{"id":5934,"date":"2011-02-21T12:08:46","date_gmt":"2011-02-21T16:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=5934"},"modified":"2011-02-22T17:23:12","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T21:23:12","slug":"billy-joels-the-entertainer-no-redeeming-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/billy-joels-the-entertainer-no-redeeming-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Joel\u2019s \u201cThe Entertainer\u201d: No Redeeming Value?"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CYLMN2PSI3E?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>The other night I heard a <strong>Billy Joel<\/strong> song on the radio that I&#8217;d thankfully blocked from my memory for some time, &#8220;The Entertainer.&#8221; It occurred to me, as I made myself listen to the entire heaping pile of Broadway sea shanty shit, that I may hate this song more than what I&#8217;ve long considered <em>The Worst Song in Rock &#8216;n Roll<\/em>: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/rock-town-hall-s-department-of-translati\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blood, Sweat &amp; Tears<\/a><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/rock-town-hall-s-department-of-translati\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8216; &#8220;And When I Die.&#8221;<\/a> At least that BS&amp;T turd is performed with true zest.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I know a lot of you can&#8217;t stand Billy Joel\u2014and you can include me in that tally\u2014but at least I can honestly state that I enjoy one of his songs without reservation, &#8220;Uptown Girl.&#8221; In other words, I&#8217;m not being unfair here because I dislike almost everything the guy stands for. &#8220;The Entertainer&#8221; combines many of the worst ideas ever put forth in a rock song: lyrics bemoaning not only the plight of the entertainer, but the phony &#8220;humble&#8221; entertainer; a fast-strummed <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/inventor-of-the-dreaded-ovation-roundback-guitar-dies\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ovation acoustic roundback guitar<\/a>; a possibly &#8220;odd&#8221; time signature (and definitely not a rock &#8216;n roll beat of any sort); Paul McCartney-cum-Sammy Davis Jr-style &#8220;blackface&#8221; singing; and a recurring &#8220;pennywhistle&#8221; synth part. It&#8217;s like he took all the worst bits from <strong>Emerson, Lake &amp; Palmer<\/strong> and combined them with god knows what\u2014probably &#8220;And When I Die.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So, I&#8217;m willing to argue (with myself) that &#8220;The Entertainer&#8221; is <em>The Worst Song in Rock &#8216;n Roll<\/em>. I don&#8217;t need your assistance on that front, but what I am asking you to help me with is whether there is <strong>any redeeming value in Billy Joel&#8217;s &#8220;The Entertainer.&#8221;<\/strong> Consider this mission along the lines of one of those &#8220;If you can&#8217;t say anything nice&#8230;&#8221; threads.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to your assistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other night I heard a Billy Joel song on the radio that I&#8217;d thankfully blocked from my memory for some time, &#8220;The Entertainer.&#8221; It occurred to me, as I made myself listen to the entire heaping pile of Broadway sea shanty shit, that I may hate this song more than what I&#8217;ve long considered <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/billy-joels-the-entertainer-no-redeeming-value\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[346,126],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}