Randy Newman

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 July 2018

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"Who is your dream interview?" you might ask Jesse Thorn, or another public radio host. And for Bullseye, here is your answer: Randy Newman! Randy's career spans over half a century. He's written music for films (duh), but has also revealed himself to be an artist of the highest caliber on his solo records. His music is beautifully written, funny, dark and unmistakably American. Jesse dives deep into Randy's roots - how a family of musicians and jokesters gave him a love for classic American music and comedy. They'll also talk baseball, run-ins with the two Franks (Sinatra & Jr.), and why he has trouble coming to terms with some of his most critically acclaimed music. This is a real deal all-timer, folks. Finally, for the outshot: enough about rock music! Jesse talks about the terrifying, awesome wonder of Levitated Mass, a sculpture at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:13.0	I'm Jesse Thorn. Randy Newman is a legend. Countless scores, dozens of albums, a songwriting
0:20.2	career that spanned decades. Academy Awards, Grammys, Emmys, some of the best songs of
0:26.5	the 20th century. One thing he's wondered though, and maybe this isn't that big of a deal,
0:32.7	why hasn't he had more hits? It is amazing to me that I've been around this business
0:39.7	and in it for almost 60 years. Jesus. And I haven't had more hits just follow me by accident.
0:49.9	You know, you think, well, look at that one. It's in this movie and everybody likes it.
0:55.7	It's Bullseye.
1:03.7	Coming up, Randy Newman. He's been writing music for half a century. We'll talk about how
1:09.5	he's changed his approach to songwriting over the years, what's easier now, what's harder.
1:13.7	He'll also tell me whether or not he has hard time writing songs that speak plainly about
1:19.0	his own personal feelings.
1:20.9	I may have inhibitions, psychological inhibitions or something that tilted me in another direction
1:28.1	of not saying, I love you, do you love me? No, you don't. It interested me less is what
1:35.1	I say. Now, maybe it's that I couldn't think of things to say. I have a low love of me
1:42.0	to do or something. He'll also tell me about his family. His uncle who was an agent for
1:48.9	film composers, his three uncles who were film composers themselves, including Alfred Newman,
1:56.4	a guy who inspired Randy to write music and wasn't afraid to ask for input every now and
2:02.9	then either.
2:03.9	He wants to ask me, do you like this melody? And I was like 10 years old and I said don't
2:09.9	you? Then he asked me, maybe I was a little older, but he said do you think people like
2:15.7	counter melodies?
	...

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