“In my family, a B-flat was a fuckin’ B-flat.”
February 26, 2016 11:11 AM   Subscribe

How Randy Newman and His Family Have Shaped Movie Music for Generations by David Kamp [Vanity Fair] Sure, you know of the Oscar-winning composer behind Toy Story and his endearingly offbeat songwriting, but Newman, 72, is also the patriarch of a clan that has helped shape movie music since the talkies.
The musical Newmans are as storied an Old Hollywood family as the Goldwyns, Warners, or Zanucks, if less recognized as such. As is often the case where Old Hollywood is concerned, the roots lie in the shtetl. Much as Schmuel Gelbfisz, a penniless 19th-century child of Warsaw, evolved into the Thalberg Award-winning Samuel Goldwyn, and as Harry and Jack Warner, a Polish cobbler’s boys, willed themselves into the men who delivered to the masses everything from Casablanca to Bugs Bunny, so did Alfred Alan Newman—born in 1901, the eldest of the seven sons and three daughters of the fruit peddler Michael Newman (né Nemorofsky) and Luba Newman (née Koskoff), immigrants from pogrom-ravaged Yelisavetgrad (now Kirovograd, Ukraine)—scrap his way to the pinnacle of his field: music for films.
posted by Fizz (46 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh I can't wait to read this. I love movie soundtracks/scores and Thomas Newman is my favorite. I cannot believe he hasn't won an Oscar yet. His music is so incredible. Thanks for the post!
posted by pjsky at 11:26 AM on February 26, 2016


Randy Newman was the speaker at my college graduation and gave me a harmonica (and everyone else graduating that day. I'm not special.) that I treasure and play to this day. I didn't know much about him at the time beyond Toy Story and a few singles, but since then I've become a big fan. Probably for the best since I would have been a lot more nervous had I known.
posted by downtohisturtles at 11:37 AM on February 26, 2016 [5 favorites]


I listened to a piece on NPR yesterday talking about the same thing. It's kind of amazing how much musical talent runs through that entire family.
posted by KingBoogly at 11:51 AM on February 26, 2016


The NPR piece. I caught part of it, but missed the fact that Randy was one of these Newmans.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 11:53 AM on February 26, 2016


Randy was one of these Newmans.

Best business card ever.
posted by Fizz at 11:55 AM on February 26, 2016


Short People is my personal favorite of his songs since I am "efficient" in stature. How many others have a Newman song that's expecially for them?

I had no thought about it being the same person creating the Toy Story song until I saw part of a TV special on the film! Such fun talent....
posted by mightshould at 12:11 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Worth noting here that Randy Newman is not just a fine composer of movie soundtracks and quirky little Pixar ditties but also a genuinely great musical satirist. (I see the story gets into that but I think people underestimate him these days thanks partly to the Pixar ditties, and I just wanted to make the assertion here, too!)

I got the chance to meet him not too long ago, and he seems like a really nice guy, as downtohisturtles suggests.
posted by Mothlight at 12:11 PM on February 26, 2016 [5 favorites]


He is also the inimitable Singing Bush.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:15 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


I had a copy of his Faust rock opera. I played it a few times, but I think I sold it before I ever gave it a close, proper listen.
I'll have to dig through the CD crate in the garage and see if I still have it.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 12:18 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Because why not: a MadTV sketch about Newman and Rob Zombie collaborating on the Star Wars soundtrack (which they did not, in fact, do).
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:28 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


So was I the only one sniggering at the NPR piece where the starting Newman was Alfred ?
posted by k5.user at 12:29 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Randy Newman's satirical album Good Ol' Boys is one of my favorite theme albums of all time.
posted by AugustWest at 12:31 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


Faust has a couple of solid songs on it, but the real magic is the casting:

Satan: Randy Newman
God: James Taylor
Faust: Don Henley
Angel: Elton John
Margaret: Linda Ronstadt
Martha: Bonnie Raitt
posted by overeducated_alligator at 12:34 PM on February 26, 2016 [5 favorites]


You do have to wonder how much growing up in close proximity to "the Movie Biz" helped to develop Randy's exquisite lyrical cynicism.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:50 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Randy Newman's satirical album

This should be on a giant sticker affixed to most of his albums. The amount of point-missing wrt Randy Newman makes me sad.

I'd rank him the best living American songwriter, just ahead of John Prine.
posted by Sys Rq at 12:50 PM on February 26, 2016 [9 favorites]


"Feels Like Home" was my wedding song, and for that Randy Newman will always be special to me.
posted by waitingtoderail at 12:51 PM on February 26, 2016


Whereas my favourite Newman song is In Germany Before the War, extraordinarily horrifying and sad, an effect it achieves by telling you little and then leaving things out.
posted by Grangousier at 1:09 PM on February 26, 2016 [4 favorites]


The Lord can't make you burn.
posted by maxsparber at 1:11 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


I'd rank him the best living American songwriter, just ahead of John Prine.
posted by Sys Rq

Apples and oranges.

REALLY REALLY GOOD apples and oranges.
posted by tspae at 1:28 PM on February 26, 2016 [6 favorites]


The songs he wrote for The Three Amigos soundtrack are second best only to the songs Paul Williams wrote for Ishtar.
posted by OrangeGloves at 2:05 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Randy Newman's satirical album

This should be on a giant sticker affixed to most of his albums. The amount of point-missing wrt Randy Newman makes me sad.


