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Billy Joel looks back at The Stranger

BRAD WHEELER

Globe and Mail Update

Latest comment posted at 3:21 PM EST 18/07/08

Short tracks from selected CD releases including Billy Joel, the Mamma Mia soundtrack, Son of Dave and Flobots ...Read the full article

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  1. Gord Lewis from yes! drag him off the stage!!, Canada writes: Does this guy really need to still be around, especially on the hip and edgy pages of the G&M?? Please Please PLEASE I have been subjected to older and older oldies my entire life, give us something different. Joel has been riding his one and only hit for what? 35 years?? After disco, one of the great regrets of the 70s. (Those who are nostalgic for the 70s obviously are too young to have endured them.) This guy has nothing to add, so lets all move on please.
  2. Dju Driver from Toronto, Canada writes: Wow, his "one and only hit"? Thanks for providing us with a working definition of "hipster doofus," Gord. Five singles certified Gold, two certified Platinum. I won't embarrass you by giving the stats for the album...OK, I will: 11 released from 1973-1993, with the worst of them doing Platinum. But let's ignore him in favour of "hip and edgy" stuff that hasn't merited a single hit, because obscurity makes Gord feel cool.
  3. Mikey Gault from Enjoying a newly single Christie Brinkley, Canada writes: How can a person have respect for a man who was unable to satisfy the gorgeous Christie Brinkley? He's no man in my books!
  4. Home E. D'Clown from Canada writes: Wow, the slack my man Billy is taking here. I've seen him twice in concert. He's still around because he is a dynamic and entertaining performer who has written some magnificent music. There are few albums out there by any artist that are listenable from start to finish - I invite you to do this with "The Stranger". It is a masterpiece - I am proud to own a signed vinyl copy. Still not convinced? Give "An Innocent Man" a listen. I got that tape when I was six years old and I wore it out. Oh and by the way, Billy Joel was the first western artist to play in the former Soviet Union. Listen to the live album - thousands of Soviets singing along to American lyrics they don't even understand was quite moving for 1986.

    Billy Joel filed for divorce from Christie Brinkley, not the other way around. In the filing he cited "constructive abandonment" - legalese for "she refuses to give up the goods because she's out giving up the goods to someone else". She's had what, 4 husbands since then?

    So do me a favour, go slag Amy Winehouse or something ;)
  5. mark d. jarvis from Canada writes: I don;t get it...are these Billy Joel's comments or Brad Wheeler's?

    Either way, whoever wrote: "Rap music for miffed white people - not angry blacks - has trumpets, plucked strings and some admiration for the Red Hot Chili Peppers." is ridiculous.....

    who says that angry black PEOPLE was appreciate horns and strings? No one who has listened to Public Enemy, Jay Electronica, The Roots, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy among many others....in short anyone who actually has an appreciation of hip hop and is capable of writing professionally it.

    I thought parallelism was editing 101, unless you are suggesting that white people and blacks should not be treated equally?
  6. mark d. jarvis from Canada writes: "who says that angry black PEOPLE was appreciate horns and strings"

    was supposed to say:

    "who says that angry black PEOPLE can't appreciate horns and strings"
  7. Que Sommes-Nous from Canada writes: To each his own. Billy Joel is one of my favourite artists of all time. If the voice I heard in the demo just now is how he can STILL sing, then I'm in awe.
  8. sidney Goldberg from writes: Maybe Gord Lewis should give up trying to be whatever it is that motivates his out of step mind. I'm really looking foreword to hearing something edgy and brilliant from you anytime soon. As for your 70's comment, some of us were young enough to be able to dance and enjoy the music. Unlike you Gord Lewis the music from the 70's and Billy Joel have relevance. Define Edgy music for the rest of us, is that someone crying about how bad their life is or playing the same loud two notes on their metal guitar. Sydney Joel Goldberg
  9. Al Tholl from writes: Piano Man and The Longest Time still sound pretty good to me, guess I'm dating myself but I'm OK with that.
  10. Gord Lewis from yes! drag him off the stage!!, Canada writes: Dju Driver & sidney Goldberg, thanks for the free psychobabbleanalysis. Yes I am truly sorry. Sorry that you confuse record sales with music (the same country elected GWB, once with a majority, proving there is no accounting for taste). Sorry you can't recognize sarcasm directed at our favourite online tabloid. Sorry dju you are still using the word 'cool'. Sorry sid that you exhibit all of the symptoms of a victim of the pop nostalgia industry.
  11. Dju Driver from Canada writes: Hey Gordo, "sorry" about the short-term memory loss. You slagged the artist for not having enough hits, not us. Oh, and his albums and singles charted world-wide, so your knee-jerk anti-Americanism falls flat. But thanks for living up to the stereotype. What's a hipster doofus without knee-jerk anti-Americanism? Eminently predictable, really.
  12. Gord Lewis from yes! drag him off the stage!!, Canada writes: Dju Driver . . . you've lost the plot here. And a correction: I am not a 'knee-jerk' anti-American; my anti-Americanism is very well considered. Any more names you would like to call me now? (Not that I am too upset; I have been called worse things by better people.) Maybe we can agree to disagree: you read the charts for direction, and I won't. Cheers.
  13. Billy Talon from Toronto, Canada writes: Just listen to his songs - he's extremely talented, regardless of what the dissenters/critics may say...

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