Apology accepted.
Originally the song was about Levittown, Long Island where he grew up; he changed it because it sounded better. If Spingsteen can write abou his working class roots, Joel can too.
He wrote a Goodnight Saigon as a favor to some friends of his who did serve. They told him about their experiences in the war, he wrote them down as a song. It’s actually a nice tribute.
No argument here.
You know, one thing this thread shows me is that “pretentious” (whatever your definition of it) doesn’t automatically equate with “bad.” Because there are some really great songs getting fruit thrown at them here!
Dire Straight’s “Money for Nothing” hasn’t made an appearance?
Billy Joel’s Summer Highland Falls has some pretty pretentious lyrics and by that I mean it has lyrics that sound deep but don’t mean a friggin’ thing:
“These are not the best of times but they’re the only times I’ve ever kno-o-own,
And I believe is some time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.”
Ooh, fancy!
I do like the melody though.
Worse. Much worse. I hereby present for your inspection, “THE LOGICAL SONG”:
"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily,
joyfully, playfully watching me
But they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical
And then they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical
There are times when all the world’s asleep,
the questions run too deep
for such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd
but please tell me who I am
Now watch what you say or they’ll be calling you a radical,
liberal, fanatical, criminal
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re
acceptable, respectable, oh presentable, a vegetable!..[snore]"
yadda yadda yadda
I nominate Mistral Wind, by Heart, although I like the song. It tries to be a great rock epic, building up from soft acoustic, through regular rock, to a screaming crescendo of a climax. But in the end, it’s just about someone who really likes the ocean :dubious:
And that’s not even the worst line! When he starts going on about reason co-existing with our insanity and the thoughtless dissipation of our energies, you just wanna die.
See, again though. This doesn’t detract from it enough to make it a “bad song.” The melody, as you mentioned, and the playing on it are just beautiful.
I blocked those lines. It really is the worst, lyrics-wise. It’s embarrassing! But a lovely song nonetheless.
Such a long thread and no one’s mentioned Pink Floyd? (Maybe they did and I missed it.)
Those guys, and The Moody Blues too, built whole careers on pretension.
How about the Electric Light Orchestra? All of their songs had a string orchestra along with hacked guitar riffs, choirs, and falsetto background vocals. There’s absolutely no sweat or soul to their music. The liner notes of their albums are written in some kind of fancy schmancy cursive script, and the end product singlehandedly inspired generations of elevator music. They had their own starship for Og’s sakes.
Also, there was this band in the mid-90’s called Days of the New. They seemed OK at first, going with all acoustic, but somehow their lead singer got the idea he was a creative god. He fired the rest of the band (who weren’t without their own standards of pretensiousness when they formed their own band, Tantric), then got orchestras, choirs and theatre troupes to back him on DotN’s next album, which eventually spiralled the band into obscurity and used CD bins.
Kiss had a fling with pretensiousness when they released Songs from the Elder. It had dungeon doors creaking and slamming, dialogue, orchestras, the whole pretensious schlemeezle. I’m sure it’s the one album they’d like to erase from existence.
No more phone calls, please, we have a winner:
I Write the Songs
<<insert puking Smiley here>>
No, no, the winner must be:
Everything ever recorded by Rage Against the Machine.
Why didn’t I think of this earlier …
Everything by Rick Wakeman is horribly pretentious. Narration by stuffy-sounding celebrities like Patrick Stewart, thirty minute long songs evoking Dungeons and Dragons-like tales, theme-oriented albums, occasional orchestral accompaniment by the London Symphony Orchestra, and a huge ego … Wakeman has it all.
He’s British, too, which certainly doesn’t help.
One uber-pretentious song only? Okay … The Journey/Recollection.
Just a critique on some of the suggestions.
Dire Straits - Money for Nothing : Can’t be pretentious because it is somewhot self belittleing in tha lyrics are about how anyone could be a rock star.
Right said Fred - Too Sexy for my Shirt : Can’t be pretentious because it is very clearly tongue in cheek humour (though maybe you need to see the video to get that).
Queen - Anything by them : Can’t be pretentious, since to be pretentious you have to be" acting deeper, more highbrow, and more intellectual or profound than you actually are. " (thanks Freejockey) while Queen and Frddie Mercury were that intellectual, deep, highbrow, and profound. So there.
I think we need a working definition of “pretentious.” Many of the songs listed here are intentionally silly, dumb songs. I think pretentious requires taking oneself seriously.
Anyway, my vote is for the entire oevre of the band Queensryche.
I have to agree that the song must be trying to be profound which rules out Right Said Fred.
Now McArrther’s Park I’m not sure about. If it’s really about a pissed off baker then it’s not so much pretentious as smarmy. If it’s supposed to be some gigantic metaphor about conservation or love then I’d say it scores pretty high on the PretentoMeter.
I’m quite possibly Queensryche’s biggest fan, but I still have to agree, to a point. The lead singer wrote some very pretentious stuff, but when the other guys in the band had a chance, the lyrics were a lot less so. What makes it all worthwhile is seeing them in concert now, with the 40-something year old singing about rebelling against your elders. Hehehe.
My vote goes to Dream Theater. Love 'em, but they combine the pretension of lyrics with pretension of instruments. Everybody gets their own solo, in every song.
BJ Moose
Good choice. Barry Manilow referring to himself (oh I’m sorry ahem… I am music … yeah right).
How about another self-referential song? Not a bad one and done by an early pioneer of rock and roll - “Bo Diddley”. What was that song he did ? The title escapes me.
This song was actually written by Beach Boy Bruce Johnston about Brian Wilson, who has written some highly singable songs, I must say. However, the Manilow version is pretty pretentious, as is the Sinatra version
I Sing the Songs.
Oooooh, here’s a good’un.
King Crimson - The Court of the Crimson King
Anything touched by Greg Lake pegs the meter.