re: http://unheard78.blogspot.com/2010/06/billy-joel-rarities-and-slept-on-gems.html
unheard music wrote:
> I’ve never understood the cultural bashing Billy Joel gets.
Thanks for your post.
I came here searching for an answer to the question: of which civil-war era folk song is “And So It Goes” a rip off?
But to your point, I’ve given this some thought myself.
As someone originally from “the island” — Long Island for everyone else on the planet — a unique place that is in some ways the prototypical suburb, its hard to describe the overwhelming gravitational power of “the city” and the particular sensibilities that come with that perspective. “Allentown” was originally “Levittown”, but what was there that would be interesting to say about it? The island mentality is a bubble where “the Hamptons” might as well be the ends of the earth.
As just one example, consider the cultural embeddedness in the standards catalog that Billy Joel’s songwriting exhibits, and the almost unconscious approach to song construction influences of Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, and even Harlem, all of which are in New York, of course.
To many New Yorkers, the reaction to Billy Joel’s pop constructions is either transparent, taken for granted, or reacted to as anathema. But after living in Texas for some time, all that sounds kind of alien in a way, and seems out of the rock mainstream.
As a lyricist, Billy Joel’s music hasn’t ever reached anything approaching Dylan’s depth, for example, though not for lack of trying. And as a songwriter, his constructions are too clever by half for a generation accustomed to Clapton or the Stones, that is southern blues rock, folk or alt country sounds that are somehow only acceptable to east coast ears after being filtered and reflected back at us by middle class white boys from across the Atlantic.
No. Billy Joel’s music is very literate, sometimes subtly complex and even great, but with very few exceptions, it makes sense only within the context of the standards and pop construction. That’s what it is, and it would be a mistake for him or anyone else to try to force it to be anything else.