My friend Jon has a playlist on his iPod that he calls his “guilty
pleasures”. It’s full of those songs that
he loves but wouldn’t necessarily brag about.
Last time I checked, Jon’s playlist had Spice Girls, Kanye, Guns n’ Roses,
Beyonce among others. I presume it’s
constantly updated and would expect to find Adam Levine there now. To me, that’s going too far musically, but to
be honest, I am in no position to judge.
It likely will not surprise those who know me to learn that I
too have a Guilty Pleasures playlist. What
may surprise them is its content. The
Cult, Van Halen (you can take the girl out of the Soo...), George Michael,
Prince, Kelly Clarkson, and yes, my good friend the Piano Man (hey, he released
it the year I was born). Billy Joel is a
bit of an enigma. He was inspired by The
Beatles and committed his life full-time to music after seeing them on the Ed
Sullivan Show. He’s not the best looking
guy, yet he managed to marry Christie Brinkley and apparently he dated Elle Macpherson
for a time. He’s a talented guy. He wrote all his own songs – it’s sad that
this needs to be said, but with so many mass-produced electro-techno-pop-tarts saturating
the music industry right now, it’s a rare compliment. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of
America) lists him as the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third
best-selling recording solo artist. And
yet he still falls into my guilty pleasures category. Sorry Billy.
Seriously though, I defy you to get through this song
without dancing just a little bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eAQa4MOGkE
Billy Joel is clearly the
master of satire (look at that hair!), however I don’t think his back-up band
is in on the joke.
It is important to note that I do not part with this level
of detail about myself freely, but surely the internet will neither judge nor betray
my musical indiscretions. I think that if
all just admitted to our musical guilty pleasures, surely the world would be a
better place, as the lines that divide the music snobs from the music geeks
would disappear and we could be free to ... oh I don’t know. Just admit it people, you love AC/DC and we
all know it. See? Doesn’t that feel better?
In the timeless words of Billy Joel, “Hot funk, cool punk,
even if it’s old junk, it’s still rock and roll to me”. I couldn’t have said it better myself
Billy.
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