One thought I have about this song is one thing it's about is music, both celebrating and mocking how important music is to culture Every single verse makes sure to throw in at least one piece of pop music history And it's intentionally awkwardly putting them next to real newshttps://twitter.com/ShadowTodd/status/1235681917019832322 …
-
-
Like the thing I harp on is he made the current year when he wrote the song, 1989, represented by "China's under martial law/rock and roller cola wars", which says it all really
Show this thread -
That none of the big recording artists took any side on Tiananmen Square that year but they DID get a lot of press over whether they did commercials for Coke or Pepsi
Show this thread -
The "We tried to fight it" is at least a little bit ironic, like one big thing the year-by-year nature of the song makes clear is how long the Vietnam War lasted regardless of how hard musicians protested against it (cf. the Vonnegut "custard pie from a stepladder" quote)
Show this thread -
Billy Joel being all "Yeah I wrote a bunch of hit songs viciously satirizing the materialism of the 70s and 80s and the materialism of the 70s and 80s gave me a nice big check and kept going"
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.