Cat Power's Slow-Burning Bonnaroo Set Attracts Vedder, Olsens

While Mastodon bashed away across the field, as the sun began to set Cat Power's Chan Marshall — backed by a crew of jazzbos — turned out a gorgeous set of slow-burning tunes from The Greatest and her latest covers record, Jukebox. Highlights included her rendition of the Miracles' "Tracks of My Tears" and the meditative ballad "The Greatest." Prowling across the stage with confidence, at times crooning into her palm as if she were holding a mirror, Marshall demonstrated how far her live show has come in recent years. And believe it or not, Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and the Olsen Twins were both spotted checking out the set from backstage.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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