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Dedicatosi, negli ultimi anni, alla realizzazione di colonne sonore per il cinema, seguendo la tradizione di famiglia e vincendo addirittura un Oscar nel 2002 per la canzone "If I Didn't Have You" (dal film Monsters e co.) Randy Newman ha sostanzialmente abbandonato il mondo della musica leggera, che così scarse soddisfazioni gli ha riservato in quasi quarant'anni di attività.
Tanto apprezzato dalla critica internazionale quanto sostanzialmente ignorato dal pubblico, Newman è uno dei più validi ed interessanti cantautori americani del secondo dopoguerra, capace di rielaborare originalmente i principali generi della tradizione americana (jazz, soul, ragtime, blues, country) immergendoli in testi dalla vena caustica e mai scontata, ribaltando quegli stessi luoghi comuni ai quali rimanda il linguaggio musicale utilizzato nelle sue composizioni.
Un'efficace esempio del suo stile è offerto dalla celebrata "Sail Away", pezzo dall'andamento solenne e sofferto, in cui si celebrano le bellezze ed i valori dell'America, le sconfinate opportunità che questa terra offre ai migranti... per poi scoprire che chi canta non è altro che uno schiavista, invitando la popolazione di colore a lasciare l'Africa per raggiungere il nuovo mondo. Allo stesso modo, "Short People" (cui arrise un relativo successo commerciale alla fine degli anni '70) enfatizza il razzismo tipico dell'americano medio, con una forte presa di posizione contro... le persone basse di statura, vittime degli strami del Nostro, a sua volta appartenente ad una minoranza etnica perseguitata nel corso della storia (Newman è, infatti, ebreo).
Quest'antologia, uscita alla metà degli anni '80, ripropone i pezzi appena menzionati ed altri numerosi brani che coprono gran parte della carriera dell'Autore, sistemati in ordine cronologico dagli esordi alla fine degli anni '60, caratterizzati da accompagnamenti pianistici con innesti orchestrali, alla maturazione dei primi anni '80, in cui Newman proponeva un'energica e ben arrangiata miscela di jazz, blues e soul dall'ottima presa melodica e dalla grande raffinatezza stilistica.
Tutti i brani denotano un'alta qualità compositiva, non ravvisandosi alcun riempito nella pur ampia scaletta: le canzoni iniziali sono contraddistinte dall'alternarsi di toni dolenti ("Love Story", "Living Without You"), sarcasmo ed autoironia ("Mama Told Me Not To Come"), altri brani successivi sono quasi "scherzi" in cui si rivisitano i luoghi comuni di tanta tradizione americana ("My Old Kentucky Home", "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear", "Louisiana", "Rednecks"), mentre i brani conclusivi, maggiormente elaborati, restituiscono atmosfere di struggimento ("Christmas in Capetown") e presunte lodi alla sua patria elettiva ("I Love L.A.") risultando maggiormente articolate grazie all'apporto di una strumentazione più ricca. Dall'antologia manca invece l'arcinota "You Can't Live Your Hat On", portata al successo da Joe Cocker negli anni '80 ed inclusa nella colonna sonora di un noto film di erotismo patinato, tradendone forse lo spirito originario.
Resta un mistero il fatto che il nome di Randy Newman sia sempre poco considerato rispetto a quelli di altri artisti coevi, quali un Tom Waits od un Leonard Cohen, la cui proposta musicale e tipologia di pubblico non si discosta poi troppo da quella del Nostro: senza dubbio Newman denota maggior cultura musicale e lucidità compositiva dei pur grandi autori appena menzionati, ma vuoi per lo spirito beffardo ed iconoclasta, vuoi per minor impatto mediatico, sembra un po' dimenticato, come prova il fatto che, sullo stesso Debaser, non si sprecano le recensioni sui suoi lavori.
Proprio partendo da quest'album molti potrebbero riscoprire un pezzo importante della musica americana contemporanea, e - sai mai - rendere giustizia ad un Autore che ha forse il "torto" di mostrare, col sorriso sulle labbra, la faccia peggiore degli States.
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02 Living Without You (02:23)
The milk truck hauls the sun up
And the paper hits the door
The subway shakes my floor
And I think about you
Time to face the dawning gray
Of another lonely day
Baby, it's so hard
Living without you
It's so hard
Baby, it's so hard
Baby, it's so hard
Living without you
Ev'ry one's got something
And they're out tryin' to get some more
They got something to get up for
Well I ain't about to
Nothin's gonna happen
Nothin's gonna change
Baby, it's so hard
Living without you
It's so hard
Baby, it's so hard
Baby, it's so hard
Living without you
07 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear (02:05)
I may go out tomorrow if I can borrow a coat to wear
Oh, I'd step out in style with my sincere smile and my dancing bear
Outrageous, alarming, courageous, charming
Oh, who would think a boy and bear
Could be well accepted everywhere
It's just amazing how fair people can be
Seen at the nicest places where well-fed faces all stop to stare
Making the grandest entrance is Simon Smith and his dancing bear
They'll love us, won't they?
They feed us, don't they?
Oh, who would think a boy and bear
Could be well accepted everywhere
It's just amazing how fair people can be
Who needs money when you're funny?
The big attraction everywhere
Will be Simon Smith and his dancing bear
It's Simon Smith and the amazing dancing bear
08 Political Science (02:00)
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
Lets drop the big one and see what happens
We give them money, but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us, so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them
Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot and Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us
We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin too
Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me
They all hate us anyhow
So lets drop the big one now
Let's drop the big one now
09 God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) (03:39)
Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why
For if the children of Israel were to multiply
Why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:
Man means nothing, he means less to me
Than the lowliest cactus flower
Or the humblest Yucca tree
He chases round this desert
'Cause he thinks that's where I'll be
That's why I love mankind
I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee
From the squalor, and the filth, and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That's why I love mankind
The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said, "Lord a plague is on the world
Lord no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won't take care of us
Won't you please please let us be?"
