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 TICKLIN' THE IRONIES: Randy Newman (File photo) |
It's never a good idea to take Randy Newman at his word.
Mostly because the mordant satirist -- and Oscar-winning songwriter -- has built a career out of saying one thing and meaning the other, making it tough for casual listeners (or uninformed, as is more often the case) to know how seriously they should be taking him.
The answer to that one is, of course, "Very seriously," but only after considering the fact Newman's tongue may be stuck firmly in cheek.
Take one of his latest offerings, the Internet-only release A Few Words In Defense of our Country, as an example
The song, and accompanying YouTube clip, finds Newman at his usual perch at the piano, waxing philosophical about an empire that's about to end, and positing -- somewhat generously, it would seem -- that U.S. leaders, "while they're the worst that we've had, are hardly the worst this poor world has seen."
So what's going on? Has Newman -- who shone a spotlight on his nation's race-based foibles with the incisor-sharp set-pieces Sail Away and Rednecks -- suddenly gone soft?
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Not hardly.
"It's a recognition that this is the worst administration we've ever had," says Newman, 63, from his home in L.A. "When I say, 'Let's turn history's pages and look back,' it's the absolute worst leaders the world has ever seen -- Hitler and Stalin and King Leopold. So it's not really that generous at all."
Now to most (especially those familiar with Newman's work), the intention of the track couldn't be clearer. But over the course of his career, Newman has run afoul of those who weren't paying attention on more than one occasion.
The aforementioned Rednecks, for example, sparked debate because it seemed to criticize both Southern racism and Northern snobbery, and the 1977 hit Short People (sample lyric: "Short people got no reason to live") was taken at face value by some upon its release.
"It reached people that I wouldn't normally have reached," says Newman. "People weren't used to hearing irony at all, especially in pop music. If you're going down the highway at 60 miles an hour, and you hear something like Short People, well, it's not necessarily the kind of thing you're looking for in pop music."
And then there's the 1972 track Political Science, an unofficial precursor to A Few Words, where Newman advocates dropping "the big one" on any country that isn't the U.S. (OK, so he also spared Australia, but Canada was deemed "too cold.")
Newman has described the song as one that will unfortunately never be out of date, and with much of the world now suspicious of -- if not downright hostile towards -- the States, it appears he may have been onto something.
"It still works just as well," he says. "When I played it in Europe last summer, they didn't laugh."
But after all these years -- and a lucrative side career scoring soundtracks for flicks like The Natural, Toy Story, and Monsters, Inc. -- surely people must be in the joke?
"(I'm misunderstood) less than I was," Newman concedes. "I think the people who come to see me know what they're coming to see, and also I think people have gotten used to that kind of satire thanks to The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live."
And what of his soundtrack stuff, notably the many songs he's written for Disney movies, will he be slipping in with the caustic stuff when he headlines at Winnipeg Folk Festival tomorrow night?
"Yeah, I don't go too deep with 'em, but you do have to change your show a bit that way," he says. "My language, too. I gotta watch myself, since I tend toward vulgarity. I have to be reminded."