He's a singer songwriter, and a pretty good one. Just happens to play piano instead of guitar (I think he plays a bit of guitar, unless he's faking it for the Matter Of Trust video)
When I think of 70's singer songwriters who can play the piano and are worthy of remembering today I think of Billy Preston and Carole King, not Billy Joel.
No, it is not LITERALLY what she is doing. "Practicing medicine" and "practicing law" are terms of art. Practicing politics is not, regardless of what Billy f'n Joel stated in the 1970's.
If you say so. Your first attempt at posting was more interesting. The Fanboi Brigade of the White Knights ride again!
Billy Preston's work with the Beatles was great, but he had only two hits over the course of his solo career, and neither of them make me want to listen very often (Will It Go 'Round In Circles and Nothing From Nothing). He is no Billy Joel, let alone Carole King. BTW, King's career was Tapestry, period. As fantastic an album as it is, it's only one album. Billy Joel's done more than either at this point, just not as on-fire great as King's one album. This board suffers from the worst sort of "If it hits, I have to hate it" hipsterism. There's a reason songs become popular.
Oops. I forgot about that "come bring me your sadness" dreck Billy P did with Syeeta in the early 80s. Two songs that do absolutely nothing but make people dance and one sappy duet.
So King gets no love for writing one of Aretha’s biggest hits in “A natural woman”. Joel might have the stronger discography in terms of top 40 hits but I’m not sure his influence over other artists is as strong. King wrote for an array of artists as well as performed as a studio musician for some strong artists.
Then please explain what ''practicing politics" actually means other than being a clever musical turn of phrase And while you're at it what the hell is a real estate novelist?
There's some insanely popular music which I think is also great. Fleetwood Mac's big albums are ********ing amazing. My most passionately-held conventional opinion is "Led Zeppelin were the shit." Purple Rain was the best album of the early 80's. Etc. There's some music which hits it big because the artist found the "sweet spot" at the right time and place. But some stuff is popular because the lowest common denominator sometimes hits the jackpot. Both things can be true.
I'm in Bethpage right now .You would be hung from the highest overpass of the Southern State for saying such things here .
I wasn't trying to list all of them just that Billy Joel didn't belong there. He's not awful but there are other 70's performers that I would have to look up a K-Tel compilation to be reminded of them and that is where Joel belongs.
Have you heard of a legal practice? Or a medical practice? Come October 2020, this place is gonna be insane. Independent Centrist. There was a poster here who always supported conservative ideas and GOP politicians but claimed to be an independent centrist. Originally it was used specifically for that poster. Now @dapip has repurposed it to mean libertarians. And conservatives. And Republicans. And other things. He's not real precise on the matter. Songs in the Attic is one of my top 5 guilty musical pleasures.
A long time ago I read an essay eviscerating Joel for his lyrics. The theme of the essay was how smarmy and contemptuous he is. I googled "Billy Joel contempt" and found this. https://slate.com/human-interest/2009/01/the-awfulness-of-billy-joel-explained.html It's pretty thorough. But I honestly don't think that's the one because it was written in 2009, and I thought it was older. So it's a pretty big theme, that BJ's lyrics are awful because of the spite and smarm. He needed to find a Bernie Taupin who, while not exactly Dylan himself, is still in a whole 'nother galaxy as a lyricist compared to Joel. Weird & pointless>actively nauseating. The problem for me with Billy Joel is that he sings in English and I understand English. If he sang in French I'd like his stuff much more. And it takes a LOT for me to be turned off by lyrics. If they suck I usually can ignore them.
Fleetwood Mac absolutely ruled from the moment Nicks and Buckingham joined. The Peter Green era was disposable. I don't see anything controversial about saying Zep was the shit. They were. But Purple Rain wasn't even Prince's best album of the three years that preceded and followed it. That would be 1999. Truth told, none of this stuff is LCD. It's great music, and the smarter public of that time got it right.
The libertarianizing of a once decent poster is a horrible thing to watch. Why don't you just go full Trumpsucker while you're at it?