268. Randy Newman, "Sail Away"

 



Randy Newman is probably best-known today for his Toy Story songs, those lovable, heart-warming gravelly-voiced songs that play as Woody is trying to rescue the space guy or whatever.  But back in the day, he wrote the same kind of sounding songs, but way darker.  He's famous, of course, for "Short People," a long joke about prejudice that many people interpreted as literally a direct slur on short people.  People are dumb.

This album has some of the same kind of weirdo shit that walks right by you because it's sung in that New Orleans show tune style that's particular to Newman.  "Political Science," for example, advocates the use of nuclear bombs to destroy the rest of the world, except for Australia:

Asia's crowded
And Europe's too old
Africa's 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 want to hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an all American amusement park there
They've got surfing, too

Obviously it's a joke about how America is the big dumb bully in the world, and it works on that level, but it's still a little disturbing!  How about "God's Song," in which God says:

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 fro 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

Dark enough now?  

What to make of this album?  It's definitely sui generis on this list; there's very few other albums that sound like the original cast recording of a completely fucked-up musical set in New Orleans about the annihilation of mankind.  Newman is commonly thought of as a songwriter's songwriter, which means it's cool to like him even if you don't listen to him.  I didn't not enjoy listening to this, but it's really, really not something I'm going to come back to.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? No.

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