billy joel – Moe Lane

‘The Downeaster Alexa.’

This is easily my favorite Billy Joel song.

The Downeaster ‘Alexa,’ Billy Joel

‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’

Got sent the video for this by Constant Reader BigGator5. Picked because the pictures of fire are really rather good.

We Didn’t Start the Fire, Billy Joel

Yeah, we’re all old farts now on this bus.

That’s all right. It all worked out better than we figured it would, twenty or thirty years ago.

Continue reading Yeah, we’re all old farts now on this bus.

“Pressure.”

Pressure, Billy Joel

…Wow. This is, like, prophecy or something.

“The Downeaster Alexa.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDQ04uHn9nE

…and you apparently can’t copy and paste from Amazon to the iPad. Bad form there, Apple.

Oh, what the heck. I’m on the Jersey Shore, and that’s the important thing.

Personally, I think that whoever wrote the relevant passage in The Book of Unremitting Horror nailed the interpretation of this song. Right up to the point where said interpretation’s inexorable logic leads to you being… well. Given the title of the book, you can probably guess that it wouldn’t be a pleasant end result.

‘Piano Man.’

Piano Man, Billy Joel

You have to wonder how often Billy Joel feels like a fraud.

New York State of Mind, huh?

(Junko Yagami, covering Billy Joel)
Really, it wasn’t intentional. Just a couple of juicy stories today and there’s a race next week, that’s all.

So I’m guessing that Billy Joel ran over Ron Rosenbaum’s dog.

(Via Hot Air Headlines) I mean, it’s not like I can’t see Ron Rosenbaum’s basic point – although I don’t think that, for example, Bruce Springsteen’s lost his contempt, merely redirected it. Springsteen always wanted to be the next Woody Guthrie, singing the songs of the people and showing how the system keeps folks like him down. The fact that the system instead decided to give him large amounts of money, fame, and influence instead pretty much wrecked Springsteen as an artist until he could flee into the welcoming embrace of traditional celebrity leftist activism. Seriously. The reception given to Born in the USA must have freaked him out, particularly when Reagan cheerfully stole the iconography and completely subverted it.

Anyway, Billy Joel. I can understand the entire “unearned contempt” argument (not sure if I buy it, but I can see it), and as somebody from New Jersey I can certainly grok the entire Burden Of Being The Place Where Billy Joel Comes From (it’s hard to explain; suffice it to say that both Joel and Springsteen have a complex relationship with the region). That being said, I wonder what triggered this? Did Joel get arrested again?

Moe Lane

PS: I’ve always liked “Pressure.”

Crossposted on RedState.

Tag: billy joel