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In March, after receiving 15 past Oscar nominations for his musical contributions to film, Randy Newman finally won his first Oscar for Best Song, even getting a standing O from the Oscar crowd for his Susan Lucci-esque patience. Why'd it take so long? Maybe it's because the Academy was concerned about rewarding one of America's first and most acclaimed punk rockers.
You read that right: Randy Newman's a punk rocker. Not just punk, but punk in the highest order. No American songwriter has ever been as truly and wholly subversive as Randy, nor as insidious. Behind his lush orchestration and timeless heartland melodies lies the voice of a shark, challenging everything you thought was normal and acceptable in American life. Pop music's best character writer and satirist, ever, Randy still mines shock from songs that sound like your grandpa's favorite tunes, yet take on the hypocracies, vulnerabilities, injustices and facades of what we think America is. All while still being able to knock out some of the most beautiful, and real love songs in the world, and purely evocative film scores. If maintaining that wild split image isn't punk, I haven't a clue what is.
Rhino's 4-disc retrospective Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman provides all the evidence you need of his high crimes. Nobody's ever written an anti-racism song as effective as "Rednecks"; few pop ballads are as creepy as "I Want You to Hurt Like I Do"; not many songs about lust quite capture its consumption like "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield;" no Springer episode is quite as hilariously pathetic as "Old Kentucky Home." And just to prove he's punk, Randy takes on an easy target in "I Love L.A." -- then claims that it's a genuine, real valentine to his hometown. You just can't nail the guy down. All those songs are on this box, plus many more rarities and film score montages.
How punk is Randy Newman? He got Pat Boone to produce his first demo, which is also included here. Clearly Pat had no idea what he was helping to start, but thank God he did. Congratulations, Randy.
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