La carrera de Randy Newman se inició a finales de los sesenta y le sucedió algo similar a Tom Waits. Músicos con mucho nombre, respeto y admiración entre sus compañeros de profesión y cuyas canciones eran éxito en las voces de otros. Sail away entró a formar parte del repertorio de Ray Charles y Joe Cocker y este mismo hizo una despampanante versión de You can leave your hat on. De modo que el amigo Newman se hizo con una reputación de excelente compositor con mucho prestigio entre compañeros pero sin triunfar por su cuenta. Es posible que si su carrera empezase hoy en día no podría ni despegar. Afortunadamente comenzó mucho antes y podemos disfrutar de ella.
Una de las características fundamentales en la obra de Newman es su ácida prosa. Provocativo, sarcástico e irónico a más no poder sus textos no dejaban indiferente a nadie y tuvo más de un problema a causa de ellos. Además ensamblaba las letras con una atractiva música donde el piano juega un papel fundamental acompañado de precisos arreglos orquestales. Es curioso que muchos años después de su debut Randy Newman haya conocido el éxito comercial con canciones para las bandas sonoras de las películas de dibujos de Pixar y Disney. Pero no seré yo el que le ponga pegas al asunto. You´ve got a friend in me es uno de mis temas favoritos de los últimos tiempos. Una bonita canción sobre la amistad, tan buena como su material más ácido.
El disco contiene 21 canciones e incluso tres temas que me chirrían por su sonido ochentero como son Take me back, Miami y I love L.A, tienen su encanto, sobre todo esta ultima. El álbum se inicia con la cachonda Mama told me not to come. Le sigue You can leave your hat on que como jocosamente cuenta en el libreto el propio Newman debería haberla hecho con notas más altas, con más ímpetu como la hizo Cocker pero la original del propio Randy está muy bien. La canción es muy buena. Cantada por Cocker sirve para que Mickey Rourke se deleite con Kim Basinger e interpretada por Newman el que se quedaría a dos velas con la chica podría ser un Steve Buscemi de la vida.
Se me hace difícil elegir temas favoritos de este recopilatorio y eso es buena señal. Es un indicio de que lo mejor será ir conociendo la discografía de este sujeto hacedor de grandes temas y mucho más que sólo el tipo que compone para las películas de Disney. Temazos como Sail Away, Political Science, Louisiana 1927, Short People, Dixie Flyer o Rednecks merecen ser escuchados una y otra vez. A mi desde luego la música de este tipo me ha ganado.
Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart-ass New York Jew
And 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 too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And college men from LSU
Went in dumb - come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage
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 Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' 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
And we're keeping the niggers down
We are keeping the niggers down
With some smart-ass New York Jew
And 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 too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
And we're keepin' the niggers down
We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And college men from LSU
Went in dumb - come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
And they're keepin' the niggers down
We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
And we're keeping the niggers down
Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage
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 Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' 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
And we're keeping the niggers down
We are keeping the niggers down
