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With his very particular voice, he has often been called a whiny singer. But his offbeat humor and his gently acerbic descriptions often make people smile.
As he has always opted for a caustic analysis of his contemporaries (as well as of himself, for that matter), the Los Angeles native (1943) will certainly not take offense at this description of his voice! If we do not doubt his attachment to the West Coast and its flagship megalopolis that he sings about in “I Love LA”, we will note that it nevertheless appears on an album entitled “Trouble In Paradise” in 1983. Noted! His sunny postcard is indeed too beautiful to be totally credible, especially in comparison with his description of New York ( “all the people are dressed like monkeys” ) or Chicago ( “a little bit too rugged” ). The lyrics never trigger a real laugh but at the very least a wry smile or even a stuck grin.
So, in these times, it is not certain that the offbeat humor of “Short People” on the aptly named “Little Criminals” in 1977 can still hit the mark today. Especially from the height of his personal 1.80 meters. In “all men are brothers” , he still repeats among other compliments “Short people got no reason to live” . It was obviously a figurative description of narrow-minded and low-ceilinged people but, even at the time, the song was censored by some radio stations.
On the same album, he really enjoys himself in the same register with “You Can’t Fool The Fat Man” and “Texas Girl At The Funeral of Her Father”. Not to mention “In Germany Before The War”, “Sigmund Freud’s Impersonification Of Albert Einstein” and the essential “Baltimore” (with the guitar of Glen Frey of the Eagles) which evoke his other career, that of composer for the cinema, and contribute to making this “Little Criminals” a pure timeless masterpiece.
Alongside his eleven studio albums, Randy Newman has not disdained the 7th Art. Most often as a composer of the soundtracks, from Milos Forman’s “Ragtime” (1981) to Penny Marshall’s “Awakenings” (1990) via “A Bug’s Life”, the Pixar cartoon (1998). He has even sometimes ventured a few fleeting appearances as a pianist or in his own role (in the series “Ally McBeal” for example). Only the most ardent fans remember it but it deserved to be mentioned…
