This week, my family and I are vacationing in The Big Easy, enjoying a little post-Christmas getaway in one of America’s greatest cities.
I haven’t been to New Orleans in nearly two decades, so I’m really looking forward to the trip. And I’m taking a break from blogging this week as well, offering up a few songs about the city during my absence.
See you in a week for my Top 20 Songs of 2014 countdown!
I’m not certain, but this might be the first time a Random Weekend selection has been an instrumental track.
I guess that isn’t too much of a surprise because I don’t own a whole lot of instrumentals. A few classical CDs and a half dozen or so movie soundtracks, plus the odd instrumental track on albums that otherwise feature vocals.
But still, given some of the odd patterns that have emerged over the Random Weekend years, you’d expect them to come up at least once in awhile.
Randy Newman is such a brilliant satirist that it’s probably safe to say that any “bad” song he’s ever written was bad on purpose.
I suspect that is exactly the case with ‘Masterman and Baby J,’ his stab at a rap anthem. He had to mean this as a parody of some sort. And yet I don’t think that really matters… it’s still embarrassing.
Randy Newman’s Sail Away is one of my very favorite albums — it is alternately bittersweet and cynical, beautiful and brutal. I don’t know if it gets the attention and respect it deserves.
I see it was ranked #321 on Rolling Stones’ list of the 500 greatest albums — on the one hand, considering how many albums have been recorded over the past 50+ years, making the list at all is an honor; but on the other hand, are you really telling me there are 320 albums better than this one? Bullshit.
Randy Newman can probably write songs like this one in his sleep, but that doesn’t stop it from being freaking awesome. It’s amazing how much mileage he can get out of a jaunty New Orleans musical backdrop and some conversational lyrics.
For me, the genius of this song comes right in the first verse, when Newman says/sings “She may be hungry, but she won’t say. You better get a burger or something in her right away. If you don’t, you’re gonna pay.”
Meet Me In Montauk 