By Randy Newman is best known for his satirical character studies. You’ve heard them, of course: “Rednecks,” “My Life is Good,” “Political Science.” They’re portraits of deluded narrators who cling desperately to an outmoded or unpleasant or immoral idea: racism or narcissism or jingoism. Those songs succeed by illustrating how people rationalize their own monstrosity. These are the Randy Newman songs that get the most ink, because they demand the highest level of critical intervention. And people just love to intervene in those songs. Many years ago, in college, I took a class on vernacular American humor, and I wrote a paper on “Rednecks,” and specifically about how the song shifts in the middle from the redneck perspective (“Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show / With some smart-ass New York Jew”) to a broader social critique that implicates that redneck perspective (Newman lists all the urban ghettos in which African-Americans are “free to be put in a cage”).
The teacher was a grad student who had long hair and glasses and cited Lyotard in casual conversation. I don’t remember a tremendous amount about the class, but I do know that it seemed at times labored, if well-intentioned, and that it cured me of thinking too much about Newman’s comic mechanism. As much as I enjoy his most Mephistophelean rhetorical moves (it’s difficult to overestimate the pleasure of a surgical strike like “I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do,” in which Newman lays bare one of the most basic of human needs), I leave it to others to compare him with Twain and Stephen Foster and Melville’s Confidence Man.
Dec 1, 2010 - These are the Randy Newman songs that get the most ink, because they demand the highest level of critical intervention. Of his own ethnic identity, which is treated most explicitly on the Land of Dreams album.
I leave it to others to speculate on what it meant for Newman, in 1970, to sing the explicitly racist “Underneath the Harlem Moon” (which posits a sentimental brand of racism, but racism nonetheless) or, for that matter, to release “Yellow Man” during the Vietnam War. I leave it to others to investigate how these songs do or don’t dovetail with Newman’s own (rare) exploration of his own ethnic identity, which is treated most explicitly on the Land of Dreams album. What I’ll do, instead, is list a few reasons I’m thankful for Newman and his talent. I’m thankful that he loves a wide variety of American music, blues and jazz and ragtime and gospel and country. I’m thankful for the way he fuses melodic sophistication and lyrical intelligence, and for the fact that many of his songs are standards in their time thanks to the interpretations of brilliant singers like Dusty Springfield, Harry Nilsson, and Tim O’Brien. I’m thankful that he can be, within the span of a few songs, viciously sarcastic and unapologetically sentimental. And finally, I’m thankful that despite his erudition and eclecticism, he remains a disciple of one of the two or three most beautiful things in rock and roll, the Fats Domino triplet.
Two Classic Albums From H.P. Lovecraft (2000) 01. Wayfaring Stranger 02. Let's Get Together 03.
I've Been Wrong Before 04. The Drifter 05. That's The Bag I'm In 06. The White Ship 07. Country Boy & Bleeker Street 08. The Time Machine 09.
A post in the General Discussion forum by Mike D. I just bought this Motobecane moped. It is questionable what year and I don't know the model as there are no 'side plates' or whatever those covers are called. Ford serial number decoder.
That's How Much I Love You Baby (More Or Less) 10. Gloria Patria 11. Spin, Spin, Spin 12. It's About Time 13.
Blue Jack Of Diamonds 14. Electrollentando 15. At The Mountains Of Madness 16. Mobius Trip 17. High Flying Bird 18. Nothing's Boy 19.
Keeper Of The Keys 20. Anyway That You Want Me 21. It's All Over For You. Dreams In The Witch House: The Complete Philips Recordings (2005) 01. Wayfaring Stranger 02. Let's Get Together 03. I've Been Wrong Before 04.
The Drifter 05. That's The Bag I'm In 06. The White Ship 07. Country Boy & Bleeker Street 08. The Time Machine 09. That's How Much I Love You Baby (More Or Less) 10.
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By Randy Newman is best known for his satirical character studies. You’ve heard them, of course: “Rednecks,” “My Life is Good,” “Political Science.” They’re portraits of deluded narrators who cling desperately to an outmoded or unpleasant or immoral idea: racism or narcissism or jingoism. Those songs succeed by illustrating how people rationalize their own monstrosity. These are the Randy Newman songs that get the most ink, because they demand the highest level of critical intervention. And people just love to intervene in those songs. Many years ago, in college, I took a class on vernacular American humor, and I wrote a paper on “Rednecks,” and specifically about how the song shifts in the middle from the redneck perspective (“Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show / With some smart-ass New York Jew”) to a broader social critique that implicates that redneck perspective (Newman lists all the urban ghettos in which African-Americans are “free to be put in a cage”).
The teacher was a grad student who had long hair and glasses and cited Lyotard in casual conversation. I don’t remember a tremendous amount about the class, but I do know that it seemed at times labored, if well-intentioned, and that it cured me of thinking too much about Newman’s comic mechanism. As much as I enjoy his most Mephistophelean rhetorical moves (it’s difficult to overestimate the pleasure of a surgical strike like “I Just Want You To Hurt Like I Do,” in which Newman lays bare one of the most basic of human needs), I leave it to others to compare him with Twain and Stephen Foster and Melville’s Confidence Man.
Dec 1, 2010 - These are the Randy Newman songs that get the most ink, because they demand the highest level of critical intervention. Of his own ethnic identity, which is treated most explicitly on the Land of Dreams album.
I leave it to others to speculate on what it meant for Newman, in 1970, to sing the explicitly racist “Underneath the Harlem Moon” (which posits a sentimental brand of racism, but racism nonetheless) or, for that matter, to release “Yellow Man” during the Vietnam War. I leave it to others to investigate how these songs do or don’t dovetail with Newman’s own (rare) exploration of his own ethnic identity, which is treated most explicitly on the Land of Dreams album. What I’ll do, instead, is list a few reasons I’m thankful for Newman and his talent. I’m thankful that he loves a wide variety of American music, blues and jazz and ragtime and gospel and country. I’m thankful for the way he fuses melodic sophistication and lyrical intelligence, and for the fact that many of his songs are standards in their time thanks to the interpretations of brilliant singers like Dusty Springfield, Harry Nilsson, and Tim O’Brien. I’m thankful that he can be, within the span of a few songs, viciously sarcastic and unapologetically sentimental. And finally, I’m thankful that despite his erudition and eclecticism, he remains a disciple of one of the two or three most beautiful things in rock and roll, the Fats Domino triplet.
Two Classic Albums From H.P. Lovecraft (2000) 01. Wayfaring Stranger 02. Let's Get Together 03.
I've Been Wrong Before 04. The Drifter 05. That's The Bag I'm In 06. The White Ship 07. Country Boy & Bleeker Street 08. The Time Machine 09.
A post in the General Discussion forum by Mike D. I just bought this Motobecane moped. It is questionable what year and I don't know the model as there are no 'side plates' or whatever those covers are called. Ford serial number decoder.
That's How Much I Love You Baby (More Or Less) 10. Gloria Patria 11. Spin, Spin, Spin 12. It's About Time 13.
Blue Jack Of Diamonds 14. Electrollentando 15. At The Mountains Of Madness 16. Mobius Trip 17. High Flying Bird 18. Nothing's Boy 19.
Keeper Of The Keys 20. Anyway That You Want Me 21. It's All Over For You. Dreams In The Witch House: The Complete Philips Recordings (2005) 01. Wayfaring Stranger 02. Let's Get Together 03. I've Been Wrong Before 04.
The Drifter 05. That's The Bag I'm In 06. The White Ship 07. Country Boy & Bleeker Street 08. The Time Machine 09. That's How Much I Love You Baby (More Or Less) 10.