The 1930s Culture Blog: Randy Newman

I'm happy. I'm listening to the new albums from The Streets and Randy Newman, two of my favourite artists, and both of them are among their best.

The Randy Newman is a lovely great sounding laid back affair featuring songs about love, getting old.... and about Bush's America - which he's not too happy about ("Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low / The rich are getting richer / I should now / and while we're going up / you're going down"). The great Bush baiting high point is the sad and shattering "A Few Words in Defence of Our country", which I already posted in a previous post. ( "The end of an empire is messy at best / And this empire is ending / Like all the rest / Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea / We’re adrift in the land of the brave / And the home of the free") Here it's re-recorded in a brilliant country-fied version. This album is definitely up there with legendary 1970s classics like "Sail Away" and "Good Old Boys".

The last The Streets album was a bit of an all round disaster. It was a post-fame album of the most annoying sort, with weak music, and lots of moaning about having lost it because of too much fame and money. And it had crappy female backup r&b/soul singers like the worst soft hip hop albums. But man, Mike Skinner is back, I'm happy to report. The new album is a kind of laid back Zen pop blockbuster. His philosophical musings about everyday subjects may not exactly be deep... in fact he acknowledges in the very first song that they are sort of clichés, but they're given enough of a twist to feel fresh when set on top of a beat. I'd say this is as good as his two first albums, which basically means I think it's brilliant. You can go to his myspace page and listen to a few songs, including my favourite "On the Flip of a Coin". You can go back a few posts in this blog and listen to the title track, which is another high point.

[WARNING: long blog post!]

It's spring and the sun is shining. This post is dedicated to someone I've met that I really like, who - against all odds - has got Randy Newman albums in her collection.

The first Randy Newman song I heard was "It's Money That Matters", when I saw the video on Danish television back in the late 80s. I liked the amusing video and the funny lyrics, and I liked Mark Knopflers guitar playing. Nowadays Knopflers contribution sounds a bit dated, but I still like the lyrics. Good song. It's one of his many ironic songs about the USA.

IT'S MONEY THAT MATTERS

Of all of the people that I used to know
Most never adjusted to the great big world
I see them lurking in book stores
Working for the Public Radio
Carrying their babies around in a sack on their back
Moving careful and slow

(Chorus)
It's money that matters
Hear what I say
It's money that matters
In the USA

All of these people are much brighter than I
In any fair system they would flourish and thrive
But they barely survive
They eke out a living and they barely survive

When I was a young boy, maybe thirteen
I took a hard look around me and asked what does it mean?
So I talked to my father, and he didn't know
And I talked to my friend and he didn't know
And I talked to my brother and he didn't know
And I talked to everybody that I knew

(Chorus)
It's money that matters
Now you know that it's true
It's money that matters
Whatever you do

Then I talked to a man lived up on the county line
I was washing his car with a friend of mine
He was a little fat guy in a red jumpsuit
I said "You look kind of funny"
He said "I know that I do"

"But I got a great big house on the hill here
And a great big blonde wife inside it
And a great big pool in my backyard and another great big pool
beside it
Sonny it's money that matters, hear what I say
It's money that matters in the USA
It's money that matters
Now you know that it's true
It's money that matters whatever you do"

I bought the "Land of Dreams" album and "The Best of Randy Newman"

My favorite on "The Best of" was was "Louisiana 1927". This was a song that strangely enough suddenly gained some renewed potency years later when Louisiana got flooded again. Even the bit with the president not caring too much about the inhabitants of Louisiana seemed to repeat itself. Lovely song, and one of the best string arrangements ever:

LOUISIANA 1927

What has happened down here is the wind have changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it started to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood
Some people got away alright
The river have busted through cleard down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangelne

CHORUS
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tyrin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge came down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
The President say, "Little fat man isn't it a shame what the river has
done
To this poor crackers land."

CHORUS

Oh and then there was "I Think It's Going to Rain Today", a haunting evocation of loneliness.

I THINK IT'S GOING TO RAIN TODAY

Broken windows
In empty hallways
Pale dead moon
And the sky streaked with grey
Human kindness overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to keep love away
Human kindness overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
I think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Right before me
The signs implore me
Help the needy
And show them the way
Human kindness, it's overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today

Lonely, so lonely
Tin can at my feet
I think I'll kick it down the street
That's the way to treat a friend

Right before me
The signs implore me
Help the needy
And show them the way
Human kindness, it's overflowing
And I think it's gonna rain today

I really liked Newman's contributions to the first "Toy Story" movie. But it was "Toy Story 2" that had the real killer moment. "When Somebody Loved Me" is one of the great evocations of lost love:

WHEN SOMEBODY LOVED ME

when somebody loved me
everything was beautiful
every hour we spent together
lives within my heart

and when she was sad
i was there to dry her tears
and when she was happy so was i
when she loved me

through the summer and the fall
we had each other that was all
just she and i together like it was ment to be

and when she was lonley
i was there to comfort her
and i knew that she loved me

so the years went
by i stayed the same
but she began to drift away
i was left alone
but still i waited for the day
when she'd say i will always love you

lonley and forgotten
i never thought she'd look my way
when she smiled at me
and held me
just like she used to do
like she loved me
when she loved me

when somebody loved me
everything was beautiful
every hour we spent together
lives within my heart
when she loved me

I Thought that Newman was a bit burned out, at least when not working on those brilliant Pixar movies - his last couple of albums did'nt do much for me, but then last year he released his "War on Terror" song... and suddenly the old fire was back. Utterly brilliant songwriting:

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country

I’d like to say a few words
In defense of our country
Whose people aren’t bad nor are they mean
Now the leaders we have
While they’re the worst that we’ve had
Are hardly the worst this poor world has seen

Let’s turn history’s pages, shall we?

Take the Caesars for example
Why within the first few of them
They were sleeping with their sister
Stashing little boys in swimming pools
And burning down the City
And one of ‘em, one of ‘em
Appointed his own horse Consul of the Empire
That’s like vice president or something
That’s not a very good example, is it?
But wait, here’s one, the Spanish Inquisition
They put people in a terrible position
I don’t even like to think about it
Well, sometimes I like to think about it

Just a few words in defense of our country
Whose time at the top
Could be coming to an end
Now we don’t want their love
And respect at this point is pretty much out of the question
But in times like these
We sure could use a friend

Hitler. Stalin.
Men who need no introduction
King Leopold of Belgium. That’s right.
Everyone thinks he’s so great
Well he owned The Congo
He tore it up too
He took the diamonds, he took the gold
He took the silver
Know what he left them with?
Malaria

A President once said,
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
Now it seems like we’re supposed to be afraid
It’s patriotic in fact and color coded
And what are we supposed to be afraid of?
Why, of being afraid
That’s what terror means, doesn’t it?
That’s what it used to mean

[To the first eight bars of “Columbia The Gem Of The Ocean”]

You know it pisses me off a little
That this Supreme Court is gonna outlive me
A couple of young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now too
But I defy you, anywhere in the world
To find me two Italians as tightass as the two Italians we got
And as for the brother
Well, Pluto’s not a planet anymore either

The end of an empire is messy at best
And this empire is ending
Like all the rest
Like the Spanish Armada adrift on the sea
We’re adrift in the land of the brave
And the home of the free

Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

To sum it up: Randy Newman writes brilliantly potent and funny songs evoking old Tin Pan Alley songwriting styles. As a European it's nice to have his political songs when you need to remind yourself that there are still a few sane people in the great big US of A. Gotta love the guy.