I went to see Randy Newman live when I was in college. He was very good. He clearly enjoys performing and he played for a very long time. And he performed another of his prototypical offensive songs: “My Life Is Good.”
I had always liked the song. But he said something that kind of bothered me. He said, “Sadly, this song is autobiographical.” It involves him being taken to his son’s school, because the boy was bullying the other children. And Newman’s response was, “Do you know who who I am?! My life is good!”
I can well imagine how that would happen. People have bad days and it speaks well of him that he’s able to recognize when he’s being a jerk. So that’s good. And I assume that “My Life Is Good” is an exaggeration. But still, it’s pretty wild.
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I love the Randy Newman posts..
Ya that song “My life is good” is a humorous song. Randy is playing a character whom he despises I think. And he does it with some irony. And this is why I love this song.
I do think it comes from his own experience. I’m sure he’s fictionalized it. But I know I’ve been too full of myself from time to time.
As for the posts, I used to do “morning music” and each week had a theme. We did Newman that week. It was hard to choose.