Favourite Billy Joel song?

[Statto]

River of dreams.

 

[withdeanwombat]

well,mucus encrusted treacle or not,I like We Didn't Light the Fire,and even The Piano Man.

However,like many songwriters,he has done some...erm...potboilers.

[I exclude Bob Dylan from the above,and refer you to another thread.]

 

[Icy Gull]

Yep, just like that one.

Perhaps you can point me to the mucus encrusted treacly Americana bit in that song and please don't say the chorus with the roadies with their arms around each other as I think any countries army would have the same feelings in a similar war situation, so it's not treacly or mucus encrusted Americana.

I have known quite a few Vietnam veterans and whether they were anti war or not they very definitely had a cameradie when they were there, from what they told me..

 

[The Large One]

Perhaps you can point me to the mucus encrusted treacly Americana bit in that song and please don't say the chorus with the roadies with their arms around each other as I think any countries army would have the same feelings in a similar war situation, so it's not treacly or mucus encrusted Americana.

I have known quite a few Vietnam veterans and whether they were anti war or not they very definitely had a cameradie when they were there, from what they told me..

I'm not doubting that for a second.

I am going to stop short of calling him an opportunist, because the song obviousy means a lot to the Vietnam vets, but this song might well have had added poignancy if he had actually been in Vietnam. As it was, he wrote it from the 'sidelines', as it were - about 4,000 miles away.

Sorry, I just can't be doing with the guy. If you feel insulted by that - and you are putting up a fairly robust defence of his music - I'm sorry about that, but it's no more offensive than implying - even if it was tongue in cheek - my musical tastes are limited to one rock group and one sub-genre.

 

[Icy Gull]

I'm not doubting that for a second.

I am going to stop short of calling him an opportunist, because the song obviousy means a lot to the Vietnam vets, but this song might well have had added poignancy if he had actually been in Vietnam. As it was, he wrote it from the 'sidelines', as it were - about 4,000 miles away.

Sorry, I just can't be doing with the guy. If you feel insulted by that - and you are putting up a fairly robust defence of his music - I'm sorry about that, but it's no more offensive than implying - even if it was tongue in cheek - my musical tastes are limited to one rock group and one sub-genre.

The above is completely fair and I have no doubt he wrote that song from experiences gleaned from his mates who were actually there.

Not insulted but curious because although I actually like his music, some of it is a straight rip off (Frankie Valli in Uptown Girl as just one example) and some of it is very sentimental and mushy, but the guy is talented and has written good varied POP music.

 

[Norman Potting]

Say Goodbye to Hollywood (Great Phil Spector feel to it).

See the Lights go out in Broadway (Miami 2017) - anyone like to tell me what it is about?

Until the Night (sounds like the Walker Brothers) - heard it on Ken Bruce show a week or so back - Ken Bruce Rocks!!!

Captain Jack (is this the only song to actually have the word "masturbate" in the lyrics?")

Billy Joel is in my opinion a curious performer - he seems to occupy a strange nether world between Springsteen and Manilow, veering towards one or the other but sadly towards Manilow as his career progressed.

 

[Frutos]

See the Lights go out in Broadway (Miami 2017) - anyone like to tell me what it is about?

It was written in 1976 as a supposed 'science fiction' song about an apocalyptic attack on New York City in the year 2017, resulting in all the survivors moving to Florida.

25 years after it was written, it sadly became all-too-real, particularly the line "seen the lights go out on Broadway, watched the mighty skyline fall"...

 

[Bry Nylon]

err, which is the shortest one...?

 

[otk]

Be a 'one-hit wonder' and swan off with a Supermodel....Bingo!!

 

[Frutos]

Be a 'one-hit wonder' and swan off with a Supermodel....Bingo!!

Not really a one hit wonder though was he?

 

[otk]

Not really a one hit wonder though was he?

I think if you asked 100 people to name a Billy Joel song, 90 would say, 'Uptown Girl'

 

[Frutos]

I think if you asked 100 people to name a Billy Joel song, 90 would say, 'Uptown Girl'

If you asked 100 people to name an Elvis song, and 90 of them said 'Hound Dog', would that make him a one-hit wonder in your estimation too?

I would imagine that most music fans old enough to know who he is could name at least 2 or 3 songs of his straight away (Uptown Girl, Piano Man, Just The Way You Are), whether they like them or not, then probably a few more as they think about it.

 

[Wienergull]

31 (now 32) replies on Billy Joel. 9 on Tom Waits (2 of which were mine). A sad indictment of NSC's musical tastes? Not that I'm bitter and twisted or anything.

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

Miami 2017 ... cracking live.
Piano Man
Prelude/Angry Young Man

 

[Pat McCrotch]

Piano Man

 

[NMH]

She's Always A Woman To Me