And the Lord said
And the Lord said
I burn down your cities - how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That's why I love mankind
You really need me
That's why I love mankind
10 Rednecks (03:10)
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart-ass New York jew
The jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well he may be a fool, but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song
We talk real funny down here
We drink to much, we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no northern town
We're keeping the niggers down
We got no-necked oil men from Texas
Good Ol' Boys from Tennessee
College men from LSU
Went in dumb, come out dumb too
Hustling around Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Getting drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And keeping the niggers down
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We're keeping the niggers down
Well your nothern nigger's a "negro"
You see, he's got his dignity
But down here we're too ignorant to realize
The north has set the nigger free
Yes, he's free to be put in Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage in the South Side of Chicago and the West Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in the Fillmore San Fransisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in the Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' them up for miles around
Keeping the niggers down
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We're keeping the niggers down
11 Birmingham (02:47)
Got a wife, got a family
Earn my livin' with my hand
I'm a roller in a steel mill
In downtown Birmingham
My daddy was a barber
And a most unsightly man
He was born in Tuscaloosa
But he died right here in Birmingham
Birmingham, Birmingham
The greatest city in Alabam'
You can travel 'cross this entire land
But there ain't no place like Birmingham
Wife's named Mary
But she's called Marie
We live in a three room house
With a pepper tree
I work all day in the factory
That's alright with me
Got a big black dog
Whose name is Dan
Lives in my backyard in Birmingham
He is the meanest dog in Alabam'
Get 'em Dan
Birmingham, Birmingham
The greatest city in Alabam'
You can travel 'cross this entire land
But there ain't no place like Birmingham
12 Marie (03:08)
You looked like a princess the night we met
With your hair piled up high I will never forget
I'm drunk right now baby but I've got to be
I never could tell you what you mean to me
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
The song that the trees sing when the wind blows
You're a flower, you're a river you're a rainbow
Sometimes I'm crazy but I guess you know
I'm weak and I'm lazy and I hurt you so
And I don't listen to a word you say
And when you're in trouble I turn away
But I loved you,
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
I loved you the first time I saw you
And I always will love you Marie
14 Baltimore (04:04)
Beat-up little seagull
On a marble stair
Tryin' to find the ocean
Lookin' everywhere
Hard times in the city
In a hard town by the sea
Ain't nowhere to run to
There ain't nothin' here for free
Hooker on the corner
Waitin' for a train
Drunk lyin' on the sidewalk
Sleepin' in the rain
And they hide their faces
And they hide their eyes
'Cause the city's dyin'
And they don't know why
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live, just to live
Get my sister Sandy
And my little brother Ray
Buy a big old wagon
Gonna haul us all away
Livin' in the country
Where the mountain's high
Never comin' back here
'Til the day I die
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live
Oh, Baltimore
Man, it's hard just to live, just to live
15 Jolly Coppers on Parade (03:47)
They're comin' down the street.
They're comin' right down the middle.
Look how they keep the beat!
Why, they're as blue as the ocean!
How the sun shines down!
How their feet hardly touch the ground!
Jolly coppers on parade.
Here come the black-and-whites.
Here come the motorcycles.
Listen to those engines roar!
Now they're doin' tricks for the children.
Oh, they look so nice!
Looks like angels have come down from Paradise!
Jolly coppers on parade.
Oh, mama!
That's the life for me!
When I'm grown
That's what I want to be.
They're comin' down the street.
They're comin' right down the middle.
Look how they keep the beat!
Comin' through the heart of the city.
Oh, it's all so nice!
Just like angels have come down from Paradise!
Jolly coppers on parade.
Jolly coppers on parade.
17 In Germany Before the War (03:39)
In Germany before the war
There was a man who owned a store
In nineteen hundred thirty-four
In Düsseldorf
And every night at five-o-nine
He'd cross the park down to the Rhine
And he'd sit there by the shore
I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea
A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray
Reflected in his glasses
As he watches her
A little girl has lost her way
With hair of gold and eyes of gray
I'm looking at the river
But I'm thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
Thinking of the sea
We lie beneath the autumn sky
My little golden girl and I
And she lies very still
18 Short People (02:55)
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason to live
They got little hands
Little eyes
They walk around tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes on their nasty little feet
Well I don't want no short people
Don't want no short people
Don't want no short people 'round here
(Short people are just the same as you and I)
A fool such as I
(All men are brothers until the day they die)
It's a wonderful world
Short people got nobody
Short people got nobody
Short people got nobody to love
They got little baby legs
They stand so low
You gotta pick 'em up
Just to say hello
They got little cars that go "beep, beep, beep"
They got little voices goin' "peep, peep, peep"
They got grubby little fingers
And dirty little minds
They're gonna get you every time
Well, I don't want no short people
Don't want no short people
Don't want no short people 'round here
22 Lonely at the Top (02:29)
I've been around the world
Had my pick of any girl
You'd think I'd be happy
But I'm not
Ev'rybody knows my name
But it's just a crazy game
Oh, it's lonely at the top
Listen to the band, they're playing just for me
Listen to the people paying just for me
All the applause-all the parades
And all the money I have made
Oh, it's lonely at the top
Listen all you fools out there
Go on and love me-I don't care
Oh, it's lonely at the top
Oh, it's lonely at the top
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