I’d like to have seen Elton John in one of his early to mid 1970s show, but I’ve got to vote for Billy Joel. He still puts on a great show these days, while the one time I saw Elton, he wasn’t exactly raising the roof.
I love Elton’s work on the Lion King and there’s a handful of his 80s output I like.
But, all in all, I’ve got to hand it to Billy Joel, he doesn’t put out new albums because he knows they won’t sell and 99% of the fans coming to his shows want to hear the hits of the 70s and 80s, Joel mixes up the setlist and I’d be happy to see Piano Man gone forever.
I’ve got tickets to see Billy Joel in August at Madison Square Gardens in New York. We’ve got a family trip plannned and my almost 13 year old daughter really wanted to see him. The show is a surprise forr her Bat Mitzvah present.
As composers, I have to give the nod to Elton John. I just like his music better. Billy Joel can play the hell out of that piano but the music he creates is only intermittently as good.
I am not qualified to address which of the two men is ‘better’, or even to whom I most prefer to listen. But I do want to point out that Joel is capable of writing music that is too difficult for him to play himself.
I’m glad you did this, but mostly because I really want to know if WordMan ever got that Strat he was looking at.
Well?
Also, Billy Joel is, to me, more accessible and timeless. More of his songs still resonate decades after they’re written. Elton’s…not so much or so often.
But in the end, we’re talking about a Lebron v. Jordan type conversation. Two people who are unmistakably HOFers and almost indisputably in the top 5 all-time of their chosen profession, but have different focuses on how they achieved that success. It’s like asking, would you rather be really good-looking and worth $30 billion or just ever-so-slightly less good looking and worth $35 billion? Who cares, either one sounds good to me!
Welp, I saw Elton in 2014, and he utterly blew the roof off of the place. I was utterly amazed that he could have that energy at his age.
NOTE: He is planning for next year to be his final set of tours, so buy your tickets ASAP…
As I said in the other thread right before the closure, Elton is a better fit for my sensibilities for starters (fuller more complex sound at least in his heyday), and simply had a better creative peak.
I’ve seen Elton live several times over the years, dating from 1972 (Rock Of the Westies Tour - San Diego) to 2006 (Red Piano Residency - Caesars Palace). Always an excellent show.
