Re: At 52, Billy Joel Writes His Opus 1

--- In metatuning@y..., "David Beardsley" <db@b...> wrote:
> http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0202/gann.php

From the article:

>But I have my doubts. Joel's inability (or, more generously,
>refusal) to follow one idea through the duration of a work is
>probably part of his charm for unsophisticated listeners. To
>follow the unity of even a brief work by Chopin or Debussy
>already entails certain expectations about one's attention
>span, an ability to enjoy a sustained working-out of an idea
>and a delayed gratification. Likewise, listeners who slurp up
>the sentimentality of Joel's music won't find a similar
>syrupiness in Chopin or Debussy, though they might occasionally
>get it in Rachmaninoff. I imagine pop fans listening perplexedly
>to their new Chopin Nocturnes and finding them duller than Billy
>Joel.

Talk about arrogance!

>Uninterpreted statistics suggest the ludicrous conclusion that
>Joel and McCartney write better (at least, more successful)
>classical music than the classical composers themselves.

? Add up the Rachmaninoff sales over the last 50 years and
see how they compare to the Joel classical sales in the next
50 years. "Uninterpreted", to say the least. A flash through
the pop charts is just that -- a flash. It happens all the
time. It even happened to the classical artists Gann seems
to know so much about -- they were all pop stars in their time.

>For all the respect that Billy Joel may intend to express for
>the ancient art of composition, the weight of even his ephemeral,
>name-brand-triggered success pushes the true music of our time
>even further out into the margins of society.

Just keep holding on to the flag, Kyle! Bloody fingers and
soiled underwear be damned, the flag must prevail. The truth
will vindicate our cause in history!

-Carl