Talk:Randy Newman/Archive 1

Mark up
What is the purpose of this markup:

I see no effect from this markup. What does it do?

WpZurp 22:14, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

I know Randy Newman sings "It's a Jungle Out There," which is the theme song for the show Monk. Would that be on one of the soundtracks? &mdash;Gm1121983 12:57 3 April 2006

can anyone cite how we know it's illegal to play the song "short people" in maryland? that sounds... pretty impossible. the stuff of urban legends. i'll give it a week then it's coming down.

It's possible that nobody could find enough information on "It's a Jungle Out There".-Wikifan42

The "Short People" triva is an urban legend, which was recently debunked here: http://wackyneighbor.blogspot.com/2006/03/wacky-neighbor-asks-short-people_15.html

I've changed the entry to reflect the truth of the oft-cited law, and also deleted a reference to Newman being autistic. Seemed a very odd claim, until I read the revision history, and saw that the claim was based on behavior Newman exhibited in an episode of "Family Guy." Apparently now we're diagnosing people based on the behaviour of cartoon parodies. Great. -Wilkie2000

Does anyone know when or if Randy Newman's father died? The redolence of "Old Man" on "Sail Away" makes it seem like it was related to a real loss, but I have never read whether this was true or not. Did Newman's father die before the release of this album, has e he ever commented on this in an interview. Whether this would be relevent to the wikipedia entry is debatable, but if anyone knows could they post here?

Is it just me, or is this entire article just a big old blowjob for Randy Newman?

Monk Theme song
The monk theme song needs to be added to this page. On Randy Newman's website he won an Emmy for his work on this song. I don't know enough about the song but, I would like to know if it was made for the show or if already existed. Yes, it was him. It's called "It's a jungle out there". G2g put it on my iPod. I'm monk obsessive.

He is credited as the writer and composer of the monk theme song "it's a jungle out there". If you watch any episode he appears right in the opening credits. The song was written specifically for the show Monk. It basically describes the world through the eyes of Monk as he see's it; a dangerous and chaotic place that most people are oblivious to except Monk.

-Scarlocke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.48.250.215 (talk) 21:12, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Political Science (song)
There needs to be an article on this... AnonMoos 21:18, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"paean" vs. "tribute" and the "showing off" critique
In the revision of 20:13, January 24, 2007, anonymous user 66.227.156.159  wrote: "The word paean isn't as understandable as tribute. Must people show off in writing these entries?" The edit involved changing the word in question in the sentence: "This ambiguity was also apparent on "Kingfish" and "Every Man a King", the former a paean to Huey Long (the assassinated former Governor of, and United States Senator for, the State of Louisiana), the other a campaign song written by Long himself."

I have reverted the change, because I believe "paean" is much more apt. It is not the same as "tribute." "Paean" specifically refers to a song. It is also is more fervent, more high-flown, often attached to praise of the gods. As a result, I think it does a better job of conveying what Newman is doing--it carries a hint that it might not be straightforward. As to the claim that the word paean "isn't as understandable as tribute": according to whom? You may not be familiar with it, but it isn't a particulalry esoteric word, especially when writing about music.

As to the "show off" charge--it verges on personal attack, and adds nothing good to the editing process. Please omit the snarky asides. BTfromLA 09:03, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Dixie Flyer
According to : "When you write a song for yourself, people sort of tend to expect the 'I' in the song to be yourself. That's not the case in my songs." So if you want to say that Newman's background is described by "Dixie Flyer," you're going to have to come up with some evidence. Yes, it is based on his experiences, but that doesn't mean everything that happens in the song happened to Newman. Calbaer 01:06, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay &mdash; the box set (Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman) says it's "True, but I know we didn't live in the Garden District." So if you want to readd and cite the box, go ahead, though it's probably better just to stick with the prose bio.  (Besides, the next line says that "New Orleans didn't know the war [WWII] was over until 1950," so I'd still take it all with some salt.) Calbaer 05:25, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not going to make any further changes, because I reworked somebody else's reverted entry on a whim and don't really care, but this is kind of a fun discussion. Here's another tidbit: "'Dixie Flyer', he confessed, was a biography 'with a few lies, but not too many'." --Captadam 14:35, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * The box says one lie, your quote says a few lies; how do we know the truth? Oh well; it is apropos, but I'd say unreliable.... Calbaer 17:15, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * I remember hearing the song in concert once (or maybe it was his Bravo TV appearance), when he decided to shout out the lies as he sang; I recall the first time he sang the words "Dixie Flier," he pointed out that particular train doesn't exist. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Wilkie2000 (talk • contribs) 20:13, 10 February 2007 (UTC).

No pic?
Surely somewhere there must be a photo of Randy Newman. Sca 12:27, 11 August 2007 (UTC)


 * he has not one face
 * sorry that's funny

Markthemac 01:16, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Family Guy?
he has been in family guy numerous times put it under trivia —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.91.210 (talk) 03:45, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Yeah I think the Family Guy bit should be put under Trivia or better yet Notable performances and appearances. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.192.35.0 (talk) 01:29, 28 June 2008 (UTC)

He wasn't on Family Guy he was parodied on Family Guy. There should be a section on parodies of him I know for a fact that Will Sasso has parodied him numerous times on Mad TV and that he has been parodied on Family Guy as well. These should be researched and included. I wouldn't be surprised if there were others parodies of him as well...considering he is unintentionally funny.

