Honestly, Randy Newman is a rock star

Source: Houston ChronicleOct.自存倉 12--Performing songs is a social ritual, but writing them is usually a solitary pursuit. To hear him tell it, Randy Newman spent so much time in his creative cave, he ended up with more songs than friends. Even 40 years ago, when he hung out with contemporaries like Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb and members of the Eagles, Newman didn't really seek camaraderie."Most people I knew weren't married at the same time I was, which was 22 or 23," he says. "So I ran around and did bad things, and there were drugs and all that. But for me it was more centered on the ..." He pauses and laughs. "On the not bad things. I was never a part of any group. It's partly shyness. A streak of anti-sociality. You go to your high school reunion and see people you thought had it together who you wouldn't have approached, and it turns out they were just as nervous as you were. I guess it's an extension of that."Webb speaks admiringly of Newman's music, but he also confirms that admiration and friendship don't necessarily overlap."I'm his No. 1 fan," Webb says. "I love his writing, and I think he's a significant writer. He's probably more significant than I am, and I can accept that. But it's unusual for songwriters to be bosom buddies. There's a lone-eagle mentality working there."Newman isn't rock-star famous: His hit parade has only one float, and even that one -- "Short People," a No. 2 single in 1977 -- arguably caused more headaches than it was worth. For years he's made good money writing music for animated movies seen by the children and grandchildren of his earliest fans.But to those who admire the craft of sophisticated songwriting, Newman's body of work -- unfettered by outside forces -- is brilliant for its strong narrative perspectives, its efficiency of language, its hard humor and its honesty, even when every word spoken by one of his characters is a lie. Newman's songs have a strange resilience, even those very much rooted in a time and place. His "Louisiana 1927," resonates any time a government ineptly responds to natural disaster. "Baltimore," a chilling song, hit on urban decay decades before "The Wire" ever appeared on TV. A song like "Rednecks" deals not with blatant racism but rather the institutional variety found in urban areas."I tell you, I never thought peace and love would break out all over the world," Newman says, "but I envied people who did. I never laughed at any of it. I guess I thought they were a little silly. But that's one of those things I just wished I believed in it. And I know they're right in terms of, well, of course that's the way: Love would heal everything. It's just not. They don't let it in. It's really odd. But one of the most honest things ever written about is the corruption that power brings."Fairness, or the lack of it, is a recurring theme in Newman's work. "It's just amazing how fair people can be," he sang in "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear," a 1972 song about a guy out of place in higher society. The line is meant to be delivered not with marvel but, rather, deadpan sarcasm."I think that song was a turning point for me," he says. "It's hard to remember all the circu迷你倉stances, but I think that was the first song I wrote that was completely of the style that I've crystallized over the years. I was writing a song for Frank Sinatra Jr., I don't even know if he knew I was doing it. It was for a publishing company. And I couldn't take it. It was 'Susie, I love you, you love me, you don't love me.' The basic form of 95 percent of the repertory. And I just thought of 'bear' and 'care' and went in that direction."After "Simon Smith" Newman threw a giant party and invited all sorts of horrible hucksters and con men. The resulting songs often put light on uncomfortable truths. Some of them are broad, serious and social: No white songwriter has written more honestly about race in post-civil rights America than Newman. Some are concise, humorous and familial: He's not afraid to sing a seemingly detached song about children -- possibly his children -- with a punch line like "much as I love them, I'm always kind of glad when they go away."Or "Potholes," in which his father twice embarrasses him by telling Newman's wife-to-be about the time Newman pitched a Little League game. He "walked about 14 kids in a row, cried, walked off the mound, handed the ball to the third baseman and just left the field.""I can't think of another song where there were less lies in it," Newman says. "That absolutely happened. I'd bring a girl home, and that's the first thing my father would do is tell that story. Isn't that an odd thing for a father to do?"That coming from the man who looked at his own infant and thought up the lines:"What have you done to the mirror?"What have you done to the floor?"Can't I go nowhere without you?"Can't I leave you alone any more?"On "Miss You," he informs an ex-wife, "I'd sell my soul and your soul for a song.""I like thinking I'm that ruthless," he says.On paper, it's a peculiar song. As delivered, it's devastating."He's created a very, very interesting niche for himself," Webb says. "As both a political commentator and satirist who's also written some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful songs ever heard."Nobody wants to see any part of themselves in the lyrics of a Randy Newman song, which might explain why so many of them are misunderstood. That said, he may be cunning, but he's not cryptic. His lyrics are only a little less plainspoken than his conversational singing voice.They're rooted in mongrel American tradition, befitting an atheist who grew up with two Jewish parents; who grew up in Los Angeles but spent long spells of his youth in New Orleans; who studied Tin Pan Alley but identified with rock 'n' roll types; who lives in a sunny city but writes songs with a lot of rain."I guess it's from being in a dry place all my life," he says. "Except for New Orleans, which was imprinted on me as a baby. This fantastic river. I tell you every time I pass a river, I jump up like some kind of rube. I'll swim in a river whenever I can. I got pneumonia last month from doing that. Probably all the goose (excrement). I just love them. And it's a good word for rhymes."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Houston Chronicle Visit the Houston Chronicle at .chron.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesmini storage