Friday, September 2, 2011

BUT WE WENT RIGHT ON WITH THE SHOW:  Next Sunday at 4pm, VH-1 will rebroadcast without commercial interruption the six hour Concert for New York City held on October 20, 2001. It's a varied setlist which reflects the music of 2001 (Five For Fighting, Backstreet Boys) but also contains some timeless, great performances from pop/rock legends in front of a passionate crowd. Below the fold, Billy Joel, "Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)":


10 comments:

  1. So they're leaving in not only the performances but the various celebrities and first responders who introduced the acts?

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  2. Looks that way. Apparently, before the DVD release they dubbed over the booing of then-Sen. Clinton with cheers, so I'm interested in seeing which they air.

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  3. isaac_spaceman11:00 AM

    Taking issue with calling Billy Joel timeless.  He's pretty well timed, I think.  Noting a dissenting view on pop/rock legend too. 

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  4. "Legend" is a measure of how strongly someone will be remembered; it's not necessarily a ruling on the merits.  Joe Namath was a legendary football player.

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  5. isaac_spaceman11:54 AM

    Disagree.  Legend and success are different things.  You can be legendary without being particularly successful.  Iggy Pop is a punk rock legend.  Ginger Baker is a legendary rock drummer.  Nicolo Paganini and Robert Johnson are legendary for the same reasons (virtuosity and false rumors of satanism), but neither sold a whole lot of records in their lifetimes. 

    You can be successful without being legendary.  Steve Ballmer is successful.  Billy Joel is an extremely successful man with a large house on Long Island and a couple of pretty wives and a love of golf and a sensible haircut and a drinking problem -- basically indistinguishable from a lot of successful men his age.  From a musical standpoint, he will be remembered as a commercially successful guy who for a long time made music that a lot of people could relate to.  That's success, not legend.  Nobody's going to write The Ballad of Billy Joel. 

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  6. Jenn.2:59 PM

    Ahh, but will someone write The Ballad of William Joel?  That just sounds more substantial, you know?

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  7. isaac_spaceman3:16 PM

    There's no way to write the Ballad of William Joel right now.  It would be the story of a guy who goes from a nice house in Long Island to a nicer house in Long Island.  Name one great ballad that follows that trajectory.  The closest thing I can think of is "Richard Cory," I guess, but that song makes no sense without the twist at the end. 

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  8. Jenn.3:38 PM

    You forgot all of the love songs written for people that he later divorced.  Isn't that normally Stanza 10 of a classic ballad? 

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  9. Is Paul McCartney a legend?  If so, what's the arc of the ballad?

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  10. isaac_spaceman4:11 PM

    Come on, he married a one-legged ex-prostitute.  If you can't make a ballad out of that, you aren't trying.

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