Tuesday, September 18, 2012

I'm Dreaming


Newman, who is white, is openly supporting President Barack Obama. He says he wants the public to find comedic relief in the song, but to also know he's serious about his thoughts that racism is well and alive in the world - and in the current presidential race. He called racism "the great issue of this country."

"I felt that that sentiment exists in the country," Newman said in an interview Monday. "I don't know how many people you can get to admit it. I think maybe zero."

4 comments:

  1. The song's funny the same way that Mark Twain was funny. The Romey/Ryan ticket only has skin tone to fall back on. One can even see it when 'serious' people came on themselves after Clinton spoke. It's as if they don't know that Obama accomplished a whole lot more than Bill. If you weren't alive in the 90s you'd think Bill was kicking ass back then.

    On an unrelated note I hope PBO takes Jack Kemp's ant-poverty ideas just so the GOP can go against it.

    Vic78

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  2. My god, I can't believe this is the first I've heard of this tune.

    "The law of the jungle is not the law of the land."

    All due respect to Dylan, whose music I indeed love, he'd do well get get a tenth of Newman's concision. That line above has more shades of meaning in it than any one of the tunes on Bob's new record.

    "And a star fell out of Heaven."

    Now, there's what separates someone like Newman from some more mediocre writers I will decline to mention. The line is at once totally unexpected and completely in place, and moreover it is entirely beautiful, taken by itself. Newman's portrayals of ugliness work because he puts raw beauty like this into the mix, and the two don't blend but rather remain intact in their opposition. It's more than a contrast, more like a dialectical relationship, the beauty and ugliness in his work.

    Every time I hear "Marie" I cry. I actually do.

    Newman is an example of how white people can actively be part of the solution.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The song was just released yesterday (Tuesday).

      Here's some wonderful irony about that. The first place I saw it was on the Breitbart website. Isn't that just delicious?

      Delete
    2. Very tasty, yes. Damn, I love Randy Newman.

      Delete

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