The Audacity of Rock: Part 15

Out of place at the discotech.

I adore disco: it's super white, but kind of funky in the baseline, with a lot of quick guitar riffs. Can't beat it. Anyway, what's even better than just disco itself, is disco played by a band/performer that probably shouldn't be playing disco. The ridiculousness of the musical genre is amplified to a new state of awesome that makes me love it even more.

"The Stranger" by Billy Joel (1977)

This song is completely ridiculous. According to the wiki it's very Freudian (the stranger is the id? whatever), but all I know is that it certainly starts out lovely and jazzy and then out of nowhere disco! I don't think anything else Billy Joel wrote is quite this funky and/or cynical, and I find that hilarious.

Enjoy him performing "The Stranger" live in 1977 (if that's him whistling live, impressive):



"Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven (2007)

Finger Eleven is one of those bands that I could find out are actually singing Christian rock, and I wouldn't be surprised. They play polite pseudo-hardrock that isn't particularly good, but not bad enough to hurt my soul. This is just to say the "Paralyzer" is kind of a surprise--a good surprise because I kind of love this song*, but a surprise nonetheless.

Just enjoy the funky beat and guitar riffs. Then try to forget that this is by the same band who did this.



Questions to ponder:
1. Can disco make a comeback? Please? At least white people can dance to it.
2. Is anything quite as charming and jarring as disco coming from an unexpected source?


*My liking the song even survived being one of my roommates' ring tones. That's tough to do, because people called her a lot.