The song Billy Joel thought never quite worked | CPT PPP Coverage

When asked to pick out the five songs in his career he’s most proud of, Joel starts with an interesting answer, one that speaks to the role of the songwriter as a craftsman first and foremost. He speaks of how he’ll always think first about “the newer work because I’m closer to it. I’d say it was the last five songs I wrote.” Then goes on to talk about the last five songs added to the new album. He’s full of praise for the likes of ‘Famous Last Words’ and in particular ‘The Lullaby’, which he describes as “a beautiful song”.

Then he gets to the record’s penultimate track, ‘Two Thousand Years’: “I don’t know how crazy I am about that one. That’s a tad ambitious. I don’t know if I succeeded on that one. It was a reach. You know, I’ll sum up all of the history of mankind in three verses. That’s a little bit of a reach.” The irony here is that five years earlier, Joel had one of the biggest and most enduring hits of his career, doing almost exactly the same thing! Ever heard of ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’, Bill?!

In fairness to the lad, ‘Two Thousand Years’ is taking on a much bigger task than ‘…Start the Fire.’. The 1989 smash hit has nine (nine!) verses to tackle everything that had happened from 1949 to the year of its release. ‘Two Thousand Years’ has a third of that to tackle a time period literally 50 times longer. There’s also the crippling problem that ‘…Start the Fire’ is also famously one of the worst songs in the great man’s back catalogue, maddeningly bland and simple while still being deeply impressed with its own bullshit. Y’know who agrees with us on this one? Noted singer-songwriting Billy Joel!

In another interview with David Horn, Joel said, “It’s really not much of a song … If you take the melody by itself, terrible. Like a dentist drill.” Which is all bang on the money, so why did he feel the need to outdo himself only a few short years later? Well, I think the answer is in the original quote, and while it didn’t turn out the way he had hoped, it’s an admirable sentiment. It’s in the way he talks about the song being “a tad ambitious”.

The fact that a guy like Billy Joel, who was already a legend 30 years into his career by 1994, was still trying to push himself is miraculous. He could have so easily settled into middle-aged contentment, but that’s the mark of a true songwriter. Someone who sees the act of creating music not as a God-given talent, but a craft that you can constantly improve at. So what if it leads to a few clunkers along the way? It’s a sign that you’re constantly pushing yourself to be better, and that’s what truly counts.

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