Billy Joel - Just The Way You Are (Audio)

Times change, and we change a little bit ourselves. 

Back in '77, I was way, way too cool to even acknowledge this song's existence, much less make a value judgment about it, much less actually like it.  In '77 I was too cool even for Jackson Browne.  More commercial acts I was ready to kill with my hands.  No, no, for me it was German trance music, Fripp and Eno, Japanese hipsters, Van Dyke Parks, Afro-Beat and Highlife, Italian Alt/Pop, Reggae and Calypso, some Brazilians.  I was out there. 

Not that I was cool myself.  One must be born cool, and I was not.  But I was hip there for a while.  Cool is a temperament; hip is a lifestyle.  Hip is just a matter of paying attention and keeping up with the latest revelations.  In my defense, I did actually love everything that I supported, and I still do.  That stuff is great. 

But so is Billy Joel.  There, I said it.  This cut is one of my Karaoke hits over here in South East Asia, I sing the hell out of it.  By now I love Jackson Browne too, love the dude a lot.  I can't believe that I used to think he was maudlin and cloyingly sentimental. 

Yes, we change.