EMI Layoffs Begin at Label Home of Coldplay, Beastie Boys

It appears that the massive layoffs long expected at EMI have begun. The major label, which previously announced plans to fire up to 2,000 employees — about one-third of its work force — as part of a massive restructuring, began lowering the boom at its Nashville office and at subsidiary labels Blue Note and Caroline, according to reports. Billboard confirmed that Nashville bigwigs including VP of A&R Larry Willoughby and VP of sales Bill Kennedy were among those given notice. Blogs and industry bulletin board the Velvet Rope have listed the names of several others fired, along with reports that more layoffs are expected today at core EMI subsidiaries Virgin Records and Capitol Records, although that rumor is unconfirmed.

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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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