"We mean it, maaaaan!" - The Sex Pistols, God Save the Queen

"I might like you better if we slept together" - Romeo Void, Never Say Never

"I love their Mr. Blue Sky / Almost my favorite is Turn to Stone / And how 'bout Telephone Line / I love that ELO" - Randy Newman, The Story of a Rock & Roll Band

I love ELO. Sing some fucking Toy Story, Randy.

I like all those songs. Especially Mr Blue Sky. I can't think of any randy newman song I would miss if it vanished from the earth forever. Actually, I can't think of any randy newman songs at all but this may be due to tipsiness. I call this a non-great moment in musical sarcasm.

Moz is gonna win this one.

What? C'mon- Rednecks???

by Randy Newman

Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV show
With some smart-ass New York Jew
And the Jew laughed at Lester Maddox
And the audience laughed at Lester Maddox too
Well, he may be a fool but he's our fool
If they think they're better than him they're wrong
So I went to the park and I took some paper along
And that's where I made this song

We talk real funny down here
We drink too much and we laugh too loud
We're too dumb to make it in no Northern town
Keepin' the niggers down

We got no-necked oilmen from Texas
And good ol' boys from Tennessee
And colleges men from LSU
Went in dumb - come out dumb too
Hustlin' 'round Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Gettin' drunk every weekend at the barbecues
Keepin' the niggers down

We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We're keeping the niggers down

Now your northern nigger's a Negro
You see he's got his dignity
Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the nigger free

Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage in the South-Side of Chicago, the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the niggers down

We're rednecks, rednecks
And we don't know our ass from a hole in the ground
We're rednecks, we're rednecks
We're keeping the niggers down

We are keeping the niggers down

"I wish I was as mellow, as, f'r'instance, Jackson Brown..."
- Tonio K.

Big Randy Newman fan but waaaaay bigger ELO fan myself. Newman said he doesn't dislike ELO--the song is more a fake history of the band in the "Johnny B. Goode" style. So it's really only half sarcastic. And Newman's cod-ELO string arrangement is dead on.

Anyway, two albums later, Jeff Lynne produced a song on Newman's Land of Dreams album, so everything's just hunky dory.

If you only really know the "Short People"/novelty/movie soundtrack/Down's-Syndrome-vocals Randy Newman, it's hard to believe that things like "Rednecks" which Finch quoted above are from the same guy.

Do any of the ATL-ers own Good Old Boys? I'd be curious on their opinion of Newman's Southern concept album.

"I don't dig the Stripes but I go for Har Mar..."
- Spoon

stone temple pilots they're elegant bachelors they're foxy to me are they foxy to you

Never knew what to make of that one.

Not that this is a lyric or anything....

David Letterman: (to Marilyn Manson) I heard you guys set fire to your drummer and killed a live chicken on stage.

Marilyn Manson: See, that's just a prime example of rumors being blown out of proportion. What really happened was we killed our drummer and afterwards we ate chicken.

Keep in mind, Randy Newman's idea of a crackin' back-up band for his more "rocking" tunes was Toto. Jus' sayin'...


My vote for this thread :

"Can I use your hair spray?" - The Replacements ( "I Don't Know" )

More recently...The Brakes' Heard About Your Band...

"You were screaming in my ear/ Coked up asshole/ Waiting for The Liars/ You shared a cab with Karen O/ Oh oh oh oh oh/ ...You met Electrelane/ Eh eh eh eh eh... I heard about your band/ Whatever dude!"

Randy Newman is a great songwriter.

"Small Stakes" seems to be about Britt Daniel's disdain for the purposeful lack of ambition in indie rock, so I've always heard that line as him sarcastically taking on the persona of a typical hipster and dismissing a band that's successful while championing one that's deservedly obscure.

Some choice song titles from Anal Cunt:

When I Think of True Punk Rock Bands, I Think of Nirvana and The Melvins

MTV is My Source For New Music

'Im not allowed to like A.C. any more since they signed to Earache'

Radio Hit

Living Colour Is My Favorite Black Metal Band

How do you afford your rock and roll lifestyle?

elvis costello - that's all i really have to say here.

Does Anal Cunt ever actually sing? Every song I've ever heard has been unrecognizable screaming/whining

"Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins, nature's kids, I/They don't have no function."

I have been curious enough about this to have started a topic around these parts last year sometime.

Isn't that song as sarcastic as the other stuff? I mean, he's beasically saying that its as bad up north as down south, they just put it in your face down south (something KING and X long said)

Sure they do. Here's the lyrics to "Tom Arnold" from the 1996 release, 40 More Reasons to Hate Us:

Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold
Tom Arnold

~ Putnam | 0:09

how about lenny kravitz singing "rock 'n' roll is dead" ?

oh wait, that's musical IRONY