When I drafted my comment, I had originally added a link to his song Rednecks but I thought including it risked too many people not getting the satirical cynicism so I dropped it. He really cuts at the overt racists in the south and the not so overt racism in the north. Here it is. Here is a link to the lyrics.
posted by AugustWest at 3:47 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


It's kind of appalling how little-known Randy Newman's songwriting is. Masterpieces like this deepen every time you hear them.
posted by Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez at 4:52 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


I bought Sail Away the year it came out because of a review in a purloined copy of Playboy. Been a fan ever since. That is all.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:42 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


Good Ol' Boys is a fantastic album (as they all are) because he genuinely cares about his subjects. You don't write a song like Birmingham from a place of hate, and I remember hearing him say in an interview that he always imagined the character who sings that song being the same guy in Rednecks. His satire bites, but it never punches down.
posted by teponaztli at 5:55 PM on February 26, 2016 [2 favorites]


I bought Sail Away the year it came out because of a review in a purloined copy of Playboy. Been a fan ever since. That is all.

Actually read the articles. Most impressive.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:57 PM on February 26, 2016


Especially for a 17-year-old male, eh?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:59 PM on February 26, 2016


Randy Newman has a hell of a way with words. Always been a big fan of his songwriting.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:06 PM on February 26, 2016


I'd rank him the best living American songwriter

Still gotta go with Paul Simon, after all these years.
posted by Twang at 6:23 PM on February 26, 2016


Crazy.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:25 PM on February 26, 2016


Y'all know Dylan's still alive?
posted by waitingtoderail at 6:38 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


My Favorite of Newman's recordings is still the first one I ever heard: 1970's Live. Recorded in a club with just him and a piano, playing some of the tunes that later on would become his most famous.

"Maybe I'm DO-IN it wrong?", "Why don't you TICKLE me?", "Send me a WOMAN tonight" -- all phrases that have been stuck in my head (in Randy Newman's voice) for what, 35 years now? Good stuff.
posted by TwoToneRow at 8:04 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


If you ever get a chance to do so, see him play live. He's a wonderful performer.
posted by louche mustachio at 9:40 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


Dylan's songs haven't aged well for me. The older I get the more they just seem crabby and mean.
posted by small_ruminant at 10:52 PM on February 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


I remember watching Don't Look Back when I was a teenager and thinking Dylan was a huge jerk. I mean, he's still amazing, but Randy Newman is way more warm and down to Earth.
posted by teponaztli at 12:21 AM on February 27, 2016


One of my favorite Randy Newman songs, which is satirical (or at least sarcastic), but also incredibly moving, especially following Katrina: Louisiana 1927.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:25 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


I went to college with one of Randy Newman's sons, who was a year ahead of me. At the time, people would say "That's Randy Newman's son" but it didn't mean much to me, so I bought a couple of the albums freshman year and LOVED them (still do). My sophomore year, I moved into the dorm room his son had occupied the previous year. Occasionally, my dorm room phone --after all, this was circa 1998, so cell phones were mostly "for emergencies" --would ring at odd hours and on the other end of the line Randy Newman's inimitable voice would say, "Is John there?" because he had called the old number out of habit. And I never said anything to him, of course, thanking him for his music, and I wish maybe that I had. None of that would happen today... Cell phones have changed so many things.
posted by katie at 3:28 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


My dad has loved Randy Newman for longer than I've been alive, so I grew up hearing Sail Away, Good Old Boys, and Little Criminals all the time. When I was five, I used to dance around the living room to "Short People," because it's a catchy tune and because I thought it was funny that a singer had written a whole song just about short people. And I could sing along with all of the words to "Political Science" long before I understood what "The Big One" was.
posted by colfax at 3:29 AM on February 27, 2016


Dylan's songs haven't aged well for me. The older I get the more they just seem crabby and mean.

I have to admit, he had a nasty streak. But Newman's verse from "Rednecks":

"They got college men from LSU/Went in dumb, came out dumb too/Walking around Atlanta in their alligator shoes/Getting drunk every weekend at the barbecue"

Isn't too slack in that department, either
posted by thelonius at 4:37 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yeah, but that line (and the whole song) is pointedly making fun of stereotypes, rather than being mean for the sake of it.
posted by teponaztli at 4:55 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


If you haven't heard Nilsson Sings Newman, you must. There's nothing I can say to prepare you. It is lowkey genius.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:29 AM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


Another recommendation: If you have not heard the Road to Perdition soundtrack composed by Thomas Newman, please do yourself a favor and check it out.
posted by Jeff Morris at 9:57 AM on February 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


thelonius, "Rednecks" is about the Northern conception that bigotry and racism are purely a Southern thing, and starts by laying out all the Northern stereotypes of Southerners. Then it goes on to tell the North where to shove it by pointing out what racism is and that the North is guilty of it too. If you're stuck on the meanness of the Southern stereotypes, you have thoroughly missed the point. It's certainly a novel objection to the lyrical content of that song, though.

(It is not a friendly song, I'll grant you that. I'm not sure where the idea came into the conversation that Randy Newman's songs were nice, but it is a misguided one. His recent Disneyfied work might be, but the stuff before that is pretty much as bitter and cynical as it's possible to be without bursting into flames. Why, I don't even think he actually does love L.A.!)
posted by Sys Rq at 10:40 AM on February 27, 2016 [4 favorites]




I am familiar with the obvious and well-known reading of this famous song. My thesis is: it takes a mean son of a bitch to write those lines, whatever the context of their appearance..
posted by thelonius at 2:27 PM on February 27, 2016


Randy Newman is obviously a genius satirical lyricist, but, wow, I find those quirky little pixar ditties to be horribly sappy and mawkish.

I've recently watched the 1936 Gary Cooper version of 'Beau Geste', and Alfred Newman's soundtrack is pretty cool.
posted by ovvl at 4:13 PM on February 27, 2016


wow, I find those quirky little pixar ditties to be horribly sappy and mawkish

I saw an interview with him once where he said he doesn't think the Pixar songs sound at all like him. "You've got a friend in me? I sound like a used car salesman!"
posted by teponaztli at 4:16 PM on February 27, 2016 [2 favorites]


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