Gotta give it to Billy

June 22, 2024 7:43 AM

Pat Finnerty observes pure Joel, pities poor Ludwig, and discovers a thieving Nicholas (slyt)
posted by kneecapped (24 comments total)

I was worried this was going to be all just hating on Billy Joel, but it wasn't!
Top notes, excellent Beets, good catch with the [spoiler] theme, would watch again.
posted by chavenet at 8:08 AM on June 22 [1 favorite]

Oh thanks for this. Finnerty is great.
posted by Gorgik at 9:39 AM on June 22 [1 favorite]

"It's amazing how much these guys look like these guys."
posted by signal at 9:39 AM on June 22 [6 favorites]

Everytime I hear a Billy Joel song now, I am going to try and identify who he is ripping off. What a fun party game!
posted by KingEdRa at 9:59 AM on June 22 [2 favorites]

Billy Costello is spot on!
posted by rageagainsttherobots at 10:26 AM on June 22 [3 favorites]

when he played that pressure clip, i thought "billy lennon!" and several people in the youtube comments posted the same.

and back surgery! good thing he finally got that hot tub.
posted by Clowder of bats at 10:37 AM on June 22 [1 favorite]

A lot of this is fair but... An Innocent Man is explicitly an album of tributes. It's like this guy listened to Fakebook and complained that Yo La Tengo didn't even write any of those songs.

also yeah i'm a big Pressure guy from way back too, i feel that
posted by phooky at 11:19 AM on June 22 [4 favorites]

Apart from the big radio hits I've managed to miss most of Billy Joel's work. So I check out Pressure for the first time, and it's pretty good. So I queue up the whole album - The Nylon Curtain. First track is Allentown - and it was a bit of surprise to me for the lyrics:

Well, we're waiting here in Allentown
for the Pennsylvania we never found
for the promises our teachers gave
if we worked hard, if we behaved
so the graduations hang on the wall
but they never really helped us at all

posted by zenon at 11:44 AM on June 22 [3 favorites]

I've heard all the other Billys but Billy Sting legit surprised me.
posted by tclark at 12:03 PM on June 22 [2 favorites]

Look at all the edits for Wikipedia's "Succession (main title theme)" since the release of Pat Finnerty's video less than 24 hours ago.
posted by ShooBoo at 12:30 PM on June 22 [9 favorites]

Maybe it's just me, but with "Pressure" I'm hearing Billy Mael.

Got a serious Sparks thing there.
posted by Ayn Marx at 12:40 PM on June 22 [3 favorites]

Zenon, The Nylon Curtain is about as close to a Billy Joel concept album as you're going to get. I remember an interview with Joel where he said that he deliberately wrote the songs on it around the theme of the receding "American Dream" and the working class people who were already starting to get left behind in the early Reagan year. I sometimes refer to it as Billy Joel's Bruce Springsteen album, though musically it sound likes it was inspired by The Beatles to me.
posted by KingEdRa at 12:52 PM on June 22 [2 favorites]

I don't know. Pressure kinda screams various aspects of Genesis' Abacab to me

so Billy Collins
posted by philip-random at 12:55 PM on June 22 [3 favorites]

the succession reveal made me so annoyed. i've never seen a single episode of the show and am not exactly a major beethoven fangirl but it was sooo blatant a ripoff when played back to back while the guy credited with the theme waxed poetic about his "process" i wanted to scream. might as well have asked an ai "take a phrase of beethoven and put lo-fi beats to study by behind it"
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:39 PM on June 22 [1 favorite]

also finnerty is a treasure. so glad he got his hot tub.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 2:46 PM on June 22 [5 favorites]

Now do James Taylor versus Lin-Manuel Miranda. The chords in the verse of JT’s Shed A Little Light are nearly identical to the chords in My Shot from Hamilton. Same key, G minor.
posted by emelenjr at 3:56 PM on June 22

I remember hanging out with a friend from college who was someone who dabbled in music. I mentioned some of my music ambitions and he said something like "but what about music theory?" I just shrugged and said "I'll learn as I go."

Finnerty has taught me more music theory than I've needed to know. He definitely has a "learn as you go" vibe and I love it. I never expect to come away knowing as much as I did after watching his videos. It just happens.

What a good soul.
posted by edencosmic at 5:02 PM on June 22 [1 favorite]

1. For Pressure I would say Billy Bowie (verse) and Billy ABBA (those chords).

2. I hate to defend Succession Theme Guy but he did create some very good more complex variations on the (clearly Beethoven) theme for seasons 2 and 3.

3. Pat Finnerty is a national treasure and must be protected at all costs.

4. I can't believe so many people have edited that Wikipedia entry and nobody has noticed that that it definitely does not have "beats from a Roland TR-808 drum machine". The beats are obviously a sampled breakbeat but the bassline is from an 808.
posted by mmoncur at 6:03 PM on June 22 [2 favorites]

This is fantastic, thank you!
posted by unknowncommand at 6:11 PM on June 22

Billy Joel's cover of The Simple Plan got me through some pretty rough summers.
posted by phlyingpenguin at 7:35 AM on June 23 [1 favorite]

Pat Finnerty is the BEST! I rewatch his "What Makes This Song Stink" playlist every few months or so.
posted by stltony at 9:41 AM on June 23 [3 favorites]

Chris Molanphy did the two-hour podcast version of “Billy Joel is just doing a pastiche of everyone else” back in 2020.
posted by madcaptenor at 9:41 AM on June 23

rageagainsttherobots: “Billy Costello is spot on!”

I was sure Billy Costello would be “Sleeping With the Television On.” I mean it's got a Farfisa solo!
posted by ob1quixote at 7:09 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]

3. Pat Finnerty is a national treasure and must be protected at all costs.

Haters only make him sheepishly admit he's already on their side. ("But you can still admit this song stinks. It's okay. You can admit it.") I just hope the doctors can fix up his back a-okay.
posted by straight at 8:26 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]