Today’s Randy Newman song is far less bleak than this week’s first two entries. It’s quite fun, actually.
Last week’s selection from Randy Newman’s 1983 album Trouble in Paradise was ‘Real Emotional Girl,’ a sensitive portrait of a fragile woman. The Randy Newman of ‘My Life Is Good’ would brush aside that emotional girl in pursuit of the next hedonistic notch on his belt.
Ostensibly playing himself in this track, Newman takes us on a tour of the pleasures of being rich and famous. Travel, drugs, women, celebrity… the good life.
It’s hard to tell which parts of this song are pure fiction and which are partially true. I suppose that’s what makes it great satire. But by the end, when Bruce Springsteen is letting him “be the Boss for awhile,” I think it’s pretty clear where we’ve landed.
My wife and I
Took a little trip down to
Mexico
Met this young girl there
We brought her back with us
Now she lives with us
In Our Home
She cleans the hallway
She cleans the stair
She cleans the livingroom
She wipes the baby’s ass
She drives the kids to school
She does the laundry too
She wrote this song for me
Listen
Yeah
The other afternoon
My wife and I
Took a little ride into
Beverly Hills
Went to the private school
Our oldest child attends
Many famous people send their children there
This teacher says to us
“We have a problem here
This child just will not do
A thing I tell him to
And he’s such a big old thing
He hurts the other children
All the games they play, he plays so rough
Hold it teacher
Wait a minute
Maybe my hears are clogged or somethin’
Maybe I’m not understanding
The English language
Dear, you don’t seem to realize
My Life Is Good
My Life Is Good
My Life Is Good, you old bag
My Life, My Life
Just this evening
Some young associates of ours
Are flying to see us from
New York City
They’re gonna stay with us
Oh, a couple of weeks or so
I’m gonna take ’em to
Restaurants and everything
Gonna get’em some
Real good cocaine
They don’t get much
Where they come from
And this one’s guy wife
Is such a pretty little brown thing
That I’m liable to give her a poke or two
Whaddaya think of that?
Teacher, let me tell you a little story
Just this morning
My wife and I
Went to this hotel in the hills
That’s right
The Bel-Air Hotel
Where a very good friend of ours
Happens to be staying
And the name of this young man
Is Mr Bruce Springsteen
That’s right, yeah
Oh, we talked about some kind of
woodblock or something
And this new guitar we like
And you know what he said to me
I’ll tell you what he said to me
He said, “Rand, I’m tired
How would you like to be the Boss for awhile?”
Well, yeah
Blow, Big Man, blow
My Life Is Good
My Life Is Good
My Life Is Good
My Life, My Life Is Good
Meet Me In Montauk 
well, I think this is a fair dose of satire but, as with all great satire, there is a foundation of truth infused with major exaggeration. In a way, this might be a good companion piece to Dire Strait’s “Money for Nothing.”
Anyway, I love this song!
This song has always held a special place in my heart. As a teacher who has spent the majority of my teaching career working in private schools, I can’t help but chuckle when “Randy Newman” must remind both himself and “the old bag” who has the audacity to tell him that his child misbehaves and neglects to follow directions that his “life is good.”
The satire comes from the obvious gulf between a life that is “good” because of shallow, unimportant things and the good that comes from having a strong family of sound character. The fact that this teacher is attempting to school the very famous “boss” about the character of his own child doesn’t fit into his scenario. She is to teach him, much as the new housekeeper is to “clean the hallway” and “wipe the baby’s ass,” without complaining or suggesting that there is anything in “Rand”‘s life that could possibly need improving.
The ironic title – and Newman’s spectacular delivery – tell us everything we need to know.
Hearing him perform this song in concert was one of the highlights of my concert-going experiences.