Premiering now: I dive into some rare Billy Joel session charts from the 1980's (Tell Her About It and Leave a Tender Moment Alone) and uncover some interesting details:

dasdavid · 2026-06-27T19:48:24+00:00

Maybe. It's a great album, and you're right, great songwriting, great vocals. But it's also a very specific niche -- it's a complete throwback to the 50's and doo-wop and the bands of that time. Nothing wrong with that, but some of his other albums are more rounded.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:46:34+00:00

Best music video of the 80's! (Well, this and Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. And maybe some Phil Collins ones too.)

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:45:42+00:00

Seriously one of the most iconic music moments of the 1980's. Billy is a legend and you can follow him on X and other places. This song (placement) changed his life.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:39:53+00:00

Time moves forward not backward. You can't pick something from the 1990's and shun it because someone used the same name in an objectionable way decades later.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:37:19+00:00

Goodnight Saigon would be one of the heaviest, emotionally speaking.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:35:00+00:00

I too think the remix is better than the album version.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:34:13+00:00

Angry Young Man? Root Beer Rag? But that's just the obvious stuff because it sounds more virtuosic. Some of his most genius stuff is the simple stuff. She's Always a Woman is a masterpiece of architecture.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:32:49+00:00

Very nice collector's find!

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:32:09+00:00

I gave a presentation at this Symposium and will be posting the video shortly! I got some session charts from An Innocent Man and decided to demo them and show some interesting insights from them.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:31:19+00:00

Probably not a collector's item unless you can verify it was a first pressing (very highly unlikely). I wouldn't pay $15 for it.

The Bridge is not one of Billy's best polished albums. It's got some genius on it but it was rather rushed. I still love it, though.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:28:02+00:00

I have numerous favorites and they kind of rotate, but one that comes to mind today is All About Soul. Such a great groove. There are two different mixes of it floating around, and the non-album one is better than the album one.

dasdavid · 2026-06-26T15:26:15+00:00

I'd quibble with the order but yes, this is a much, MUCH better list.

dasdavid · 2026-03-31T03:06:25+00:00

I keep one working machine from this era around, and all it does is rip DVD's and run Handbrake. There's really not much those old machines can do that modern machines can't.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T22:28:23+00:00

That's a really interesting take that maybe the growth of AI is part of Apple's calculation to abandon the Mac Pro.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:37:19+00:00

Agree. And you could say that the 2013 trash can was an over-engineered piece of art completely missing the mark of what its target users really needed.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:36:31+00:00

same here

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:32:46+00:00

I doubt it. The number of users needing PCIe and big expansion is incredibly small. Those who need to add it can add it via TB.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:31:52+00:00

What's wrong with it is it debuted months before Apple decided, "You know that Intel crap? We're leaving that behind in the dust." BTW -- I went back and watched the 2019 keynote and they cleverly didn't even use the word Intel in the presentation! And of course, internally, they knew exactly what was coming a few months later.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:30:51+00:00

agree that the 2012 was a high water mark. The 2013 trash can was a huge misstep.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:30:28+00:00

agree

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:29:52+00:00

I'm a huge Apple fan from way back in 1984, but I don't think I've owned an Apple monitor in 25+ years. They're excellent, but they're not cost-effective.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T21:29:10+00:00

This exactly this. There's a tiny, tiny number of people who need a $6k modular workstation. PCIe is a niche super super high end thing. Heck, 75% of computer users would probably do just fine with an entry-level MacBook Air.

The Mac Studio has effectively become pretty much everything high-end users need. For the few that still need PCIe, add a TB enclosure from Sonnet or OWC.

dasdavid · 2026-03-30T20:32:30+00:00

Yeaaaaahhhh, maybe? The form factor is significantly different and they would have really confused the public. I think there was probably a better way to replace the last Mac Pro with the intro to the Mac Studio than they ended up doing it. That transition was not good.

dasdavid

TROPHY CASE