Eddie Vedder on Fatherhood and Rock, Springsteen on the American Identity and More Exclusive Audio

For our third Fortieth Anniversary issue, Rolling Stone is featuring audio excerpts from our interviews with notable artists, politicians, scientists and visionaries as they discuss the world they helped shape and the future. To hear Bruce Springsteen talk about his influences, Bill Clinton discuss the future problems facing this nation and more from Dave Matthews, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Bono and others, be sure to check out this special section right 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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