{"id":2186,"date":"2009-05-28T16:49:49","date_gmt":"2009-05-28T20:49:49","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-05-28T16:49:49","modified_gmt":"2009-05-28T16:49:49","slug":"is-there-a-drummer-in-the-house-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/is-there-a-drummer-in-the-house-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Drummer in the House, or I’m On the Side of Liberty (Because I Hate Billy Joel)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Townsman Al<\/strong> passed along a New York Post<\/em> story of former Billy Joel<\/strong> drummer Liberty DeVitto<\/strong> bringing suit against Joel for unpaid royalties. This is a cautionary tale for hard-working drummers who fuel the massive hits of their bandleaders.<\/p>\n

“Everybody always assumes that you make a lot of money because you worked with Billy Joel,” DeVitto told The Post. “It didn’t happen that way.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although I can’t help but agree with the sentiment that kicked off Al’s message to our basement dwellers (ie, “I’m on the side of Liberty…”), for the following contribution to Joel’s recordings alone I am tempted to root against DeVitto in his suit against his former employer. <\/p>\n

DeVitto doesn’t have a songwriter’s credit but insists he was a major part of a collaborative creative process between Joel and his musicians. <\/p>\n

“If Billy sang ‘Only the Good Die Young’ like he wanted to, it would have been a reggae song,” DeVitto said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See, I hate “Only the Good Die Young” as a song as much as I hate Joel as an artist. Without DeVitto’s musical guidance perhaps that song would have been buried as a deep cut<\/em> that Joel haters would never have had to hear, and perhaps Joel’s career as a hitmaker would have petered out shortly after The Stranger<\/em>.<\/p>\n