News Ticker: Trent Reznor, Lady Gaga, Liam Gallagher, Mark Ronson

• Trent Reznor returned to his once-abandoned Twitter to post a photo from the studio with the caption "Last day of the session!" No word on when the new music will be released, and the 33 1/3 book about the making of Pretty Hate Machine has been delayed until likely early fall, Clevescene reports.

• Lady Gaga has made history, becoming the first artist to score one billion video views. Mashable reports Twilight and Soulja Boy are close behind according to Visible Measures' figures.

• Liam Gallagher's clothing line Pretty Green is coming to America. The collection, which includes limited-edition T-shirts, jeans and footwear, will be available to U.S. residents starting today online.

• Mark Ronson is offering up his producing chops for charity. He'll produce a track for the highest bidder at the Artists for Peace and Justice auction, which benefits Paul Haggis' group that fights for peace and social justice around the globe. UPDATE! Jamison Ernest won the auction, and Ronson is set to produce a track for his band Yellow Fever.

• 
  MUSIC Exclusive Live Chat With Linkin Park and Incubus
• 
  MOVIES & TV Peter Travers: 'The Avengers' Has it All
• 
  POLITICS Matt Taibbi: Jon Corzine Is the Original Zimmerman
• 
  VIDEOS Exclusive Premiere: Tenacious D's 'Tinnitus'

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.”

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter