Men, Score the Joel Lyrics

Quote: Wizard

Perhaps you should lead us in a prayer for him.

Dear Lord,
We pray for Evenbob and all who have been hurt or who are currently experiencing great difficulty in their relationships. Since we are made for relationship with you and with others the failures of our loved ones and of ourselves in this area, meant to give us joy, cause such deep wounds. Bring healing through understanding of the other and their weaknesses. Help us also to see our own weaknesses and struggles so as not to blame and judge. Give us the courage to have critical conversations in charity when we need to and not to hold unto grudges. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Quote: Wizard

Perhaps you should lead us in a prayer for him.

Prayers are what the conceited and
lazy do instead of taking the time
and energy to do something constructive.
They invent a god, ask him to do
things for them, and pat themselves
on the back for being clever.

They can keep their useless prayers
to themselves. Give money to a
useful charity if you want to get
something done, praying is as helpful
as farting in the wind. And smells
just as bad.

I genuinely think EB could use a long break on this and the WoV board. Every thread he gets into for the last month or longer devolves into his angry rants and ugliness.

Even if he didn't benefit from a break, the rest of us might.

Quote: FrGamble

Dear Lord,
We pray for Evenbob and all who have been hurt or who are currently experiencing great difficulty in their relationships. Since we are made for relationship with you and with others the failures of our loved ones and of ourselves in this area, meant to give us joy, cause such deep wounds. Bring healing through understanding of the other and their weaknesses. Help us also to see our own weaknesses and struggles so as not to blame and judge. Give us the courage to have critical conversations in charity when we need to and not to hold unto grudges. We ask this in your name. Amen.

Amen. Thanks Padre.

Sorry, Billy Joel is a hack. None of his lyrics are worth a damn.

Quote: Wizard

What do you think is meant by that third line? I personally don't think it means a literal degree, like the kind you get in college. I think it more like a degree in street smarts, that she can talk her way out of anything and always has an alibi or excuse for the damage she does. But then why the word "degree." I've never seen it used in a slang/poetic context like this. Any other thoughts?

She can kill with a smile
...
She is frequently kind
And she’s suddenly cruel
She can do as she pleases
She’s nobody’s fool
But she can’t be convicted
She’s earned her degree
And the most she will do
Is throw shadows at you
But she’s always a woman to me

If we take it with the previous line, it could be both verbs are being used in their obsolete sense from roughly 7 centuries ago. "Convicted" used to mean convinced, and degree referred to your "standing or position".

So a nonpoetic translation would be:
But she can’t be "swayed by me"
She’s earned her "standing in our relationship"

The phrase "stand by my convictions" retains some of the obsolete sense. But nobody uses it with that meaning when they say "to be convicted".


I just like this sign

Quote: Mosca

Sorry, Billy Joel is a hack. None of his lyrics are worth a damn.

Double +1's to that. Never could stand the guy.
This is a long scholarly article that details why
BJ sucks so much.

The Worst Pop Singer Ever
Why, Exactly, is Billy Joel So Bad?

"Which brings me to Billy Joel.. and the continuing irritation I feel whenever I hear his tunes, whether in the original or in the multitude of elevator-Muzak versions. It is a kind of mystery: Why does his music make my skin crawl in a way that other bad music doesn't? Why is it that so many of us feel it is possible to say Billy Joel is—well—just bad, a blight upon pop music.."
"First let's take "Piano Man." You can hear Joel's contempt, both for the losers at the bar he's left behind in his stellar schlock stardom and for the "entertainer-loser" (the proto-B.J.) who plays for them. Even the self-contempt he imputes to the "piano man" rings false."

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_spectator/2009/01/the_worst_pop_singer_ever.html#return

The Piano Man has to be the worst
song ever written that became a
hit. I hate that song..

Why do you not like Piano Man? I think you are just being contrarian here. Sometimes it seems like every song Billy Joel ever wrote was a hit. I think the author of the article you quote is hearing something that is not really there.

What can I say, I like Billy Joel. I don't love him, but have played his greatest hits collection so many times I'm kind of sick of it. However, I'll never get tired of Piano Man, She's Always a Woman, and Only the Good Die Young. Yes, probably his three biggest hits, but all three songs speak to me. On the 80's on 8 station they always cut out a line, my favorite one, from Piano Man and it drives me crazy. The part about John the Bartender helped inspire me to leave my safe but boring government job.

As long as we're going out on a limb, one band everybody seems to love that I just don't see the attraction in is the Grateful Dead. I'm not saying they are bad, but I don't get why these guys ever got past being the house band for a honky tonk with sawdust on the floor. I've always heard they are great in concert with four to five hour shows. Okay, that I respect, but every time any GD song comes on the radio I immediately switch stations.

Quote: Wizard

As long as we're going out on a limb, one band everybody seems to love that I just don't see the attraction in is the Grateful Dead. I'm not saying they are bad, .

Never cared for the GD, even tho
I tried. I went to one of their outdoor
concerts in Santa Barbara in the
late 70's and hated it. They were wayyyyy
down there on an elevated stage and
I was wayyyyy up the hill with people
wandering around in a drugged out
haze not paying the slightest attention
to the band.

It was the event of the Dead, not the band
itself that was the draw. It was one long
drugged out party. Who cares.

As far as BJ goes, I always found him to be
an ego maniac way more impressed with
himself than everybody else was. That really
turned me off to him and his self serving lyrics.