Al" Yankovic
#49 "Weird Al" Yankovic
Best Song: I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead
Now Weird Al gets a lot of grief. At least he used to until everyone thought that “White and Nerdy” was the best thing since slice bread and for the first time in his over 20 years of recording he had a top 10 hit. But either way his earlier work is still very niche and under exposed. Now Al has always done the parody stick and has always done a good job but with that it is easy to keep following the same tropes and cliches. (great example is the song “Grapefruit Diet” which is where he put all the fat jokes that weren’t good enough for “Fat”)
Which is why his debut is also his best and my personal favorite of his. Some of his later albums have betters songs but this is the most consistent from beginning to end. The parodies don’t ever feel like they were forced and chosen only because that song is popular now. The sense of humor is also much dryer then latter releases. “Ricky” (a parody on Mickey by Toni Basil) is simply about ‘I Love Lucy’ and includes the talented Tress MacNeille. “I Love Rocky Road” is a treat because out of all the parodies it is the one that represents what is to come.
But of all the parodies the best are “My Bolgna’ and “Another One Rides The Bus”. My Sharona and Another One Bites The Dust respectively, both really strip Weird Al to his core basics: accordion, nerdy vocals, and juvenile noises that are used to humorous effect.
But where this album really shines is the original material. While on later albums the originals would be style parodies these are not attempting to mock a style. Happy Birthday is a very chipper driving force as Al tells you to enjoy your birthday before the world goes to shit…kind of morbid but it really makes me chuckle. The closer Mr Frump In The Iron Lung is a delightful shuffle about a man stuck in an Iron Lung that the character of the song treats as a good friend and conversationalist.
But the best is I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead. Now this song would not be out of place on a Frank Zappa record mocking the hippies. Well it is less complex then Zappa but that makes it easier to enjoy. While there are some funny images the song is actually a pretty serious denouncement of hippie/yuppie life style. I actually think this is a great song that doesn’t deserve the obscurity it gets simply because it is done by a “novelty act”
Best Song: I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead
Now Weird Al gets a lot of grief. At least he used to until everyone thought that “White and Nerdy” was the best thing since slice bread and for the first time in his over 20 years of recording he had a top 10 hit. But either way his earlier work is still very niche and under exposed. Now Al has always done the parody stick and has always done a good job but with that it is easy to keep following the same tropes and cliches. (great example is the song “Grapefruit Diet” which is where he put all the fat jokes that weren’t good enough for “Fat”)
Which is why his debut is also his best and my personal favorite of his. Some of his later albums have betters songs but this is the most consistent from beginning to end. The parodies don’t ever feel like they were forced and chosen only because that song is popular now. The sense of humor is also much dryer then latter releases. “Ricky” (a parody on Mickey by Toni Basil) is simply about ‘I Love Lucy’ and includes the talented Tress MacNeille. “I Love Rocky Road” is a treat because out of all the parodies it is the one that represents what is to come.
But of all the parodies the best are “My Bolgna’ and “Another One Rides The Bus”. My Sharona and Another One Bites The Dust respectively, both really strip Weird Al to his core basics: accordion, nerdy vocals, and juvenile noises that are used to humorous effect.
But where this album really shines is the original material. While on later albums the originals would be style parodies these are not attempting to mock a style. Happy Birthday is a very chipper driving force as Al tells you to enjoy your birthday before the world goes to shit…kind of morbid but it really makes me chuckle. The closer Mr Frump In The Iron Lung is a delightful shuffle about a man stuck in an Iron Lung that the character of the song treats as a good friend and conversationalist.
But the best is I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead. Now this song would not be out of place on a Frank Zappa record mocking the hippies. Well it is less complex then Zappa but that makes it easier to enjoy. While there are some funny images the song is actually a pretty serious denouncement of hippie/yuppie life style. I actually think this is a great song that doesn’t deserve the obscurity it gets simply because it is done by a “novelty act”
Thursday, June 24, 2010
#50 The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered
Okay.. so I haven’t updated this in an inexcusably long time but I am back and can guarantee an update a week for at least the next year. The problem I had updating was I never knew what to write about and would stress about if it was interesting or not. Well I solved that because once a week I am going to be counting down my top 50 favorite albums! I will do this in conjunction with other posts, about new albums that come out or whatever, as the mood strikes but once a week I will guarantee a post with the next album. So lets kick it.
