Elton John & Billy Joel: One's hot, the other's not

With roughly a half a billion albums sold between them, Elton John and Billy Joel are two of the most successful pop artists of all time. But when considering, on the occasion of their Face 2 Face tour-opening dates at KeyArena this week, the currency of these piano-centric megastars, a curious truth arises: Elton John is relevant. Billy Joel is not.

Here's Elton John cameoing on just-released albums by Alice in Chains and Brandi Carlile and collaborating with next-gen hitmakers like Timbaland and the Scissor Sisters. There's John, 62 years old, recording new soundtrack material for blockbuster movies and Broadway shows, mocking (and being mocked by) UK pop trollop Lily Allen, and guest-appearing on a posthumous 2Pac track and underground grime single.

And where's Billy Joel? He hasn't released a record of new pop songs in 16 years. By all appearances, he isn't collaborating with anyone except his divorce lawyer, his accountant and his rehab counselor. His only recent output is a pair of unheard singles ("Christmas in Fallujah," anyone?) and an even-less-heard album of classical piano pieces from 2001. Even with Twyla Tharp's musical adaptation of his hit "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" and Will Ferrell's viciously satirical rendition of "Goodnight Saigon" on Saturday Night Live this past May, Joel, 60, is today a ghost haunting the cultural landscape. This despite penning several of the most beloved tunes in the pop pantheon.

So: What gives?

More than most pop stars, Billy Joel grew up in front of his audience. His music has always been about coming of age — whatever that age may be. His nakedly biographical approach shirks metaphor for authenticity. Joel's songs are musical pushpins tacked into the timeline of his fans' lives, memories that can't be taken away. "You May Be Right" comes on the radio (better yet, karaoke) and you sing along like you did way back when. (I do, at least. I've been a Billy Joel fan since before my bar mitzvah.)

Here's the downside: Say you never heard "You May Be Right" before yesterday. Joel's biography is immaterial to anyone who wasn't there at the time; it's someone else's history. With his diarist's intimacy, his songs exude personality and catharsis but mean little to anyone outside their (admittedly large though mostly unseen) sphere. Even less if the personality behind them — a jeans-and-sport coat wearing, supermodel marrying, occasional issue-decrying brash kid from the 'burbs turned radio-dominating piano man — rubs you the wrong way.

This supposition is meant to take away nothing from the songs themselves but to understand why nobody appreciates Billy Joel except fans of Billy Joel.

Elton John, on the other hand: Everyone appreciates Elton John. Even people who hate "Crocodile Rock," even Eminem. He's a personality beyond personal history, as flamboyant as Joel is recalcitrant, showbiz glamour wrapped in oversize shades and a sequined suit. There are traces of autobiography in his songs, but they're bigger than John himself, untethered to person, place or time. Perhaps because his most famous numbers are collaborations with songwriter Bernie Taupin there's less sense of me-ism — Joel's bread and butter — behind them. Who is this "Rocket Man"? A friend of "Bennie and the Jets"? Does he ride with "Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy"?

Where Joel is a journalist, John is a fantasist. Joel vividly relates stories of life experience; John invents them. Joel traffics in specificity while John leaves more room for universality. The former is a riskier artistic tack than the latter — no surprise that their most specific songs, Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" and John's "Candle in the Wind," are also their most insipid.

But by adhering to his Boomer-centric POV, Joel depletes his shelf life and limits his audience. His music is grounded in reminiscence, and we can only reminisce for so long. John, though — he's off in outer space. We're lucky enough to be there when he touches down.

Jonathan Zwickel: zwickelicious@gmail.com