[atlantaprog] Re: This list has become tiresome - touch my monkey,

Billy Joel, like Jim Morrison, was and is essentially a lounge singer.

They sing pseudo-showtunes and use a kind of horrid pseudo-intimacy (nudge-nudge, wink wink).  There is not just an artificiality but a falseness about this (bogus emotions; bogus dramatics) and also an elitism (we're the cool people; nobody who doesn't "get" this is as cool as we are) than makes my skin crawl.

Paul

>From: Jeff Blanks <jblanks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: atlantaprog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: atlantaprog@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: [atlantaprog] Re: This list has become tiresome - touch my monkey,
>Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2004 21:04:00 -0400
>
>>Billy Joel is the Antichrist.
>>
>>Wellll, not quite, I think that bit of ignobility should be
>>reserved for the likes of Air Supply (WIMPS!)  Peter Cetera
>>(SUPER-WIMP that destroyed Chicago beyond repair!!!)
>
>What's wrong with wimpy?  Plenty of prog is wimpy, including some of
>the best of it.
>
>As for Peter Cetera, the problem can be traced to one song, "If You
>Leave Me Now", which, yes, told me something terrible had happened
>to my first favorite band, but not because it was wimpy.  
>"Saccharine" and "bland" are a bit more like it, but even there,
>that's in the ear of the listener.  More importantly, it seems that
>Columbia Records decided in the wake of the success of "If You Leave
>Me Now" that Cetera should be the "face" of the band and that his
>songs would be pushed as the singles.  Chicago trombonist/brass
>arranger/early hit single writer Jimmy--excuse me, "James"--Pankow
>will tell you that, at least.  (Note:  Pankow wrote "Just You 'n'
>Me", sung by Cetera on *Chicago VI*, so maybe it goes back that far,
>in a way.  But even that tune is a little more substantial than the
>usual pop fare.) (Trivia:  That's Pankow you hear on Toto's
>"Rosanna".)
>
>>Billy Joel had a good run up until 1980, then after that, it was
>>down the sewer!
>
>Didn't *The Nylon Curtain* come out in 1982?  From what little I
>know, that's one of his best albums.

Don?t just search. Find. Check out the new MSN Search!

Other related posts: