Comments on: In Defense of Those Who Need No Defending

By: Tony

Tony — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:34:34 +0000

I’ve tried contacting Rosenbaum on Facebook to ask him about the article but no response was forthcoming.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Amen, brother!

You’re Keepin’ the Faith!!!

By: Frank Drebin

Frank Drebin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:58:44 +0000

Billy Joel has contempt for everyone because he had a hard time of it in the music industry for almost ten years, then when he finally acheived success, everyone decided to hate him because of it. He tried to fight back, sometimes not in the right way, and because of that, people like Rosenbaum have more dirt on him. You can tell he didn’t do enough research, seeing as how he didn’t even point out “Everybody Loves You Now”, perhaps Joel’s most “contemptuous” song of all.

I love Dylan, Springsteen, almost all singer-songwriters, and Billy Joel is the man who started my interest in music as a whole. He deserves just as much respect as all the rest. He made me realise why I’d been playing the piano for seven years, so don’t tell me he’s not worth a damn, Rosy.

Basically, the only thing I see in Rosy’s article is that he hates Billy Joel because he is in the mainstream. Shroud it in as much “justification” as you want, but in the end, you’re just like those people who booed Dylan when he went electric. HOW DOES IT FEEL?!?!?!

Speaking of the mainstream, how successful were the Beatles? Try telling anyone they’re the worst band in history.

By: Kisintin

Kisintin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:53:25 +0000

Since I had little to do today. The Snowball tree is how Kalina (Viburnum) was translated. Why? I don’t know.

By: Terry Moran

Terry Moran — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:38:00 +0000

Rosenbaum’s rant only proves this: He doesn’t like Billy Joel. Misinterpreting lyrics and accusing Joel of co-opting other artist’s music without a shred of musical substantiation is empirical evidence of nothing. The irony is that this writer has no idea that his hero, Bob Dylan, is a longtime admirer of Billy Joel’s music. Other iconic artists who have expressed their respect for Joel are Brian Wilson, Paul MacCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Leonard Bernstein, Stevie Wonder, and Sting – among many others. Whose opinion, then, should we consider?

By: Ilya

Ilya — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:24:19 +0000

That article looked too obvious an example of “I have to be scathing even when I have little idea of what I’m talking about”, because scathing sells in blogosphere. I normally tune those out without much of a second thought.

On a different tangent, Jeff, I cannot imagine a Russian translation that makes sense for the title of your tape. You haven’t used BabelFish to produce that from Russian title, have you?

By: Jeff Porten

Jeff Porten — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 01:36:37 +0000

For the record, I skimmed that article and about 1/4th of the way in, decided that its content wasn’t worth forwarding on to you.

Also for the record, I own a cassette tape of Russian balalaika music titled, “Oh, You Snowball Tree.”