Yeah, I know… It needs a little work. Some is tough to fit but lyrically needs to be there, I guess I could just say something like “Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin” to fit the structure more though.
If I decide to do something on YouTube with it it needs some polish and the order could be improved a bit, I also could be missing a few things.
Like, I don’t think “We didn’t light the fire” is a particularly good song, but it was a hit. And why was it a hit? I am old enough, sadly, to remember the song when it came out and I didn’t know what 80% of the song even referenced. But I knew it was political, even though I didn’t know exactly what it was saying. Like what is a ten-year-old supposed to do with “Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide”? You can’t google it. But anyway, what I’m saying is that it suggested politics and profundity without actually saying much of anything.
But it did that with its structure and lack of judgement and overt politics. What is it actually saying? Shit man I don’t know. It’s Billy Joel, who gives a shit. But it suggests politics without actually saying anything through its near lack of verbs and using weak verbs when it does use verbs. OK, I’m going to document the non-chorus verbs the song uses:
Verbs are only associated with the most milquetoast, boring stuff. You can’t take it any more because of the cola wars, man? And nearly all of the verbs are helper verbs or otherwise weak, nonjudgemental stuff. Edsel is a no go, you don’t say?
Whereas look at what doesn’t get a verb. Watergate, Malcolm X, Bay of Pigs, Belgians in the Congo, Little Rock, Ho Chi Mihn, Eichmann, MLK not only doesn’t get a verb but doesn’t get mentioned. Does Palestine get a verb? It does not. Russians in Afghanistan? Like are they on vacation or something? Cola wars gets a judgmental verb but not Russians invading Afghanistan?
Anyway, I guess what I’m trying to say is that Billy Joel is a hack but he wrote a mysterious sounding song that seemed political but had good meter and didn’t actually say anything. And you’re doing the opposite, it’s an overly political song with weak meter and way too many verbs if you’re trying to Weird Al Politics Edition the song, which had like eight verbs outside of the chorus, most of which are variations of is, except for the cola and JFK crescendos. Which, Billy Joel sucks but he knows what makes hit records.
Oh and the most active line being JFK BLOWN AWAY, fuck you man. Joel picks the most milquetoast event to have an actually unequivocal strong take on. Oh man, you’re anti JFK assassination. Wow, BOLD.
Yeah, I mean I’m not trying to pay homage so I have no problems using verbs, and I’m not worried about matching his exact syllables as long as I can fit the meter of the song with delivery (if I ever record it, for now people just have to do that on their own reading it lol).
Made a few tweaks, it’s getting there - but there are a couple verses left, so at this rate I guess I should wait 2-3 days then finish it.
Didn’t watch the news at all today, about to go read the COVID-19 thread and presumably have my mind blown.
Well, I loved it. And Keeeeed spending two hours to pedantically keedicize it just confirms my good taste, so I appreciate it even more.
“Get an essential job” lmfao! So great.
It’s worse than that, and it is political. It’s the apotheosis of boomer pablum. Here’s a list of a bunch of shitty things that happened conflated with pop culture nonsenses so it all flattens out to the same value. The chorus - - nothing is your fault.
How about “Joe Exotic, Carole Baskin; did the tiger eat her king?”
That’s amazing.
This is great lol but it would be better if Daily Briefing and Die for the Dow came out of nowhere to win.
I still have my broadcasting equipment, this may call for a remake. “Murder Hornet fading, it’s not his race folks but keep an eye on him in a few weeks up in Washington! Nobody thought he’d even make it this far!”
Billy Joel is perhaps the WOAT.
Liking him is mutually exclusive with having good taste.
He is definitely not the worst. His piano playing alone sets him apart from true 3 chord guitar hacks, of which there are many. Joel’s songwriting is pretty awful though, I’ll give you that.
not all heroes wear capes
ban both of these philistines straight away
Billy Joel fan calls detractors philistines.
Real or Onion?
My subjective taste is better than your subjective taste. Neither of which has anything to do with the rona. More memes less jibber jabber.
