Billy Joel on the skill of Neil Young: “It’s so simple and fresh”
Billy Joel has always been known to add a subtle layer of sophistication to every one of his songs. Many people were used to standard rock and roll, but Joel took his piano into new realms, whether that was quoting Bach or Beethoven or making something slightly jazzy compared to the heavyweights of the rock sphere. Although he still loved many of the greatest musicians in the rock scene, Joel admitted that he could never write with such naivete as this rock and roll icon.
But that begs the age-old question: Do you need lessons to play rock and roll? While the lion’s share of seasoned musicians tend to study every aspect of their respective instruments, there is still the thought of people learning on the job half the time they play rather than spending time doing recitals in hopes of achieving some kind of doctorate in music.
And even if some of the music theory behind Joel’s songs can get a little bit much for some people, that theory is what makes things interesting. On the surface, a tune like ‘Uptown Girl’ feels like your average rock and roll doo-wop song, but if anyone bothers to pay attention, hearing Joel change keys seamlessly from the chorus to the verses is the key of move that Stravinsky could have easily pulled off had he been born in 1944.
When Joel was coming up, though, the age of the singer-songwriter usually relied on artists who didn’t approach their instruments that way. There were a few people like Joni Mitchell who were known for using altered tunings, but looking at everyone from James Taylor to Cat Stevens, it wasn’t exactly hard to get their tunes down after strumming away on the guitar for a little while and working out those cowboy chords.
Among all of the singer-songwriters of that era, no one could have claimed to give less of a shit than Neil Young. Outside of the fact that he never bothered properly learning theory, Young was looking to play what was in his heart, which meant approaching an instrument that he had never played before and seeing if he could get a tune out of it.
Although Joel was clearly miles above Young as a pianist, he admitted that the Canadian icon found some pieces of the piano that would have been considered alien to him, saying, “He writes on the piano, and I don’t think he really knows how to play the piano. It’s so simple and fresh. I would never write anything like that because it’s too obvious.”
But without people working outside their limitations, rock and roll would be a lot more boring than it actually is. Joel was willing to work outside his comfort zone when making classical pieces, and even outside the realm of piano, ‘The Rain Song’ by Led Zeppelin would have never been birthed had Jimmy Page not wrestled with open tunings until he found shapes that worked for the song he was writing.
And since most mainstream rock acts are going back to basics half the time, many of them could take their cues from what Young did back in the day. There are only 12 notes, anyway, so it’s sometimes better to fly blind and not be afraid of messing up to get to a song that no one has stumbled upon.
