Billy Joel vs Elton John

[izzygirl]

Which piano man do you prefer?

Mozart and Beethoven.

Both are significantly more talented than either Joel or John. In fact if I just said Joel or John to someone, they'd say Joel and John who? Never have to use Mozart's or Beethoven's first names to clarify who we're talking about. That's the difference between genius and commercially successful.

No that's not Mozart. He looked like this:

[luciusfunk]

Which piano man do you prefer?

Mozart and Beethoven.

Both are significantly more talented than either Joel or John. In fact if I just said Joel or John to someone, they'd say Joel and John who? Never have to use Mozart's or Beethoven's first names to clarify who we're talking about. That's the difference between genius and commercially successful.

No that's not Mozart. He looked like this:

[dalsh327]

I went to a bar in Sag Harbor, and Billy's entire band were sitting around at a big table. Turned out they were taking a break from rehearsing for Face to Face, because they were discussing Elton John songs to do. There might have been 5 or 6 other people there getting a beer, and it was dead of winter, so the place was just a bunch of locals. Even though there was no piano, just imagine in the middle of a restaurant, a bunch of professional singers breaking into harmony doing "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and basically doing an Elton John medley.

When they left, a couple of people stopped Billy that sort of knew him, and I kind of shoehorned myself into the conversation, but I'd been talking to them when this was all going on. 10-15 minute interaction, talking about random stuff, some of it to do with music, some of it to do with local Long Island stuff, & boats.

My impression - pretty cool guy that gave you the time of day and didn't have any kind of rock star arrogance. He was okay with signing stuff, but not thrilled with it, either.

[Broskirose]

I went to a bar in Sag Harbor, and Billy's entire band were sitting around at a big table. Turned out they were taking a break from rehearsing for Face to Face, because they were discussing Elton John songs to do. There might have been 5 or 6 other people there getting a beer, and it was dead of winter, so the place was just a bunch of locals. Even though there was no piano, just imagine in the middle of a restaurant, a bunch of professional singers breaking into harmony doing "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and basically doing an Elton John medley.

When they left, a couple of people stopped Billy that sort of knew him, and I kind of shoehorned myself into the conversation, but I'd been talking to them when this was all going on. 10-15 minute interaction, talking about random stuff, some of it to do with music, some of it to do with local Long Island stuff, & boats.

My impression - pretty cool guy that gave you the time of day and didn't have any kind of rock star arrogance. He was okay with signing stuff, but not thrilled with it, either.

Awesome story.

I hope they do the Face to Face tour again. I'd go in a heartbeat.

[GivenToFly]

I went to a bar in Sag Harbor, and Billy's entire band were sitting around at a big table. Turned out they were taking a break from rehearsing for Face to Face, because they were discussing Elton John songs to do. There might have been 5 or 6 other people there getting a beer, and it was dead of winter, so the place was just a bunch of locals. Even though there was no piano, just imagine in the middle of a restaurant, a bunch of professional singers breaking into harmony doing "Someone Saved My Life Tonight" and basically doing an Elton John medley.

When they left, a couple of people stopped Billy that sort of knew him, and I kind of shoehorned myself into the conversation, but I'd been talking to them when this was all going on. 10-15 minute interaction, talking about random stuff, some of it to do with music, some of it to do with local Long Island stuff, & boats.

My impression - pretty cool guy that gave you the time of day and didn't have any kind of rock star arrogance. He was okay with signing stuff, but not thrilled with it, either.

I heard he's a huge dick.

[batman007]

Elton is the man. I can't really listen to BJ.

[Broskirose]

How can someone not listen to some of the absolute greatest tracks of all time?

https://soundcloud.com/billyjoel/sfts-1

https://soundcloud.com/billyjoel/the-river-of-dreams

[classicguns4life]

Elton is the correct choice in that the best songs he has are so much more influential, popular, and better songs in the grand scope of music. Billy has those too, but not as many and I do think they are on a different level.

However, my vote would be for Billy. Just personal preference, but I like his entire discography more and I got really into him at an early age so he means a lot in that way. Elton has an incredible string of albums in the 70s, except after that he's pretty hit or miss. I just prefer Billy because I think nearly all of his albums are great, and most are pretty underrated. And I care more about his deeper hits and overall discography than Elton.

Both the cream of the crop in terms of piano players though.

[Broskirose]