Randy Newman

Randy Newman is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year. I'm not sure what Newman does is rock and roll, but I can't think of any better description.

How you know him is probably determined by age. If you're young, he's most likely known to you as the court composer for Pixar, working on several scores for their films and winning two Oscars for Best Song for tunes from Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3.

Those a little older may remember his other movie scores, such as Ragtime and The Natural, one of the best scores I've ever heard, that is used in all sorts of places without people even remembering what it was.

For those as old as I am, he's a prolific songwriter and recording artist, whose work goes back to the late '60s. He has had hits with novelty songs like "Short People" and "I Love L.A.," and wrote songs for other artists, such as Three Dog Night's "Mama Told Me Not to Come" and Joe Cocker's "You Can Leave Your Hat On." But his lasting legacy may be as a satirist on the order of Tom Lehrer, only even more scathing.

Newman's voice, which sounds like an old black blues man, is not mellifluous, but has a certain way of wrapping around a lyric. He was born in Los Angeles but spent many years in New Orleans, so on a song like "Sail Away," he sings, "Ain't no lions or tigers ain't no mamba snake/Just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake" with a honey-and-whiskey laced intonation. Incidentally, "Sail Away" is a beautiful song about a slave trader trying to recruit Africans to come to America.

Newman's hits have been on the order of "Short People," which ignited controversy because dumb people actually thought it was a jeremiad against short people, when of course it was about mindless racism. Another song that was lacerating in its brutal honesty was "Rednecks""

"We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down"

In "It's Money That I Love," Newman sings:

"They say that's money
Can't buy love in this world
But it'll get you a half-pound of cocaine
And a sixteen-year old girl
And a great big long limousine
On a hot September night
Now that may not be love
But it is all right."

Newman has also written a number of beautiful songs, such as "I Think It's Going to Rain Today," and "Louisiana 1927," a song that seems like it was written in 1927, when a devastating flood hit the Crescent City. It was revived and heard often after Hurricane Katrina. "I Love L.A." has been used by the L.A. tourist bureau and is still played at Dodger games, although Newman's praise of the city may be ironic.

Later in his career Newman began writing autobiographical songs, such as the lovely "Dixie Flyer," about how his mother, while his father was fighting in World War II, took the train from L.A. to New Orleans to be with family:

"My poor little momma
Didn't know a soul in L.A.
So we went down to the Union Station and made our getaway.
Got on the Dixie Flyer bound for New Orleans
Across the state of Texas to the land of dreams."

One my favorite songs of his, not available on his greatest hits album, is "Four Eyes," a nasty little ditty about Newman's first day of kindergarten:

"Then my daddy stopped the car, and he turned to me
He said, "Son it's time to make us proud of you,
It's time to do what's right
Gonna have to learn to work hard"
I said, "Work? What are you talking about?
You're not gonna leave me here, are you?"
He said "Yes I am!"
And drove off into the morning light"

In closing, I want to leave you with the lyric, in its entirely, of one of Newman's most famous songs, "Political Science," which is right up there with Lehrer's "Vatican Rag" or "International Brotherhood Week" for tongue-in-cheek mordancy:

"No one likes us
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect
But heaven knows we try.
But all around even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.

We give them money
But are they grateful?
No they're spiteful
And they're hateful.
They don't respect us so let's surprise them;
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.

Now Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old.
Africa's far too hot,
And Canada's too cold.
And South America stole our name.
Let's drop the big one; there'll be no one left to blame us.

We'll save Australia;
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo.
We'll build an all-American amusement park there;
They've got surfing, too.

Well, boom goes London,
And boom Paris.
More room for you
And more room for me.
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town.
Oh, how peaceful it'll be;
We'll set everybody free;
You'll have Japanese kimonos, baby,
There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow,
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now."