Mark Ronson Welcomes Rhymefest, Phantom Planet at Lollapalooza

Mark Ronson and company marked the final date of their 16-month tour in funky style. The English guitarist/deejay had a host of international guests in tow — ncluding Liverpool's Candie Payne, Australia's Daniel Merriweather and all of Phantom Planet — and treated a small but fervent crowd to "a bunch of covers of indie-rock songs with trumpets on [them], blah blah blah." A horn section and string section — each dolled up in ballroom attire — manned opposite sides of the stage while Ronson, looking all of 14 years old, inhabited the roles of master of ceremonies and rhythm guitarist. Getting a little help from their friends, they turned the Kaiser Chiefs' "Oh My God" and Radiohead's "Just" inside-out. Ronson's lone misstep? Putting Rhymefest out to open rather than close the show. The dynamic Chicago emcee smoldered on an "innerversion" of Britney Spears' "Toxic" and leapt into the audience on "Brand New," during which he free-styled verses while surfing atop the crowd.

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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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