Best Song: Living Life Eels vs Sun Shines Down On Me Guster
This album is a two disc cover album of Daniel Johnston (who is not dead despite what the name would have you believe). One disc is the original
And the covers are amazing and I would suggest anyone who doesn’t see the big deal about Daniel Johnston get this album. Out of all the songs only two aren’t very good. Teenage Club and Jed Fair (of Half Japanese) take on “My Life is Starting Over Now” and it is just a disoriented pretentious mess like everything fair does. The other one is Calvin Johnston on “Sorry Entertainer”. He takes Daniels greatest disjointed rocker and makes it very droning and boring.
But those are my only complaints as the rest of the album runs from good to brilliant. Now I am not going to name check all the songs but there are four specific ones that are worth noting above all the rest. The first is the absolute best; Eels loving cover of Living Life. One of
Now let us skip down to the last two songs. First we have Guster on The Sun Shines Down On Me. Guster doesn’t know how to not be perfect, which is actually the downfall of a lot of their albums for me. I get bored as I feel like I am listening to a mathematically precise album that does very little to tug at the heart. Well that doesn’t happen here and I am willing to say that this cover is the best song Guster has ever done. The way they let the dissonance take over about halfway through is brilliant and they absolutely NAIL the most heartbreakingly hopeful line
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Lost Gem: Oar
Oar – Alexander “Skip” Spence
Best Song: War In Peace
This is the greatest album ever made by a mad, and I mean MAD, man. Skip Spence was a former drummer of Jefferson Airplane and one of the brains behind the ambitious Moby Grape. Spence wrote this album while being held at a mental institution and recorded all the parts himself (he was in after attempting to kill two of his former Moby Grape band mates to “save them from themselves”), and you can tell that this is a man who isn’t all together.
Oar it with out a doubt the greatest psych folk album ever released. The entire atmosphere fills you with images of Skip sitting in his bed in the madhouse, a guitar in his hands, rocking back and forth as if he is by some river in a rocking chair (which is where he probably thinks he actually is). It is a very difficult listen and very few people would chose to put this on for the joy of listening to this music (I myself am an exception).
As far as tracks that should stand out to the listener there are five major ones. The opening “Little Hands” is a great almost upbeat poppy number. Then there are two rambling dark folk numbers. “Cripple Creek” would not have felt out of place on Leonard Cohen’s debut and “Diana” is a song so out of focus that it is beautiful. Another track not to miss is the manic (compared to the rest of the album) “Lawrence of Euphoria” which I would guess Spence wrote after taking some meds.
The song that is the absolute master piece of the album is the lo-tech psycho anthem “War In Peace”. While other psychedelic bands were searching for new technology to advance their sound Skip manages to out do them all with a very basic pattern and minimalist solo. (and a great distortion of the famous “Sunshine of Your Love” riff).
Oar has truly been lost to many listeners. While other “mad albums” such as Madcap Laughs and Third/Sister Lovers have managed to gain cult followings Oar, which I will say with out a doubt is better then both Madcap and Third, has been thrown to the wayside. If you can track this down you should pick it up, a true lost classic.
Best Song: War In Peace
This is the greatest album ever made by a mad, and I mean MAD, man. Skip Spence was a former drummer of Jefferson Airplane and one of the brains behind the ambitious Moby Grape. Spence wrote this album while being held at a mental institution and recorded all the parts himself (he was in after attempting to kill two of his former Moby Grape band mates to “save them from themselves”), and you can tell that this is a man who isn’t all together.
Oar it with out a doubt the greatest psych folk album ever released. The entire atmosphere fills you with images of Skip sitting in his bed in the madhouse, a guitar in his hands, rocking back and forth as if he is by some river in a rocking chair (which is where he probably thinks he actually is). It is a very difficult listen and very few people would chose to put this on for the joy of listening to this music (I myself am an exception).
As far as tracks that should stand out to the listener there are five major ones. The opening “Little Hands” is a great almost upbeat poppy number. Then there are two rambling dark folk numbers. “Cripple Creek” would not have felt out of place on Leonard Cohen’s debut and “Diana” is a song so out of focus that it is beautiful. Another track not to miss is the manic (compared to the rest of the album) “Lawrence of Euphoria” which I would guess Spence wrote after taking some meds.
The song that is the absolute master piece of the album is the lo-tech psycho anthem “War In Peace”. While other psychedelic bands were searching for new technology to advance their sound Skip manages to out do them all with a very basic pattern and minimalist solo. (and a great distortion of the famous “Sunshine of Your Love” riff).
Oar has truly been lost to many listeners. While other “mad albums” such as Madcap Laughs and Third/Sister Lovers have managed to gain cult followings Oar, which I will say with out a doubt is better then both Madcap and Third, has been thrown to the wayside. If you can track this down you should pick it up, a true lost classic.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
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.
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.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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
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
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