A symptom of more or less everything that is wrong with America
March 7, 2017 6:03 AM Subscribe
Our greatest peril, in art and politics alike, is empty nostalgia that yearns for some imaginary and idyllic past; nostalgia, in George Steiner’s unimprovable phrase, for the absolute. We may not so easily eject the president, but we can start by rejecting the culture that made him possible by finding no fault with his cruelty, his disdain, and his disregard for all but himself. We can start by saying no to the Piano Man.Billy Joel, the Donald Trump of Pop Music
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but we're all sort of overTrumped with Trump and Trump story hooks as it is -- and "Billy Joel Sucks ... like Trump" doesn't really seem to rise to anything much to make this worthwhile -- taz
Well, this is a take in search of a temperature.
posted by Etrigan at 6:13 AM on March 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by Etrigan at 6:13 AM on March 7, 2017 [4 favorites]
I'm not sure I'd call Billy Joel a fascist , or Donald Trump a musician, but different strokes I guess.
posted by blue_beetle at 6:16 AM on March 7, 2017
posted by blue_beetle at 6:16 AM on March 7, 2017
A rich entertainer is cynical and probably disdains his audience? Tell me more.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:16 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:16 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Opinions of Mr. Joel's music aside, I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that I bet the author of this piece is insufferable at parties.
posted by bondcliff at 6:17 AM on March 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by bondcliff at 6:17 AM on March 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
I want my money back: I was promised a Two-minute Hate; this is a Two-Minute Meh.
posted by nubs at 6:17 AM on March 7, 2017
posted by nubs at 6:17 AM on March 7, 2017
I'm not sure I'd call Billy Joel a fascist
No, but he did things during his addictions that I can't forgive.
RIP Doug Stegmeyer.
posted by mikelieman at 6:18 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
No, but he did things during his addictions that I can't forgive.
RIP Doug Stegmeyer.
posted by mikelieman at 6:18 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
This seems the perfect opportunity to mention a Donald Trump music-related anagram - "Don't drum, pal".
posted by Radiophonic Oddity at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017
posted by Radiophonic Oddity at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017
I thought I'd seen it all, but then we got a two-paragraph bitchfest complaining that Joel isn't Jew-y enough.
posted by Marco Polo's Lost Codpiece at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Marco Polo's Lost Codpiece at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
But Billy Joel has other good points! He once crashed his 2CV into somebody's living room on the way to pick up a pizza.
Btw - Donald Trump supposedly knows how to play the piano.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017
Btw - Donald Trump supposedly knows how to play the piano.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:20 AM on March 7, 2017
I bet Donald Trump doesn't play the piano very well.
Somebody do the small hands joke so I don't have to.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:27 AM on March 7, 2017
Somebody do the small hands joke so I don't have to.
posted by DrAstroZoom at 6:27 AM on March 7, 2017
Glad to see someone finally take a stand against Joel's music
posted by thelonius at 6:30 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by thelonius at 6:30 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Sometimes I regret not having made it as a freelance writer, but on the other hand I probably would have wound up toiling away in the Take Mines like this.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:33 AM on March 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:33 AM on March 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Like Trump's hands on a keyboard, the article is a bit of a stretch.
posted by wabbittwax at 6:33 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by wabbittwax at 6:33 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
I bet Donald Trump doesn't play the piano very well.
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feelin' alright.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:34 AM on March 7, 2017
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody and you've got us feelin' alright.
posted by lagomorphius at 6:34 AM on March 7, 2017
On one hand, it seems extreme to put significant blame for Trump on Billy Joel. His music may have become cliche, but lots of musicians become cliche. Navigating the transition from a top rock or pop star in your twenties/early thirties to a career into middle age or beyond has to be tricky. Singing about common pop song topics--young love, starting life, etc.--doesn't seem authentic or something to connect to past a certain point.
That said, I do see how, starting with An Innocent Man,* this path was to skew into the Red State Baby Boomer mentality that got us Trump. An Innocent Man was, musically and topically, nostalgia for when he was growing up or entering young adulthood. I can see songs such as "Downeaster Alexa" resonating with folks who claim they were "forgotten" by Obama.
Billy Joel may not be in alignment with Donald Trump, but it could be argued his later career was built on the same niche.
*I won't argue if you want to pick an earlier moment, or that the seeds were already there. I'm just saying this is the stark line in his career.
posted by MrGuilt at 6:35 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
That said, I do see how, starting with An Innocent Man,* this path was to skew into the Red State Baby Boomer mentality that got us Trump. An Innocent Man was, musically and topically, nostalgia for when he was growing up or entering young adulthood. I can see songs such as "Downeaster Alexa" resonating with folks who claim they were "forgotten" by Obama.
Billy Joel may not be in alignment with Donald Trump, but it could be argued his later career was built on the same niche.
*I won't argue if you want to pick an earlier moment, or that the seeds were already there. I'm just saying this is the stark line in his career.
posted by MrGuilt at 6:35 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
In an exquisite 2014 profile of the singer, Nick Paumgarten captured Joel rehearsing for his Garden gig. He was playing one of his most beloved numbers, “Just the Way You Are.” Before long, Paumgarten writes, “at the sound check, he began substituting bawdy lyrics: ‘I just want someone . . . to have sex with’ and ‘Now you know I’m . . . full of shi-it.’ ‘I couldn’t have loved you any better, unless . . . you grew some bigger tits.’” Try and imagine Leonard Cohen doing that with “Hallelujah,” or even Neil Young with, say, “Cinnamon Girl,” and you realize that Billy Joel is so nefarious precisely because Billy Joel was given great gifts—his songs, as Bruce Springsteen correctly noted, are masterworks of musical construction—and yet chose to squander them in the service of nothing but his own lust, vanity, and insecurity.
I bet Elton John does this too: "Do you remember that time in France/We were drinking and you shit in your pants..."
also Leonard Cohen didn't write "Hallelujah" and I bet Neil Young is sick to death of "Cinnamon Girl"
posted by thelonius at 6:37 AM on March 7, 2017
I bet Elton John does this too: "Do you remember that time in France/We were drinking and you shit in your pants..."
also Leonard Cohen didn't write "Hallelujah" and I bet Neil Young is sick to death of "Cinnamon Girl"
posted by thelonius at 6:37 AM on March 7, 2017
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posted by slmorri at 6:12 AM on March 7, 2017 [1 favorite]