Recommendations of the Editorial team
The best songwriters of all time (25): Randy Newman
“Anyone who presses the gas in life and brings the highway will not necessarily have an eye for the irony of life,” said Randy Newman. “But that’s exactly what I was interested in.”
He constructed abstent characters on album classics such as “12 Songs” (1970) and “Sail Away” (1972). The world saw from unusual perspectives and let the irony run wild. “Suzanne”, for example, wrote from the rapist’s point of view. “God’s Song” opened insights into the deficits of divine provision. “Sail Away” was the slave mesh of the slave dealer, who wants to encourage Africans to move to American paradise. “Every man is free to take care of his home and his family”.
Randy Newman – “Suzanne”:
Newman’s early albums were unfortunately God’s shopkeepers. Even if “Short People” – a bitter -evil satire for prejudice and a small spirit – gave him at least a smaller hit in 1977. While Newman as a soundtrack composer (“Toy Story”, “Monsters Inc.”) hit a second career, his songs should live on in the interpretations of other musicians. Her respect – from Judy Collins to Harry Nilsson, from Ray Charles to Manfred Mann – was and is unbroken. “Sail Away” once described T. Bone Burnett as “the most brilliant satire in the history of American music”.
The most underestimated albums of all time: Randy Newman – “Trouble in Paradise”
By Max Gösche
Perhaps “Trouble in Paradise” presented a Randy Newman for the first time, which made it a little too simple. But this Randy Newman was still better than most other songwriters of his generation.
In the 1970s, he had performed masterly plates without exception. Had duped the west coast soft rock poets without noticing it. With “I Love La” he delivered his song on the California way of life in 1983. In the video for the song, Newman drives down the Pacific coast in the Cabriolet and poses between Badenixen in Venice Beach.
Duet with Paul Simon
“Christmas in Capetown” is still disturbed today. We look at ghost organ and pork riffs through the hedonism glasses into hell of colonialism, where the poorest at the blessings of pop culture are.
“The Blues” with duet partner Paul Simon remains a curiosity and should be something of a hit at the time. “My Life is good”, in which Newman imagines as a Springsteen replacement, is the far better joke.