Wednesday, January 16, 2008

File this under "Kids today"

Wherein maybe you could get your mom to show you how to type "Randy Newman" into Google. Don't worry, she can explain it while you're eating your animal crackers and milk


Via Brian Tiemann quoting Jason Chen at Gizmodo:
Holy crap. Who knew Randy Newman, the guy who makes the songs your kids play over and over and over again, would sing such crazy crap about our government?

Who knew? I dunno, maybe anyone who realizes Newman has a long, extremely well-documented career outside of Disney? Just a little hint, Jason -- Short People wasn't written about the Seven Dwarfs. If you enjoy Randy Newman singing crazy crap, perhaps you'd enjoy Political Science:
Well, boom goes London,
And boom Paris.
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'll be;
We'll set everybody free;
You'll wear a Japanese kimono, baby,
There'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow,
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now.

Or maybe Rednecks
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

Or maybe The Great Nations of Europe
Columbus sailed for India
Found Salvador instead
He shook hands with some Indians and soon they all were dead
They got TB and typhoid and athlete’s foot
Diphtheria and the flu
Excuse me - great nations coming through!

Or maybe How Great Our Lord where God sings:
Sorry ladies to make you wait
There's a couple of Buddhists at the pearly gate
Asked my permission to come on board What'd you do Lord?
I had to have them put out with the trash.

Or maybe A Few Words in Defense of Our Country:
I’d like to say a few words in defense of my country
Whose people aren’t bad nor are they mean
Now, the leaders we have, while they’re the worst that we’ve had,
Are hardly the worst this poor world has ever seen.

Randy Newman has an excellent way of writing in the voice of a character. Even when that character isn't a computer animated toy. To Jason Chen and other infants like him, there's a whole world of crazy crap that happened before 1995. Look it up. And get off my lawn.

1 Comments:

Blogger Ahistoricality said...

I heard him do "Great Nations of Europe" on A Prairie Home Companion a few years back. I keep meaning to play it for my World History students... no, better: I'll use it as the basis for an essay question.

1/16/2008 03:42:00 PM  

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