Forum Overview :: No Stairway to Heaven :: Joel vs John

[quote name="Fussbett"][quote name="Fullofkittens"]Billy Joel has a couple of good songs and I think that's what's the most maddening thing of all. If the only two hits he'd ever had were "Uptown Girl" and "The Longest Time" he would have been an entertaining novelty item, maybe like Joe Jackson or something. But no, on top of those songs he's got a HUGE pile of really awful songs that get played at Kmart when I go there. What I want to know is, why these guys give Elton John a pass; he's made just as much terrible music of the same type that Billy Joel has. Does a couple of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"s and "Tiny Dancer"s get you a free pass for life?! [/quote] Yes. Plus it's also that, as hard as it is to imagine now, Elton John had black cred back in the day. Something like three or four songs that charted on the Billboard R&B Top 40 and the first white performer on Soul Train. That's cool shit. Compare that with Billy Joel's core audience of... Jersey Italians? Blue collar Allentowners? Worse, look at your two examples of good Billy Joel songs. Schlocky 50s Motown do-wop tribute shit. Practically a gimmick! I'd put Elton John's worst songs up again that garbage in a blind taste test. This post is also a good excuse to post this clip of Elton John in the early 90s singing at Howard Stern's birthday party. They gave him some replacement lyrics for <i>Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me</i> but since that's a terrible idea, he instead goes "Nah, I'll just wing it." [youtube id=vSYapBwYPkE][/quote]