Randy Newman

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 804 Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2008

⏱️ 37 minutes

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Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the American composer, singer and song-writer Randy Newman. Colleagues say he stands shoulder-to-shoulder with musical legends Cole Porter and George Gershwin. He first made his name by writing mordant and often satirical pop songs - including A Few Words in Defence of Our Country, Political Science and Short People. For the past 25 years he has been better known for his Hollywood film music - including writing the scores for the first four Disney/Pixar films. He held the unique distinction for being Oscar-nominated 15 times without winning until 2002, when he picked up the award for Best Original Song for If I Didn't Have You from Monsters Inc. His songs are often written from the point of view of unlikeable characters - from slave masters to stalkers - it was a style, he acknowledges, that wasn't universally liked, but he adds: "I wouldn't have it any differently".

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: The 3rd movement of String Quartet No.16 in F Major by Ludwig van Beethoven Book: The Divine Comedy (with translation) by Dante Alighieri Luxury: A piano.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Nicola Cochlin. Young people have been making history for years, but we don't often hear about them. My brand new series on BBC Sounds sets out to put this right. In history's youngest heroes, I'll be revealing the fascinating stories of 12 young people who've played a major role in history and who've helped shape our world. Like Audrey Hepburn, Nelson Mandela, Louis Braille and Lady Jane Grey, history's youngest heroes with me, Nicola Cochlin.
0:27.8	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:30.3	Hello, I'm Krista Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:35.3	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:38.4	The program was originally broadcast in 2008.
1:13.9	My castaway this week is the singer-songwriter and composer Randy Newman. He is a master of modern American music. His peers regard him as standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Cole Porter and George Gershwin. They say he may well be the greatest living songwriter that America has produced,
1:19.0	though his high satirical style with songs like short people have sometimes got him into hot water.
1:23.0	His film scores have won him an Academy Award and numerous Grammys.
1:26.6	Yet despite this, the man himself is typically downbeat about the appeal of his acutely
1:28.4	elegiac lyricism and soaring movie soundtracks.
1:32.0	He says simply, I've been a pretty good musician.
1:36.5	Being a pretty good musician was...
1:38.2	You did say that.
1:40.1	Are you happy with that now?
1:42.0	Yeah.
1:42.4	I'm a very good, probably qualified with a probably composer that I would say.
1:49.2	And I've also heard, and I'm not sure if this is true, that you don't really relish being interviewed.
1:54.6	No, I like being interviewed.
1:56.6	This was the most difficult sort of preparation for any interview I've ever done.
2:01.6	This was hard, really.
2:03.7	Because of the eight.
2:04.4	It made me think, I wouldn't take any music.
	...

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