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He's pretty cool as a person, I think. One of those "chameleonic" musicians who wrote and produced for the market and not always to do what he thought constituted good music. Pop star vs rock star. Not much of what he did holds up well except as a document of the time IMO but the local classic rock station throws him in the mix all the frickin' time.
"we play the loudest rudest rawk you've ever heard in your entire life!"
"...workin' too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack!"
From what I'd heard about him, he was pretty much of a prick: notorious for not paying or tipping at restaurants, condescending and arrogant with interviewers, abusive of backing musicians and road crews, etc... Though many celebrities have always done that sort of stuff.
His music was definitely everywhere in the late '70s and early '80s, especially in the NYC area - I couldn't escape him in my high school years. I liked some of his stuff and he was a talented musician, lyricist, and composer, but something about him always annoyed me.
He's pretty cool as a person, I think. One of those "chameleonic" musicians who wrote and produced for the market and not always to do what he thought constituted good music. Pop star vs rock star. Not much of what he did holds up well except as a document of the time IMO but the local classic rock station throws him in the mix all the frickin' time.
"we play the loudest rudest rawk you've ever heard in your entire life!"
"...workin' too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack!"
P and I can't stand him because his music is EVERYWHERE.
Caught the first half of the unreasonably long Billy Joel documentary on HBO, and while I would never pick his music to listen to, there was a span of 5 years where he was everywhere, and the songs were pretty good. If you graduated high school in the 80s....he was at every prom, dance, and party you went to (at least in my circles).
I saw him live in the 80s and remember the show being OK...but his piano playing is pretty damn good.
He's pretty cool as a person, I think. One of those "chameleonic" musicians who wrote and produced for the market and not always to do what he thought constituted good music. Pop star vs rock star. Not much of what he did holds up well except as a document of the time IMO but the local classic rock station throws him in the mix all the frickin' time.
"we play the loudest rudest rawk you've ever heard in your entire life!"
"...workin' too hard can give you a heart attack-ack-ack-ack!"
Caught the first half of the unreasonably long Billy Joel documentary on HBO, and while I would never pick his music to listen to, there was a span of 5 years where he was everywhere, and the songs were pretty good. If you graduated high school in the 80s....he was at every prom, dance, and party you went to (at least in my circles).
I saw him live in the 80s and remember the show being OK...but his piano playing is pretty damn good.
That looks good! Wish I had Netflix at home for the big screen.
sirdroseph wrote:
This one is most excellent. One of the things I learned.....Billy Joel is a douche.
I'd heard that about him a long time ago. Apparently he was pretty accustomed to not paying tabs or especially tips in restaurants because he was "famous". I went to college with a guy who worked in a restaurant on Long island in the late '70s and early '80s and had the displeasure of waiting on him a few times. It's one thing if the owners want to give a local celeb a freebie, but you still got to tip the wait. I don't know any musicians who worked with him though.
You should watch, that is what it is about how shitty he treated the people he worked with.
That looks good! Wish I had Netflix at home for the big screen.
sirdroseph wrote:
This one is most excellent. One of the things I learned.....Billy Joel is a douche.
I'd heard that about him a long time ago. Apparently he was pretty accustomed to not paying tabs or especially tips in restaurants because he was "famous". I went to college with a guy who worked in a restaurant on Long Island in the late '70s and early '80s and had the displeasure of waiting on him a few times. It's one thing if the owners want to give a local celeb a freebie, but you still got to tip the wait. I don't know any musicians who worked with him though.
but it looks similar to twenty feet from stardom which i enjoyed immensely
others might include the wrecking crew in la, the swampers in muscle shoals, etc.
Twenty feet is in my queue as well. There are a couple of documentaries on the wrecking crew, muscle shoals and the swampers themselves. I have seen some and others are in the queue as well. The number of musical documentaries is astounding, seems everyone is getting their due or don't if the shoe fits.
Man was this one good. I know Eno is mostly known for his ambient music and collaborations, but his 2 albums that he did traditional types of song formats are just incredible. Selfishly wish he would have put out more like that. What a great sense of melody.
Of his first five albums, four were relatively "traditional". His fourth solo album "Discreet Music" was his approach to ambient sounds but the next one: "Before and After Science" is more "conventional". It's an excellent album - it got me through high school listening to that.
I asked him once, when he came to talk in SF, âwhat do you think of your first four albums?â
âI think they were very strange...â
He said that?
I don't think they were strange at all especially Taking Tiger Mountain (my favorite) and Jets. I think most of his other music is strange, but I am not really into instrumentals a lot. Baby's on Fire is a personal stash desert island song for me, makes me want to break shit.
