Humor in pop music – that’s a difficult topic. The audience prefers to leave the fun to some comedians (“Sausage Specialist” by Helge Schneider), songwriters (“Poison Pigeons” by Georg Kreisler) or shooting men (something with “Friseusen” by Mickie Krause). But what about the clever, subtle humor in this area?
A master of this field for decades has been US singer-songwriter Randy Newman, who will be 80 years old on November 28th, for which we would like to congratulate him very much here. He never shied away from any topic: he once had “The Great Nations of Europe” marching to cheerful marching music and then rammed their bloody colonial history into the ground in four verses. Then he attacked the racism of the so-called “rednecks” from the US southern states, praised Vladimir Putin’s appearance (“When he takes off his shirt, I want to be a lady”) or let his lyrical self claim during Obama’s term in office: “I dream of a white president. One like the ones we’ve always had.” Of course, this is all meant ironically, but it is hardly understood, especially today. If anything, Newman’s name is known to the mass audience through simple songs like “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from “Toy Story” or through other pleasant, sometimes Oscar-winning soundtracks, especially in the animated film sector (“Monster AG”, “Küss den Frog”, “James and the Giant Peach”). And yes, that was something he was born with, whose father played the clarinet for Benny Goodman and who had three uncles who were film composers: Newman’s uncle Alfred even composed the “20th Century Fox Fanfare”!
Even though this man always knew how to make a lot of money in this business, he continued to be humorously evil. As early as the end of the 1960s, he sang “It’s Lonely at the Top” in small, unsold-out halls. Today he announces in the song “I’m Dead (But I Don’t Know It)”: “I don’t have anything left to say, but I’ll say it anyway.” He has long since arrived in larger concert halls, although one or two appointments recently had to be canceled due to some operations.
But also at the risk of being constantly misunderstood by the audience, just like Bob Marley with “No Woman, No Cry” or The Police with “Every Breath You Take” (these songs aren’t as funny as they sound): Randy Newman was never deterred. Not even when his song “Short People” was met with protests, lawsuits, bans and death threats in 1977. He always meant well, especially with little people, and wanted to expose other people’s prejudices. And he loved to let his lyrical self constantly take on new perspectives.
That’s why people will definitely be playing one of his songs again on Randy Newman’s 80th birthday: “Sail Away”, for example, which sounds like a trip to the calm, sunny sea, but deals with the slave trade. Or something suitable for the masses like “I Miss You”? Everything about him is good.