Randy Newman: legendary songwriter, Oscar nominee, more

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We're revisiting our conversation with the great Randy Newman. He's just been nominated for two Academy Awards, one for the score he composed for Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, and another for the original song he composed for Toy Story 4. It's called "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away." Randy's songbook is a part of the fabric of modern pop culture. He writes pop songs, catchy tunes that can perfectly encapsulate a touching film moment. But he also writes songs that come from a place of darkness. Randy talks about writing songs that tap into his feelings, being inspired to get into writing music for film by his three uncles and meeting Frank Sinatra. Plus, Randy ponders why a guy with seven Grammys hasn't had more hits.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.2	I'm Jesse Thorn, it's Bullseye.
0:22.2	It's a cliche but it's also true.
0:24.4	Randy Newman doesn't really need an introduction.
0:26.6	I mean, I can say Randy Newman to you and you'll probably start thinking about this.
0:44.6	Or this.
0:56.8	Or maybe this.
1:08.8	Or maybe you don't even realize that he wrote this.
1:14.0	But look a little deeper into his work.
1:21.0	It won't take that much.
1:23.0	And you'll find a strong writer and a singer who has produced some of the most complex, captivating, and hilarious pop music ever recorded.
1:32.0	Like you probably already know this already, but about every week on this show, I recommend something at the end called the Outshow.
1:39.2	And I don't think there is a musician that I have recommended more times in the years that I've been doing that than Randy Newman.
1:45.2	The songs are catchy. I mean, that's part of it.
1:48.2	He grew up around the birth of rock and roll and a musical family.
1:51.2	His uncle Alfred Newman composed music for some of the greatest films of Hollywood's Golden Age.
1:57.2	And he's funny, but he's not like weird out or spike Jones funny.
2:02.2	There are laughs.
2:04.2	And he's funny.
2:06.2	Like Jones funny.
2:08.2	There are laughs, but there's also a little darkness.
2:13.2	The laughs often come from characters.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.