The other day in the supermarket, Billy Joel's "Piano Man" came on and it hit me — this stuff sounds awful. It was pretty good 30 years ago, but now it just sounds ridiculous. It may have something to do with the fact that Billy Joel went from being a vaguely cute & chubby Sylvester Stallone to being the white Al Roker. The dude, and his music, just haven't aged well. Billie Holiday, on the other hand, has been cool from Day One (being dead helps I'm sure, but whatever).
Kinda like the Shelby:
It has aged beautifully…unlike the Pontiac Fiero, which looked cool in your high school parking lot:
And now it looks like Christie Brinkley as Joel's love interest in the "Uptown Girl" video– a bad idea that is doomed to fail.
If you think Ferrari never ventured into Fiero territory, I give you the Testarossa:
Yes the 512M was remarkably uglier, but the side intakes and flip up head lights of the base model now look so dated, you've got to wonder how many Yuppies see their Testarossas like shoulder pads– great at the time, but painful in hindsight.
Another Billy Joel hit would be the Porsche 928:
It's like "Keepin' The Faith" on wheels, I may stop to reminisce for a few seconds, but I sure as hell am not buying it on iTunes any time soon.
So maybe I'm wrong and the Joel catalog is simply in a short term rut. But if I see a Fiero catching six figures at Barrett Jackson and that same day, "We Didn't Start The Fire" is topping the charts– I'm jumping off a bridge.