Tag Archives: Harps and Angels

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Song of the Day #1,057: ‘Potholes’ – Randy Newman

I’m finishing up my second week of Randy Newman songs with another selection from his most recent album, 2008’s Harps and Angels. Last week I featured ‘Losing You,’ a very touching song about being unable to forget.

‘Potholes’ is that song’s opposite — a very funny song about being unable to remember.

Newman hasn’t written much about himself over the decades his career has spanned. He is more comfortable putting himself in the shoes of an often unlikable narrator. Even the songs that seem to be about him are really twisted versions of his reality.

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Song of the Day #161: ‘Feels Like Home’ – Randy Newman

randynewmanGoing back to yesterday’s thought on simplicity ruling when it comes to love songs, here’s a fabulous love song by Randy Newman, a songwriter known more for caustic irony than wearing his heart on his sleeve. And that’s one reason this song works so well.

The theme here is similar to that of Billy Joel’s early tune ‘You’re My Home’ — the idea that “home” has more to do with the who than the where. I guess it’s a pretty obvious sentiment, but still a sweet one.

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Randy Newman – Harps and Angels

Randy Newman has been away for awhile, and right when the country needed him most.

His last album of original songs, Bad Love, was released in 1999. And so the first decade of the 21st century had thus far gone unchronicled by America’s finest musical satirist. That is truly a shame, because George Bush has certainly deserved an earful.

He finally gets it in the centerpiece song of Newman’s excellent new album Harps and Angels. That song is ‘A Few Words in Defense of Our Country’ and anyone who knows Randy Newman knows defense isn’t what’s really on his mind.

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