[Unless] you consider [Glass Houses] one bland and endless bad joke—as I do—there aren't any real howlers. Just fake this and fake that. (p. 51)

What's most annoying about Joel is his holier-than-thou sneakiness, his insistence to have it both ways. In "You May Be Right," the singer strikes one of the silliest tough-guy poses ever …, in general behaves like a perfect asshole, blames his girl for his actions when she points out that he's nuts, and then sums up everything with the logic of an egomaniac….

I guess what Joel's trying to do here is picture himself as a lovable loony, a teddy bear with a zip gun, but this brand of madness is snug enough—and smug enough—to make someone like Art Garfunkel look like Iggy Pop….

[It's] obvious that this Long Islander regards rock & roll as a braggart's game in which the blowzy...