re: the Piano Man. I tend to like these types of 'shot-across-the-bow' articles where the writer takes on popular artists and knocks them down a peg, though one could argue that, given the unhip status of Mr. Joel, that it's more of the 'fish in barrel' type of shooting. And I didn't mind the Gram Parsons aside or the snide tone overall. I'm just not sure I buy his thesis that most Billy Joel songs are about contempt.

"Piano Man" seems more of a lamentation about failure and isolation in the modern world and which paints a mostly empathetic portrait of its sad sack characters rather than a derisive one. "She's Always a Woman" may contain a whole rash of cliches but does the writer really think that the point of this song is Joel expressing his contempt for women? The delivery of the lines he condemns ('hides like a child' and 'carelessly cuts you and laughs') and musical arrangement suggest quite the opposite.

Do I like "She's Always a Woman"? Not particularly. Do songs like 'We Didn't Start the Fire' or one containing line 'Heart attack ack ack ack' provoke a reaction in me akin to the discovery of a cockroach crawling up my leg? Hell yes. But I'd agree with Stuart that there's something to be said for great pop hooks and even in cases where I don't dig all those hooks, I can at least acknowledge them or understand why others do.