Concert Review – Randy Newman at Carnegie Hall

If I could be a fly sitting on anyone’s Steinway piano bench, absorbing the process, the humor, the chord structures, the brilliance of any living person, it would be Randy Newman’s. As a songwriter, there are few finer. As a singer, there are many finer. He is one whose flaws make him more appealing. He is old enough to be my Dad. I am old enough to have babysat his youngest child while I was in high school. When (because I believe in the ‘whens’ rather than the ‘ifs’) I meet him someday, I will have to take a lot of deep breaths and check the crazy before opening my mouth and extending my hand.

I love him. I love that he is likely one of the only artists ever to say the word, ‘fuck,’ onstage at Carnegie Hall. I love that he openly talks about cocaine and underage girls in songs. I love that he co-wrote Three Amigos! with Steve Martin and Lorne Michaels, and subsequently voiced the singing bush. I love that he’s been nominated for fifteen Academy Awards and finally won for Monsters, Inc. I love that he calls home to two of my homes, Los Angeles and New Orleans. The background of my MacBook is a candid photo my friend, photographer Erika Goldring took (that ended up in Rolling Stone) of he, Fats Domino and Dr. John backstage at Fats Domino’s 80th birthday party. I love Randy Newman. A lot. Clearly.

Last week, I saw Randy Newman in concert at Carnegie Hall. My friend, Roger, and I mused that we were the youngest people there. (Turns out, we weren’t; a few people brought their elementary-aged children. I’d be willing to bet that their knowledge of Newman’s catalogue was limited to Disney/Pixar.) The last time we were some of the youngest in a sea of baby boomers was when Roger and I saw Boz Scaggs; except that for Boz, The Strokes and their model-girlfriends were in the row behind us. Boz Scaggs more hip than Randy Newman? Guess so.

If there were some sort of award for setlist-making, the winner would be Newman. When the man makes a setlist, he pairs his songs to compliment one another, and to bring out a theme, whether we realize its subtlety or obvious tie. Songs about the south, like “Rednecks” and “Louisiana 1927” are played back-to-back. After speaking of the South, he then spoke to us about God, or a lack thereof, or a lack of one who actually exists to care about humans, in “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind”). It’s one of my favorites, which is saying a lot. His political songs were in pairs, too, as were his ballads about the women of his life. His transitions from story to story are seamless, and make you feel like you’re listening to some tunes, sitting around a small club, like the Largo on Fairfax (which a lucky few got to do in August, the jerk-faces) rather than in a formal concert hall in New York City named for, and funded by, a robber-baron.

The story-telling quality of country-western songs has always intrigued me. Stories, no matter how trite, are told, and you are left feeling angry or sad for the person in the song. Newman writes songs much in the same kind of quality. He personalizes them by referencing events, specifically, like his Father telling the woman who was to become his second wife about the time Randy walked fourteen kids at a ballgame. Do I have any idea if the story is true? Nope; don’t know, don’t care. He put it in a song from his point of view, and that’s good enough for me. In the next breath, he’s channeling a redneck from Georgia, outraged at Dick Cavett for disrespecting Lester Maddux on late-night television, and writes an entire song, racial expletives non-withstanding, from that person’s point of view.

There’s also that kind of “oh-well-if-you-don’t-like-it, this-is-who-I-am, and-I’m-going-to-give-everyone-a-truth-enema” quality that my Mother employs, (it’s an over-60 thing, I suppose) on the new songs he plays from 2008’s Harps & Angels. I mean, this stance is nothing new for Newman, but it seems like he makes it a mission with the current record, on songs such as ‘A Piece Of The Pie,’ ‘Laugh And Be Happy,’ and ‘Korean Parents.’ I hope that young artists look to him to write what really is on their minds, and care less about a major recording contract. At the end of the day, it’s about not being afraid to assert who you are that changes an art form.

As I listen to a buffet of narratives from the family-friendly, to the offensive and funny, to the heartbreaking, to the groundbreaking, all in the course of one night, I am truly astounded at all that this man has accomplished. I mean, do other people think that he’s ridiculously amazing, or is it just me? It’s totally cool to publicly dig and quote Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits, and Neil Young (which I totally do, dude) and all, but Randy Newman? We can’t really tag the man as “under the radar;” I did change my plane ticket to be sure to see him at this years’ JazzFest in New Orleans, and he drew a large crowd. Is he the nerd music-equivalent of being more moved by Iron Man than by The Dark Knight? Meeting heroes can be some of the weirdest experiences ever, but I think it might be more weird for Newman, the self-proclaimed “froggish man, unpleasant to see” to meet someone so young, and female, that desires nothing more than sharing a pot of tea and learning his secrets to life. Someday, Randy. Until then, keep blowing us away with your art.

Songs By Randy Newman That You Probably Know (Or Didn’t Realize Was His Work):

• “I Love L.A.” (“We love it! We love it!”)

• “Short People” (“They got little noses, and tiny little teeth, they wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet”)

• “Mama Told Me Not To Come” (was a hit for Three Dog Night)

• “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” (from Toy Story)

• “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today” (Bette Midler sang this in Beaches and was also covered by Nina Simone, Dusty Springfield, Audra McDonald, etc etc etc. Your mother probably owns a version of this on vinyl.)

• “Feels Like Home” (Recorded in the early nineties by Linda Ronstadt and also by Chantal Kreviazuk, which was in How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. Why do I know that? Right, because this is a website called Geekscape. Clearly.)

• “Louisiana 1927” (Written before Hurricane Katrina, as a commentary on the flood of 1927. Post-Katrina, it has become an anthem, covered by a multitude of New Orleans musicians)

• “Mr. President Have Pity On the Working Man” (Even more relevant under the current administration, this song was featured on the soundtrack to Forrest Gump)

Noel’s Recommended Randy Newman Playlist:

• “Little Boxes” (Weeds fans unite!)

• “It’s Money That I Love” (“They say that money can’t buy love in this world, but it’ll get you a half-pound of cocaine and a sixteen year old girl)

• “The World Isn’t Fair” (Who doesn’t love a song about Marxism? “I’m glad I’m living in the land of the free, where the rich just get richer and the poor you don’t ever have to see”)

• “Real Emotional Girl” (“For eighteen years she lived at home, she was Daddy’s little girl, and Daddy helped her move out on her own, she met a boy, he broke her heart, and now she lives alone, and she’s very very careful, yes she is, she’s a real emotional girl”)

• “Love Story” (Sorry Randy, but I’m recommending Harry Nilsson’s cover instead)

• “God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)” (I warn you that if you are ultra-religious, you won’t love it, so please move to the next…)

• “My Life Is Good” (Where else can you find a song that name-checks Bruce Springsteen, mentions adultery, a parent-teacher conference and getting good coke for out-of-town guests? Thanks, Randy.)

• “A Few Words In Defense Of Our Country” (Which I mentioned in my story on New Orleans JazzFest. I’m still maintaining that you download.)

• “Political Science” (“No one likes us, I don’t know why, we may not be perfect but heaven knows we try, but all around even our old friends put us down, let’s drop the big one and see what happens”)

• “A Piece Of The Pie” (“It stinks here low and high, some get rich and others just get by, Bono’s off in Africa—he’s never around, the country turns its lonely eyes to who?—Jackson Browne”)