Billy Joel’s Concert

Re Chris Willman’s review of the Dec. 13 Billy Joel concert at the Sports Arena (“Billy Joel: An Inconsistent Man,” Dec. 15): Joel’s forthright and charming audience rapport regarding his aging--the declining ability to hit high notes, the fear of forgetting lyrics--was perverted by Willman to “playing the self-deprecating egotist.”Joel’s fantastic versatility was dismissed as “unevenly applied talent.” And Joel’s new album, containing a lullaby for his daughter, a catchy doo-wop revival and a lament for the urbanization of Long Island, was deemed guilty of “overreaching pretensions.”

Willman’s referral to Joel as the “poor man’s Don Henley” is akin to calling Shakespeare the poor man’s Jerry Seinfeld. The fact is Joel’s brilliant, uncanny lyrics coupled with innovative, melodic music and wide-ranging subjects and styles combine to make him the premier musical artist of our generation.

BOB, SYLVIA, ELLIOT

and JENNIFER GROSSBACH

Agoura Hills