sex, drugs, and cocoa puffs
To this day, women are touched by the words of "Just the Way You are," a musical love letter that says everything everybody wants to hear: You're not flawless, but you're still what I want.
The sad irony, of course, is that Joel divorced Elizabeth three years after "Just the Way You Are" won a grammy for a Song of the Year. Obviously, some would say that cheapens the song and makes it irrelevant. I think the opposite is true. I think the fact that Joel divorced the woman he wrote this song about makes it his single greatest achievement.
When I hear " Just the Way You Are," it makes me think about Joel's broken marriage. It makes me think about all the perfectly scribed love letters and drunken emails I have written over the past twelve years, and about all the various women who received them. I think about how I told them they changed the way I thought about the universe, and that they made every woman on earth unattractive, and that I would love them unconditionally even if we were never together. I hate that those letters still exist. But I don't hate them because what I said was false; I hate them because what I said was completely true. My convictions could not have been stronger when I wrote those words, and- for whatever reason-they still faded into nothingness. Three times I have been certain that I could never love anyone else, and I was wrong every time. Those old love letters remind me of my emotional failure and my accidental lies, just as "Just the Way You Are" undoubtedly remind Joel of his.
-Chuck Klosterman
The sad irony, of course, is that Joel divorced Elizabeth three years after "Just the Way You Are" won a grammy for a Song of the Year. Obviously, some would say that cheapens the song and makes it irrelevant. I think the opposite is true. I think the fact that Joel divorced the woman he wrote this song about makes it his single greatest achievement.
When I hear " Just the Way You Are," it makes me think about Joel's broken marriage. It makes me think about all the perfectly scribed love letters and drunken emails I have written over the past twelve years, and about all the various women who received them. I think about how I told them they changed the way I thought about the universe, and that they made every woman on earth unattractive, and that I would love them unconditionally even if we were never together. I hate that those letters still exist. But I don't hate them because what I said was false; I hate them because what I said was completely true. My convictions could not have been stronger when I wrote those words, and- for whatever reason-they still faded into nothingness. Three times I have been certain that I could never love anyone else, and I was wrong every time. Those old love letters remind me of my emotional failure and my accidental lies, just as "Just the Way You Are" undoubtedly remind Joel of his.
-Chuck Klosterman