Name: Randy Newman, "My Life Is Good" on Letterman, May 10, 1984
Uploaded: 2018-02-25T21:57:34.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Randy Newman, "My Life Is Good" on Letterman, May 10, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-02-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Randy Newman, "My Life Is Good" on Letterman, May 10, 1984' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-02-25. Transcript available.

welcome back my next guest tonight he's a brilliant composer and performer who
writes
music that sounds like nobody else's his current project is the score for the
film the natural
starring robert redford which opens tomorrow please welcome back mr randy newman
randy
a couple weeks ago my wife and i took a little trip down to mexico met this
young girl there
we brought her back with us now she lives with us in our home she cleans the
hallway she cleans the
stair she cleans the living room she wipes the baby she drives the kids to
school she does the laundry
too she wrote this song for me listen yeah another afternoon my wife and i took
a little ride into
family here went to the private school our oldest child attends many famous
people send their children
there this teacher says to us we have a problem here this child just will not
do a thing i tell him to
him he's such a big old thing he hurts the other children and all the games
they play he plays too
rough i said hold me teacher wait a minute maybe my ears clogged or something
maybe i'm not
understanding the english language dear you don't seem to realize my life
is good
my life
is good you old bag
my life
is good
just this evening
just this evening some young associates of all flying in the seas from new york
city
they're gonna stay with us a couple weeks or so and i'm gonna take them to
restaurants and everything
and we're gonna get them some real good
they don't care much where they come from this one guy's wife's such a pretty
little brown thing and i'm
allowed to give her a poke or two what do you think of that
teacher let me tell you a little story
just this morning my wife and i went to this sort of a hotel in the hills
where a very good friend of ours happens to be staying
and the name of this young man is mr bruce springsteen that's right
we talked about some kind of wood block or something and this new guitar we
like
and you know what he said to me i'll tell you what he said to me
he said ran i'm tired how would you like to be the boss for a while
well yeah my life
is good
my life is good
good
nice to see you again yeah good to see you good good to have you back here you
mentioned uh
bruce springsteen in that song did he uh he has he responded to you i never
heard
anything never heard anything it's like a nat in a battleship you know he doesn't
have to
what uh was there for a while a movement to uh make your song i love la the
official
city anthem a lot of people liked it yeah but i don't think the chamber of
commerce didn't go for
it no are they still looking for an official song i sold it to nike shoes yeah
how was it took a
long time for me to decide you know about 12 seconds oh really did they did
they just bring
in huge boxes of money for you no it wasn't that much really yeah uh how how
was uh working on the
natural it was all right you know it's very different hard work you know eight
to five every
day and and uh i got to take robert redford out a couple times and uh out for
anything date oh a day
geez that's great it was part of the payment yeah uh now how do you go about um
uh scoring
a movie i mean what does that mean i know i know that was going to happen i don't
i don't get it no
it's usually done when the music guy gets it you know cut and and you decide
mutually with the
director where the music's supposed to be and then you get these little sheets
that say you know 3.8
seconds robert redford swings the bat he runs around the bases shot of his
girlfriend shot of the bad
guys 5.8 seconds and then you get right to that so when we go see this movie
and believe me i'll see
this one um every every note we hear from beginning to end is is music that you
composed and yeah there's
some there's some like music at parties from the period it's place in 1939 undecided
now i didn't
write that or you know but uh every every bit of it uh robert redford and i
thought so so if there
is oh you worked with redford and scoring every nobody we talked about it yeah
was that fun was it
exciting no no i didn't it's all mine oh everything uh so so what happens you're
sitting there at the
piano in front of the screen and you you play along with it as it comes by you
or you used to do that
70 years ago yeah but no uh you look at the sheet and figure out where you got
to be and you get a
video cassette of it yeah and uh figure out what to do it's very difficult yeah
it sounds very difficult
now what happens if you come to a stretch where you think gee i don't i don't
know it's awful you have
terrible days take it out on everyone you know and it's tough going in in the
morning you know
are you like that when when you come to a drive are you tough to get along with
yeah and in what
regard how does it get along with when things are going well a man after my own
heart no it's just
it's just real you just think what am i going to do i mean he's running around
the bases he's hit the
ball there's a shot of his girlfriend there's the bad guys i mean what kind of
music do you play yeah
take me out to the ball game so that's it that's why you get paid a lot of
money you're under the gun
there you're really under the gun with that job yeah now how's your how's your
son the last time
you were here he had a uh a punk rock and roll group in uh he's no longer how
old is the you know
15 he's he let his hair grow out and he's not he's sort of diversified he'll
listen to s uh yes i mean
and and and he uh he's just sort of mellowed out he learned how to spell he
went to another school
but it's like a different kid you know maybe he's maybe he's gone underground
so successfully
that he's fooled us you know hi dad and i love you and and uh gee you know i
can't wait to see
the movie and i said what movie what are you talking about you know and and uh
he says hello and i say
you know what do you mean yeah but he's really he just totally changed i can't
believe it the other
son now has gone gone bad but but well 50 50 what the hell do you want you're
you've done all you can
yeah yeah uh jesus great to see you and congratulations uh this movie is going
to be a monster hit i'm
guessing so well that's what they say yeah people really seem to like it yeah
and you get your shoe
deal what the heck they got it yeah yeah i got no worries no sir not a bit nice
to see you again good
to see you randy newman
you