“He is the essence of it”: the one artist Billy Joel thought defined rock and roll
For as long as it’s been in the public eye, it’s hard to define what rock and roll was supposed to be. Some moments seem to embody everything that the genre is made of, but looking at seminal events of the genre like Chuck Berry breaking out the duckwalk or Queen devouring Live Aid, there aren’t that many similarities in the way that they present themselves all that much. And looking at how Billy Joel approached his craft, it’s not like he aimed exactly for that kind of wild man persona.
Throughout his career, Joel has always been the artist everyone loves but doesn’t like to talk about very much. There are enough classics across all of his albums to make up multiple greatest-hits records over time, but it’s not like he had the same kind of wild factor that someone would have had when looking at someone like Jimi Hendrix or Keith Richards when he was a kid.
But rock and roll wasn’t always about being a wild man. None of The Beatles ever claimed to be the most dangerous artists on the planet, and yet they’re still treated as the gold standard for what a good rock and roll band is supposed to be. Because in their case, it’s about the songs, and that is everything Joel was banking on when making most of his classic hits.
As much as people would take a few jabs at him in the press for being outstandingly normal, his songs have stood the test of time because they are incredibly well-done. Not everyone has the same reaction to tracks like ‘Movin’ Out’ or even ‘Uptown Girl’, but it’s hard to think of them in a more perfect state than they are already. But that’s all part of Joel’s workman-like approach to his music.
“I don’t think Bruce’s music has impacted my music. I like his purity, I admire that spirit of purity. I mean, he’s living his rock & roll dream.”
Billy Joel
He might drone on about how he likes to have written songs in the past, but despite the hard work he took to make those songs, each holds up as something phenomenal. But Joel doesn’t need to have a million chords in a song to impress him, and when listening to music in his spare time, he knew that Bruce Springsteen represented everything that rock and roll was all about, both onstage and in the studio.
Compared to every other rock and roll hero that has come and gone throughout history, Joel felt that Springsteen captured the true meaning of the genre, saying, “He’s taken performance to its height. He lives to perform. I don’t think Bruce’s music has impacted my music. I like his purity, I admire that spirit of purity. I mean, he’s living his rock & roll dream. Rock as religion, rock & roll as heroism. And he’s proved it. He is the essence of it.”
And while the performance angle is one thing, ‘The Boss’s’ way with words is why he’s still revered to this day. He had always yearned to paint a picture of America in his music every time he played, and every one of his albums is a different glimpse into what he valued about his country, whether it’s being critical of corrupt politicians on ‘Born in the USA’ or helping everyone heal after the tragedy of 9/11 on ‘The Rising’.
Lemmy always used to describe rock and roll as music that was meant to piss off your parents, but Joel and Springsteen knew it ran much deeper than that. It was about having something worth fighting for, and even though neither of them had the traditional rockstar look to them, it’s hard not to think of them as having a spot next to the Mick Jaggers and Paul McCartneys of the world.
