The “corny” musician Jack Black always loved: “It’s not all hot cheese”
Everyone has those few musical skeletons in their closet that they’d rather not discuss. While songs can be a defining part of one’s personality, it’s not the end of the world if a hardcore rocker admits to liking Britney Spears or a hip-hop aficionado reveals a love for opera. Personal taste is subjective, after all. Even Jack Black, known for his rock ‘n’ roll persona, had to admit that he didn’t necessarily feel “cool” for enjoying Billy Joel’s music. It’s a reminder that our musical preferences are often more diverse—and sometimes surprising—than we let on.
But what’s not to love about Joel, really? Sure, he’s far from the hippest musician in the world, but listening to the way he phrases his melodies and uses chords, he’s probably the closest thing that rock and roll has to a resident genius, especially considering his knowledge of classical geniuses like Beethoven and Mozart.
At the same time, to like Joel almost comes with an unspoken rule that no one should say it in public. It’s one thing not to change the station when ‘Piano Man’ or ‘New York State of Mind’ comes on, but there would be more than a few strange looks back in the day if you put ‘Scenes From an Italian Restaurant’ on the same level as ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or ‘Hey Jude’ in some circles.
However, for someone like Black, this kind of artist only came around every few generations. Despite his penchant for playing piano and unfashionable tunes, Joel’s repertoire is almost cinematic in the way he depicts his characters. From the minute they come on, fans can see glimpses of that crazy child looking for an escape in ‘Vienna’ or the guy who made too much of an ass of himself at a party in ‘Big Shot’.
Then again, those cinematic tracks are also evened out by deep cuts that only the most dorky of dads could love. No matter how catchy it is, ‘For the Longest Time’ has an element of goofiness just on principle, and considering how Joel feels about it, ‘We Didn’t The Fire’ feels more like a joke these days than it does an actual piece of music.
That didn’t seem to matter one bit to Black, though, telling NPR, “I’ve had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you’ve really Joeled it up — there’s some good periods of Joel; it’s not all hot cheese. But I can’t judge anyone else for their cheese. I’ve deep-sea dived in the Gouda.”
While Black went for a much different tone when he put together Tenacious D, there are still faint echoes of what Joel had done in the little intricacies of his performance. In fact, given the ridiculous metal penchant that Black has, Tenacious D is probably the fully realised version of what Joel was aiming for with Attila, only this time it’s intentionally funny.
So even though Joel’s tunes could very well pass for elevator music for a lot of fans, you’d be surprised what he has in store in his deep cuts. Because for every ‘She’s Got A Way’, there’s a track like ‘The Entertainer’ that leaves everyone on their ass.
