At number 25 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest songwriters is American singer-songwriter Randy Newman. I must admit, I barely know any Randy Newman songs. I am aware of him, and know that he writes satirical songs, but I doubt I could name one. I have had a look at the list of singles released by him on his Wikipedia discography, and I don’t recognise any of them. I do recognise a couple of the songs written by him but performed by others, so have decided to include one of those here.
I notice in his list of released singles that only one has charted in the Disunited Kingdom, so maybe he is a much bigger artist in the US than he is in the DUK, but when I lived there I certainly was no more aware of him than I was before or since. Oh dear, I wonder what I have been missing?
![At number 25 in Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 100 greatest songwriters of all time is Randy Newman.](https://thecuriousastronomer.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/img_4330-e1439908482779.png?w=500&h=770)
At number 25 in Rolling Stone Magazine’s list of the 100 greatest songwriters of all time is Randy Newman.
The song of his that I have decided to include here, because it is (a) a fantastic song and (b) the one written by him which immediately jumped out at me is “Mama Told Me (Not To Come)”, which was a hit for Tom Jones and The Stereophonics (both from Wales). This was released in 2000 and got to number 4 in the DUK singles charts, but I must admit that I had no idea that Randy Newman had written it! I can see that it was also performed back in 1970 by a band called Three Dog Night.
Want some whiskey in your water?
Sugar in your tea?
What’s all these crazy questions
They are asking me?
This is the craziest party
That could ever be
Don’t turn on the lights
‘Cause I don’t wanna seeMama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
She said, “That ain’t the way to have fun, son”Open up the window
Let some air into this room
I think I’m almost choking
From the smell of stale perfume
And the cigarette you’re smoking
‘Bout to scare me half to death
Open up the window
Let me catch my breath!Mama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come
She said “That ain’t the way to have fun, son
That ain’t the way to have fun, son, son, son”The radio is blasting
Someone’s knocking at the door
I’m looking at my girlfriend
She just passed out on the floor
I’ve seen so many things
I ain’t never seen before
Don’t know what it is
But I don’t wanna see no moreMama told me not to come
Mama told me not to come (Mama told me she said)
She said “That ain’t the way to have fun, no” (no, no)
“That ain’t the way to have fun, son”And Mama told me, mama told me
Mana told me, mama told me
Mama told me not to come (Mama told me not to come)
“That ain’t the way to have fun, son”
“That ain’t the way to have fun” (that’s what she said, she said)
“That ain’t the way to have fun, no”
“That ain’t the way to have fun” (Mama told me)And Mama told me, mama told me
Mama told me, mama told me
She told me not to come (Mama told me not to come)
“That ain’t the way to have fun” (that ain’t the way to have fun)
“That ain’t the way to have fun, son”
“That ain’t the way to have fun” (oh no, no)…[Spoken:] Maybe I should’ve listened
Here is the video of Tome Jones and The Stereophonics performing this great song. Enjoy!
Which is your favourite Randy Newman song? Does he deserve to be at number 25 in this list?
I love the way your blog prompts me to revisit artists I would not normally be listening to on a Friday morning. I have been listening to randy Newman this week and remembering just what an excellent song writer he is. I can’t decide whether ‘I think it’s going to rain today’ or the sad and poignant ‘Losing You’ is my favourite Randy Newman song. I love the Tom & Phonics video with its cameo appearance of Rhys Ifans looking up ladies’ skirts.
I am off to watch the match very soon. We will all be on the edge of our seats for this afternoon’s clash. What a shot in the arm it will be for the nation if Wales win today.
On a totally different topic, did you see the photographs of Aurora Borealis taken this week from Y Rhigos?
Thank you for your comments. When I blog about these artists, I too am often revisiting them. Next Friday’s post will be a good example of this.
I’m on tenter hooks for this afternoon’s match. As you say, if we win it will be a huge shot in our arm, and would lead to a much easier passage into the semi-finals.
No, I didn’t see the photos of the northern lights from Y Rhigos. I’m in Ghana at the moment, no chance of seeing them here!
I love Randy Newman. Should he be no 25 on the list? Well perhaps, but certainly he should be near the top of any list of late 20th / early 21st songwriters. Newman’s greatness probably lies more in his lyrics than in his music, but he is nonetheless a considerable musician. At heart he’s a musical pasticheur, drawing on old-timey forms: ragtime, vaudeville, boogie-woogie, country as well as more modern R&B and mainstream rock. But he does this with great individuality, both celebrating and subverting these styles. He often also adds a measure of sophisticated, romantic music into the mix, which was probably learned at the knees of his uncles Alfred, Lionel and Emil who were distinguished Hollywood composers (Alfred, in fact, composed the famous 20th Century Fox fanfare).
His greatest songs have multiple layers of irony. Probably, when all the levels of irony have been scratched away we find, at the core, something that might be characterised as a “left-wing” or “progressive” sensibility, but Newman is as interested in skewering the pieties that characterise so many “liberals” as he is presenting any kind of liberal message.
Favourite songs? Listen to “The World Isn’t Fair” from what is probably his best album, Bad Love (1999). Is this a satire on complacent, bourgeois attitudes, or a threnody for socialist naivety? Well, you decide, but along the way marvel at how Newman takes vernacular musical phrases, lets them develop and darkens them with bitter and resolutely un-pop harmonies (“Karl I recently stumbled, into a new family…”) Or try “Redknecks” in which Randy takes a swipe at racism, but then pulls the rug from under the feet of the self-satisfied liberal establishment. This is not easy listening.
When he moves away from politics, he can be just as telling. He has a great line in tender (yet, unsettling) love songs. A great example is “Gainsville” from his musical based on the Faust story. He wrote it for Linda Rondstadt as Margarita. When the Devil approaches Margarita and says: “you’re so beautiful – are you from heaven?” Margarita replies with this song. Here is a woman yearning for love but she’s nobody’s fool. Or how about “Real Emotional Girl”? The melody is warm and sweet so there is no doubting the man’s love, yet one can’t help thinking that the man singing the song is wrong for the emotional – read vulnerable – girl about whom he’s singing. The underlying chords hymn-like, but queer and harmonically unsettling, add to the disquiet.
And on top of all that, he’s often laugh-out-funny. I love the middle-eight of “Political Science”.
I could list at least a dozen other Newman masterpieces, but I’d better leave it at that. Well, you did ask.
Thank you for that informative comment.
One of the things I like about these Rolling Stone magazine lists is that it encourages me to revisit artists I’ve either neglected or dismissed, or leads me to investigate artists with whom I’m not familiar.
I certainly plan to revisit Randy Newman after your and others’ comments. I realise that (a) I know more of his work than I realised and (b) I could benefit from listening to more of his stuff.
I know what you mean about lists. Part of me disapproves of them. It is of course ridiculous to to say Randy Newman is two points better than Ray Davis but three points worse than Carole King (or whatever). But lists are irresistible. The pleasure in having one’s own favourites (songwriters, guitarists, or what have you) suitably honoured is only surpassed by the pleasure in damning the compilers for the ignoramuses they are when they get it wrong!
Exactly!