Billy Joel

He's my favourite rock artist, who's also done classical. Plus he's a classic artist and nearly everyone has heard of him. You'd have to be living under a rock to not know who he is. My favourite Billy Joel song is Downeaster Alexa.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

'Scuse me while I link the greatest song ever written:

Though I'm also very fond of "Everybody Loves You Now", especially the original version on Cold Spring Harbor. The Songs in the Attic version (which I heard first) was really good and helped me learn it on the guitar, but the riff sounds so much better on the piano than on the guitar. (I just really love how much that riff sounds like a slot machine.) Not to mention how amazingly identifiable its lyrics are.

edited 22nd Sep '12 5:47:02 PM by 0dd1

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Aw, hell, I'm just gonna link that song too:

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@)0dd1: Wow! I never heard that version before. There's a rawness in it that IMO was toned down in the other versions.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

I know "The Longest Time" because one of the choirs in my school did it. (There were two choirs in my high school: the one that I was in, and the one whose members could actually sing.) I know "Shameless" through Garth Brooks' cover.

And that's it.

@Twentington: Let me guess, you were in the one which couldn't sing. Right?

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

It's ironic how it seems rawer than the later version when Billy Joel specifically put out the Songs in the Attic album to put out songs that he thought didn't seem to have as much life in them on their albums as they did live

I remember in my high school there were five guys who did an acapella version of "The Longest Time" before a Christmas concert for the school band...it was a rather bizarre and out-of-place moment, but they sure sounded pretty. Also, they did it at double the tempo of the original song for some reason.

As for "Shameless", I was just on a cruise that had hired a singer/guitarist who played in their smoke rooms in the evenings. His girlfriend was another employee of the ship, and "Shameless" seemed to be her favorite song, because he played it several times over the course of the week. A really nice, stripped down version of the song which I thought actually sounded better than Billy's own version.

Actually, he seemed to just really like Billy Joel in general (though he said he wasn't as fond of his albums from Glass Houses on as his earlier ones). There was one more obscure Billy Joel song I remember he played at one point, but I can't remember what it was. I wanna say it was "Rosalinda's Eyes", but I'm not sure.

edited 22nd Sep '12 7:58:11 PM by 0dd1

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No, that must be someone else.

Or was that a mistake?

edited 23rd Sep '12 1:30:11 AM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

I couldn't sing at the time, but I can now.

ohhh. and nice avatar.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Billy Joel at his greatest. No, really:

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

I'd never heard of that before. That's awesome.

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I've discovered that if you get a 404 error on allmusic.com, this is what happens.

edited 24th Sep '12 12:07:39 PM by MikeK

...that is the greatest thing ever.

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His voice is unrecognisable doing that. Just noticed that "Everybody Loves You Now" is basically a slam against a celebrity/celebrity culture, implying that the addressee will end up Lonely at the Top. Oh loneliness will get to you somehow/But everybody loves you now.

edited 26th Sep '12 6:08:34 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

And I think I've just discovered a new favourite Billy Joel song: Only the Good Die Young

edited 26th Sep '12 10:56:09 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

You've never heard "Only the Good Die Young"? It's one of his most popular ones. It's especially popular among grieving teenagers who post it on Facebook in tribute of a friend that's recently died, not realizing that the song isn't at all about young people dying.

edited 26th Sep '12 11:08:18 PM by 0dd1

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Oh. My. God. That is Misaimed Fandom and irony at its finest.

edited 26th Sep '12 11:25:18 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

Whenever I see that, I always feel like telling the poster that, even if I'd look like a total dick doing that.

edited 26th Sep '12 11:28:54 PM by 0dd1

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I've never seen it.

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

"I'm gonna live forever if the good die young" — Tracy Lawrence

That's awesome

The road goes ever on. -Tolkien

"Only The Good Die Young" is probably his most popular song that I can't stand, if only because I'm a prude and I hate songs that tell me that I suck.

Heh, I've always wondered if there were any virginal people who don't like the song because of that specifically.

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