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The Album Review Club - End of Round #9 Break (page 1904)
- Thread starter RobMCFC
- Start date
Please do.Better rethink my next nomination…
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
Utter tosh.Billy Joel is a utter middlebrow wimp of limited talent who pretends he's from the Bronx instead of the suburbs of Long Island. His one great score was figuring out there was a niche available with the flamboyance of Elton John turning more conservative baby boomers off -- so he set off being as innocuous and unthreatening as possible and found the path to riches, and porking Christie Brinkley (among others).
He did one good song, remarkable in that it was good because it sounded like none of the other shit he did, and had a beat. He is arguably the biggest fraud in American popular musical history. It may actually not even be arguable. The fucking McDonald's hamburger of "rock". Never want to hear Brits bitching about American fast food culture again if they're going to come here touting Billy Joel.
He's written some decent stuff. Sure his 80's output was poor but his 70's stuff is rather good. Scenes from is a personal favourite and stands the test of time. I get it, you like your punk. You appear to like Kiss though God knows why. There's room for Joel. Embrace the Joel!!
He's also rather good in concert.
BimboBob
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't. Go for it! I doubt foggy or anyone else has really listened to a Joel album.Better rethink my next nomination…
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
I like Storm Front which was the 80s.Utter tosh.
He's written some decent stuff. Sure his 80's output was poor but his 70's stuff is rather good. Scenes from is a personal favourite and stands the test of time. I get it, you like your punk. You appear to like Kiss though God knows why. There's room for Joel. Embrace the Joel!!
He's also rather good in concert.
He’s done some great songs - Allentown (which I think is the one song Foggy likes), The Stranger, Goodnight Saigon, Only The Good Die Young, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant all spring to mind.
blueparrot
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 7 Jun 2012
- Messages
- 29,342
He’s written some great stuff his first 5 albums are classics and even the 80 s ones have some great songs on Downeaster Alexa and Leningrad are favourites of mine.Utter tosh.
He's written some decent stuff. Sure his 80's output was poor but his 70's stuff is rather good. Scenes from is a personal favourite and stands the test of time. I get it, you like your punk. You appear to like Kiss though God knows why. There's room for Joel. Embrace the Joel!!
He's also rather good in concert.
If I had to put Billy Joel up against Elton John 69 - 75 I’d go for Elton but not by a lot.
RobMCFC
Well-Known Member
Yep. Those two are great songs from Storm Front.He’s written some great stuff his first 5 albums are classics and even the 80 s ones have some great songs on Downeaster Alexa and Leningrad are favourites of mine.
If I had to put Billy Joel up against Elton John 69 - 75 I’d go for Elton but not by a lot.
Nobody can have a go at him not being authentic with Leningrad - he went there and played the concert and wrote a moving song about it.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
I haven’t written my review of Destroyer yet.Utter tosh.
He's written some decent stuff. Sure his 80's output was poor but his 70's stuff is rather good. Scenes from is a personal favourite and stands the test of time. I get it, you like your punk. You appear to like Kiss though God knows why. There's room for Joel. Embrace the Joel!!
He's also rather good in concert.
Let’s list all the great recording stars who cite Billy Joel as an inspiration. Let’s see . . . well, there was that K-Pop band, and . . . errrr, I’ll get back to you.
Imagine claiming in 1982 — during the maturing of punk, the birth of new wave, the very beginning of alternative, the flowering of post-punk, and the beginning of the age of Michael Jackson and Madonna — that “no one is writing music for my generation, just for 11 year-olds and people over 50.” A narcissistic clueless baby-booming pasty white pigeon.
I had to endure daily doses of Glass Houses in my carpool every day in high school for three months. I thought that was awful, but hell would be “Just The Way You Are” on endless repeat.
FogBlueInSanFran
Well-Known Member
Allentown is the one song of his I like, but his incessant complaining about how fucked baby-boomers got in so many songs is absolutely unbearable. Thematically he is literally one of the worst popular songwriters America has produced.I like Storm Front which was the 80s.
He’s done some great songs - Allentown (which I think is the one song Foggy likes), The Stranger, Goodnight Saigon, Only The Good Die Young, Scenes from an Italian Restaurant all spring to mind.
Then we move onto his “love” songs. Imagine a multi-millionaire writing Uptown Girl unironically about Elle McPherson right as he’s about to dump her to fuck Christie Brinkley, THEN getting his new disposable supermodel to star in the video THEN have a gall to play a mechanic in it like he’s the working class hero of the song!
Never has a musician demonstrated as little self-knowledge. God he’s fucking odious.
mancity2012_eamo
Well-Known Member
The Stranger came out in 1977, a year after this Kiss album.I wouldn't. Go for it! I doubt foggy or anyone else has really listened to a Joel album.
Really decent stuff on it.