Coldplay Debut Hype Williams, Anton Corbijn "Viva La Vida" Videos

Always democratic, Coldplay revealed to their fans this weekend not one but two videos for the abridged title track of their new album, "Viva La Vida." In the Hype Williams-directed video above, Coldplay stick with the motif they showcased in that iTunes commercial you've no doubt saw a million times leading up to the album's release, with each member of the band performing in front of what looks like either computer screensavers, cloud formations or really muddy lava lamps. The "official alternative" video, directed by "Heart-Shaped Box" and Control visionary Anton Corbijn, casts Chris Martin as a king, walking around from landmark to picturesque landmark with a framed copy of Delacroix's "Liberty Leading the People" (Viva La Vida's album cover) tucked under his arm. Shot in a film stock that echoes '70s porn, Martin searches for a place to hang his painting, ultimately finding solace with the rest of Coldplay on what could be the same beach where the band filmed their "Yellow" video. Check out Corbijn's version here:

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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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