LANDED UPTOWN ROCK AND ROLL GOODNIGHT

Once again, it is Sunday evening and my inspirational music post is still on the iffy side. That means I am typing, but I am not at all certain that I am happy with what will come out. I like to have a rough draft already cued up in my head before my fingers start tapping away on the keyboard. That isn't the case, so this might be a bumpy blog.

I honestly don't know how I feel about the video for this song. I really like the song. I think that video can be a powerful tool. I am not convinced that they made the most of it here. However, I don't flat out hate it, either. So, I am going with it. As I said, I like the song. Ben Folds does a mix of really depressing stuff and some really sweet stuff. I think one of his best songs is The Luckiest. I really love that one. Maybe I should have checked to see if there was a video for it. Hmmmm. Well, it is a bit late now. I have already dinked around long enough on youtube. I do like this one. I think that it has a happy ending. And I like the part about that feeling you get when suddenly you see through all of the crazy or the crap in your life to what is true. It is like all of the clouds lift and you come back down to earth. Of course, you didn't know you were living in outer space until the clouds lifted, and you realized that you got lost somewhere along the way, and you had floated up into the ether. Regaining your clarity is a huge relief. So, here is the video. As I said, I think it could have been done with more finesse. But that is just my point of view. Still a great song.



Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let's talk 80s. MTV. Videos and what made it all so freaking awesome. I almost went with this artist last week and I didn't. He had so many excellent videos that I just couldn't get a handle on it. I am not sure that I am really any better equipped this week. The only difference is that I have had some more time to think about it and let it backburner on my brain. Are you scared yet? Good. I do think I might be able to tell the story for having let it gelled a bit. However, you must always take into account that anything 80s is still the perspective of a teenager coming out of an adult's mouth. I am still sticking with my refusal to research anything policy. It is all about how I remember it. If you remember it different, please say so in the comments, that is what they are there for... at least that is one of the reasons they are there.

So, Billy Joel came on the scene before MTV and videos. I think that Piano Man might have been his first big song. Of course, Just The Way You Are was also very popular and also preceded MTV. The thing about Billy Joel is that he always struck me as the "working man's singer" no matter how famous he got, or how much money he made. I don't know if it was the New York in him or just that he is/was a very down to earth guy, but he always had this Regular Guy feel about him. Of course, songs like My Life and You May Be Right only fueled that conviction. And he never came off as pretentious. I am going to post a video that pains me a little to watch because of the 80s fashion. But the song knocks it out of the park.



This is so hard because so many of my favorite Billy Joel songs precede 80s video. For instance, Only The Good Die Young is one of my favorites. There is no video for that. There is concert footage for it, but I am really trying not to use that as much as possible. Anyway, Billy Joel survived the blast into the 80s and learned how to embrace video. In the beginning, his style was very much like it was before: the working class singer who liked to rock it out. That was what you saw in the above video and what you are about to see now. Only this video was history making...



Billy Joel is still our blue collar rocker. However, he got more than he bargained for when Christie Brinkley agreed to be a part of his video. It was the first step in our very own love story. Sort of like Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Except I think Billy Joel is better looking than Charles. Unfortunately, both stories ultimately ended in divorce, but that is skipping ahead. Back in the 80s, it was pretty heady stuff. Billy Joel, blue collar rocker, marrying supermodel Christie Brinkley was pretty darn awesome. He wrote a song called All About Soul while he was married to her that is one of my all-time favorites. God, I love that song. And they have a daughter together.

Well, the other side of Billy Joel is that he writes songs like Allentown. He wrote that one back in the 80s about the lack of jobs in Allentown, PA. There is another one called The Downeaster Alexa that is well worth the listen. He isn't all love songs or "I wanna rock" songs. He also wrote this one that can and does make me cry when I listen to it...



Yeah, I know it is concert footage. You get what you get. In this case you do get to see him in his element at the piano. And this song doesn't lend itself to a lot of jumping around. Because they did all go down together. And you take that shit seriously.


image found at www.weheartit.com