Billy Joel’s Secret To A Long Successful Career: Don’t Harangue Your Audience – IOTW Report

Billy Joel’s Secret To A Long Successful Career: Don’t Harangue Your Audience

Friday, 16 June 2017, 16:15 Dr. Tar Uncategorized 28

He’s the 6th best selling musician in history (behind The Beatles, Elvis, Garth Brooks, Led Zeppelin and the Eagles). That’s probably because Billy Joel has one of the most loyal fan bases of any modern performer. His secret isn’t just a long list of rock standards, but a personal vow to keep his politics to himself.

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While critics go after his audience for being “racially homogenous,” they miss the point that the man gives his fans what they want, a good show with no political browbeating.

 

 

28 Comments on Billy Joel’s Secret To A Long Successful Career: Don’t Harangue Your Audience

  1. I’ve seen him twice and both times I left after having had a great time. He is going to be close by on mrs6pak’s 60th birthday and we will be front and center for his show. I think he is a great entertainer and wouldn’t hesitate to see him anyplace.

  4. Hated Piano Man. Most of the rest of his songs are pretty good though. The Stranger and Glass Houses were decent.

    I’ve never been to a rock show when performers went political. Wait Bono of U2 did. I left. Free ticket though. No loss.

  5. Doesn’t appear to mind haranguing with religion and morals:

    “Only the Good Die Young”

    Come out Virginia, don’t let me me wait
    You Catholic girls start much too late
    But sooner or later it comes down to fate
    I might as well be the one
    They showed you a statue and told you to pray
    They built you a temple and locked you away
    But they never told you the price that you pay
    For things that you might have done…..
    Only the good die young

    You might have heard I run with a dangerous crowd
    We ain’t too pretty we ain’t too proud
    We might be laughing a bit too loud
    But that never hurt no one
    Come on Virginia show me a sign
    Send up a signal I’ll throw you the line
    The stained-glass curtain you’re hiding behind
    Never lets in the sun
    And only the good die young

    You got a nice white dress and a party on your confirmation
    You got a brand new soul
    And a cross of gold
    But Virginia they didn’t give you quite enough information
    You didn’t count on me
    When you we’re counting on your rosary

    They say there’s a heaven for those who will wait
    Some say it’s better but I say it ain’t
    I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints
    Sinners are much more fun…
    And only the good die young

    You say your mother told you all that I could give you was a reputation
    She never cared for me
    But did she ever say a prayer for me?

  6. ROGER THAT! Saw him her in ATL at the new Southtrust Park.
    Great show, great performance.
    NO CROTCH GRABBIN, NO NIGGIA THAT, No CAPPIN COPS, and
    NO POLITICS!!

  8. I didn’t think Piano Man was such a good song either, until I saw him live. Last year in Seattle he packed Safeco Field (just like the link below) and Piano Man was the last song of an hour and a half set. For a guy in his late 60’s he really makes an effort to do a good show. I wasn’t much of a fan until I saw him live, now I’m a fan. Another thing that is noticeable about his crowd, everyone had a great time, there is always beer and wine, but it isn’t such an intoxicated crowd that it looks like the zombies you would see coming out of a Jefferson Airplane concert.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ict7HVYlFs

  10. Billy Joel wrote Shameless for Garth Brooks and they occasionally perform together. Garth Brooks idolized Chris LeDoux. They’re all connected. It’s cosmic.

  13. BFH June 16, 2017 at 4:50 pm

    Garth Brooks?

    Darn tootin’ you lily-livered Yankee. Embrace the twang. You be in the south now. 😉

    Also:

    Happy Birthday to me !! 😀

  14. Not a Billy Joel fan, never really liked any of his music, never been to one of his performances. However, I really wish that more entertainers in the music and film industries would emulate him. I don’t go to movies or concerts to be preached to by misinformed morons who have no clue what the real world is like.

  17. Going to the school that invited him for their tribute show helps as well. He made his appearance quietly, sat in the back, and left quietly as well. When asked why he didn’t stick around for pics and autographs he said the performance was about the kids not him, even though it was a tribute show to his music. He didn’t want to detract from their excitement and performance. Big points in my book. And I have always enjoyed his music.

  20. Good for Billy Joel. I’m far more inclined to see him live now. For me, his best song is Uptown Girl. It’s his tribute to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. (Wait a minute, it was Frankie Valli, and THREE other guys who call themselves the FOUR Seasons??? I digress…). In one song, he nailed served everything I love about FVAT4S, except Frankie’s amazing voice. Hope I bump into him boating on LI Sound this summer. It could happen…

  22. Never been a big fan of him, though I always really disliked the song quoted above. I don’t dislikes other music, though, just never caught my attention the way some others did. Though what was said about him at the school performance, that’s very decent. I really admire people who actually give a damn about what things mean to other people.

  23. PHenry–Yeah, it pissed Billy Barty off so much that he even wrote a song about tall people. I remember him singing it on some show or other, maybe Johnny Carson, but I can’t find it on the interweb.

  27. Billy Joel is the eminent songwriter/performer of our age. (And don’t give me that Elton John crap – – his songs are simple by comparison and he doesn’t write the lyrics.)

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