-Scarlocke —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.48.250.215 (talk) 21:11, 11 July 2008 (UTC)

Is there any reference to the song that he supposedly wrote after seeing his parody on "Da Boom"? Should the name of the song be listed? I feel like I should be able to learn more about this piece of trivia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.240.69.156 (talk) 08:00, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

"Unreliable narrator" reference
I suggest we delete ", often utilizing the literary device of an unreliable narrator". Neither of the song examples given (Sail Away and Political Science) use this device and I'm not aware of any of Newman's songs that do. Pibroch1 (talk) 22:21, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Disagree. I'm not familiar with Sail Away, but Political Science is very much unreliable narrator stuff, unless you believe that Randy Newman really does think the USA should "drop the big one" on the rest of the world. --RenniePet (talk) 23:35, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Sail Away is a song in which the narrator is a slave trader convincing potential slaves that life in America is a paradise. Political Science is a song in which the narrator is good-naturedly advocating obliterating the rest of the world to teach them a lesson.  I suppose there could be a slave trader who thinks slaves are in paradise or a mentally stable person who flippantly advocates mass murder, but it's far more likely that these are songs with unreliable narration. Calbaer (talk) 20:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * But in neither case there's an unreliable narrator. And unreliable narrator tells a story (mostly with him being part of the action) but cannot be trusted to give an accurate picture. However, this must be somehow be detectable from the story itself, e.g. by internal contradictions, obvious implausibilities or a second narrator setting things straight. An ureliable narrator is not one speaking in a way that contradicts our perceptions and expectations. It is not about guys that wouldn't exist in the real world. Str1977 (talk) 17:29, 13 December 2009 (UTC)

Interpretation of You Can Leave Your Hat On
I suggest we delete '"You Can Leave Your Hat On," written from the point of view of an ineffectual sexual fetishist' as I don't think most reasonable people would interpret the point of view in this way. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pibroch1 (talk • contribs) 22:55, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * You have a better suggestion as to what You Can Leave Your Hat On is all about? (I think it has something to do with sex, but I still haven't figured it out. :-) --RenniePet (talk) 23:37, 4 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, it's clearly about a guy who likes to see his lady friend strip in front of him. Newman said in an interview that he wrote it as sort of a joke but, as he gets older, it sounds less and less like a joke (implying that he's turned from ironic young observer to a dirty old man).  I don't have a source handy, but that might give some idea of what it's about. Calbaer (talk) 20:03, 6 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, I agree that "written from the point of view of an ineffectual sexual fetishist" doesn't ring any bells with me. So I've tried replacing that with this:


 * "You Can Leave Your Hat On" enigmatically touches on what it is men find important in relationships, ...

Incidentally, I think the entire section "Songwriter" is very, very well written, displays great insight, and expresses the writer's opinions really well. Unfortunately, it's not really Wikipedia-compatible, and sooner or later I'm guessing someone will come along and tag it as "original research" and then gut it. Oh, well, we can enjoy it until then. --RenniePet (talk) 15:30, 8 January 2008 (UTC)


 * Agreed. Likewise, it's hardly the position of wikipedia to interpret the meaning of Newman's songs.  If the composor wanted the interpretations known, surely he would have attached a detailed description to each song.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.212.99.11 (talk) 18:14, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Reagonomics
"Born Again was a prescient commentary on the money-worship of the coming era of Reaganomics"... This is not in line with NPOV ideals. The statement takes the position that the era of Reagonomics was one of "money-worshipping", and says that the song was a "prescient" commentary -- implying that the song was correct. I am removing the word "prescient." Ztrawhcs (talk) 19:51, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

"... commentary on the money-worship of the coming era of Reaganomics" Leaving aside the absurd conclusion that Reaganomics was built around 'money-worship', the idea that one can comment on any 'coming era' is preposterous. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.99.0.194 (talk) 19:40, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Writing as a fanboy who's 'fan-crufted' this site (I gotta watch that, thanks), maybe the idea some contributors are attempting to express is Newman's wry understanding that life sometimes seems to imitate his art, much to his delight or disgust or horror.-Walter Dufresne (talk) 14:41, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

Hollywood musical "royalty" - related to Del Newman?
Are Randy, Alfred and Lionel related to Del Newman? He's on so many albums as an arranger that I can't help but think... please answer on my talk page. Thanks! Fantailfan (talk) 12:34, 23 March 2008 (UTC)

Notable recordings of Randy Newman compositions - fancruft tag added
Do we really need all this section? Looks to me like its turning into an excuse for everyone to list their favourite artist (that once sung a Newman song on some album nobody ever listened to). What do we mean by 'notable'? Perhaps we should talk about early ones that made increase Newman's name (Dusty Springfield, Alan Price Set, Nilsson, etc.), and maybe not in list form... As it stands right now I'm sort of in favour of deleting it all. Any thoughts? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Miscreant (talk • contribs) 23:22, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I concur with deleting this entire section, and have done so. Sooner or later everybody will have covered a Newman song, and listing every cover version does not say anything beyond that he's a popular and prolific songwriter. Kevin Forsyth (talk) 08:10, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

lame editorializing
"1979's Born Again was a commentary on the money-worship of the coming era of Reaganomics." So either Newman was clairvoyant, or this is pure editorializing. The former would be amazing news. The latter, not so much.Inkadesign (talk) 01:35, 25 February 2009 (UTC)Tarryall

Yeah, how was that possible if it hadn't happened yet? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.48.133.2 (talk) 15:09, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Assessment comment
Substituted at 15:38, 1 May 2016 (UTC)