Name: Randy Newman on Letterman, July 18, 1983
Uploaded: 2015-12-29T21:26:27.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Randy Newman on Letterman, July 18, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-29. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Randy Newman on Letterman, July 18, 1983' from Don Giller on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-12-29. Transcript available.

Let's get back to the show. We are very excited, as I mentioned before.
This is a gentleman we've been eager to have on this program for quite a long
time.
He is a brilliant songwriter. He writes songs about people and subjects nobody
else does.
And this is his latest album right here, entitled Trouble in Paradise.
We're very happy he could be with us tonight.
Please welcome the one, the only, Mr. Randy Newman.
Hate New York City. It's cold and it's damp.
And all the people dressed like monkeys.
Let's leave Chicago to the Eskimo.
That town's a little bit too rugged.
You and me, you bad girl.
Rollin' down the parallel highway to Big Nasty ready to my side.
I sat in a wind blowin' hot from the north, and we were born to rise.
Roll down the wind, put down the top, crank up the beach.
Boy, baby, don't let the music stop.
We're gonna ride it too.
Just can't ride it no more.
From the South Bay to the Valley.
From the West Side to the East Side.
Everybody's fairly happy.
Cause the sun is shattered all the time.
Looks like another perfect day.
I love L.A.
We love it.
I love L.A.
We love it.
We love it.
We love L.A.
We love L.A.
We love L.A.
We love L.A.
We love L.A.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Very nice, Randy.
Hang on, we gotta go away here for a second.
We'll be right back after this commercial.
We'll be right back after this commercial with Randy Newman.
Randy, come on.
Thank you very much.
Randy Newman is here.
Very nice.
Randy, nice to meet you.
Thank you very much for being on the program.
Pleasure.
We were discussing, among other things this afternoon, whether or not this song,
I Love
L.A., was something you actually felt, or was it tongue-in-cheek or sarcastic?
I feel it.
I like, I love L.A.
The streets I picked, you know, are not the Champs-Élysées.
Victory Boulevard, yeah, that's not fair.
Yeah, and Century Boulevard.
But, you know, I choose to live there.
Yeah.
Nice weather, nice people, great cultural center.
No, now you're kidding, right?
No.
I like this picture because it's actually, this is just right down the street
from where I
used to live.
Yeah, in the Pacific Palisades.
Yeah, you can just barely see Point Dume up there.
I used to go there when I was a kid.
Point Dume?
All by myself.
No, the beach, though.
Yeah.
I took that.
It's a beautiful area.
Let me ask you about, also on the, appearing on this record, the album, Linda Ronstadt,
Wendy
Waldman, Jennifer Warrens, Don Henley, Bob Seger, Ricky Lee Jones, no, no,
Lindsay Buckingham.
See, now you don't have to go to rock and roll heaven.
Paul Simon.
Yeah.
Working with those people on your own.
Jimi Hendrix was going to come back for it, too.
Does that make you nervous, working with those folks?
Well, you know, I'd want to quit early.
I'd say, oh, we got it.
You know, there'd be a lot of mistakes, and I'd say, oh, that's good enough.
But they love my music so much, they just want to keep working and working and
working.
Couldn't get Paul out of the studio and just stay there, hour after hour.
It didn't really make me, you know, I have nothing but contempt for anyone who's
successful
anyway.
They must be doing something dishonest, you know, so it didn't bother me.
I would think that all of those folks hovering about while you were conducting
a recording
session would be some pressure.
No, it didn't, I didn't feel it.
They were a very, very nice bunch of people.
You know, I'd like to still be able to, you know, dislike Fleetwood Mac's music,
but you
can't.
They were too competent and too nice, and we're best of friends now.
Well, good, I'm glad you got that working out.
I read an interesting article in a magazine not long ago, mentioned you and
your family
and so forth, and you have a son who is also a musician.
Well, yeah, he's a musician.
What's his, this is Amos?
Yeah, it's his birthday today.
Oh, happy birthday to Amos.
How old a man is he now?
He's 15.
15.
He's in a band?
He was in a band called Smashed Infant.
Is this like a church group or something?
Yeah, very much like that.
They changed their name, they thought that was a little rust, so they changed
it to Armed
Response.
It's sort of a fascist outfit.
And I think he's sort of broadening his taste now a bit, but he's in a
different kind of
band, but I haven't, you know, I haven't been keeping track too much.
Now, they mentioned in the article that perhaps their signature piece was a
song about a popular
television celebrity.
They had a song, they played me their songs.
A couple of them were about, we're not going in the army, we're not going in
the army.
And I said, well, you know, no one wants to go in the army.
Unless you're 14.
What are you so mad about?
And it's probably better than being at home.
You know, you know, but they had a song about Ted Knight, you know, you know,
it's a long
way from blowing in the wind, but they had, he's honorary mayors and they've
seen him around
and took an instant liking to him.
And the song went, you know, Ted Knight, you old has-been, we hate you, you
know, we're going
to beat you up.
And I said, you know, what are you doing?
I mean, what's the point?
He's a decent fella.
You know what?
We don't like him.
I said, why don't you like him?
He didn't do anything to you.
They just saw him sitting somewhere.
And he had a shirt that said Ted Knight, you know.
And they musically have put him in his place.
Yeah.
What did, do he and his friends enjoy your music?
They must be under your influence musically, don't you think?
Good one.
No, I don't know.
You know, he came to see me when I played the amphitheater and he was sort of
impressed
that all those older people came out to see me.
I don't know.
I think he's proud of me, but it's hard to say.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm sure he's proud of me.
He'd rather break windows, I think.
No, no.
Now, do you ever have occasion to play the music that you like?
It's hopeless, you know.
I mean, though now he's changing a little bit, you know, there's stuff.
He'll listen to Rush now.
Yeah.
So I just bought him some Rush records.
But before that, you know, it was, I hate to do this to him on his birthday, to
exploit him
this way.
But before that, you know, the Sex Pistols were just too easygoing.
That was a real middle-of-the-road start.
Well, but he sounds like he's beginning to soften up now.
That's good.
Yeah, he's a little.
Randy, are you going to be able to do another song for us?
Yeah.
Okay, we've got to go for station identification.
Don't worry about nothing.
We'll be right back with Randy Newman.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you, Paul.
Welcome back.
Later on in this program, we'll be taking you to Coney Island.
Also, you're going to meet the wilderness survivalist, Tom Brown, Jr.
Tomorrow night, Cheryl Teagues will be here, along with Jeff Altman and cowboy
Casey Tibbs.
So, you know, the security will be extra tight tomorrow night.
Now, by the way, the video that goes with I Love L.A. is terrific.
Oh, thank you.
That's very nice.
It's fun to do.
You driving around in a big gas.
Yeah, with a pretty girl.
It's a great life for an actor.
You know, you don't have to think of anything to say.
It's all down there for you.
It's great.
Turned out nicely.
Thank you.
I didn't realize until this afternoon that in addition to all of this music
that you've
been responsible for, you're also the author of a soft drink commercial.
Words and lyrics.
A Dr. Pepper commercial.
It was a contest.
I didn't know what it was.
They said, would you like to write a Dr. Pepper commercial?
And I said, well, I'll try.
And so I submitted it.
And it turned out they had 250 other people submitting it.
But they used mine.
Briefly, at least.
It was before that dancing guy.
I'm a pepper user.
It wasn't that one.
In fact, I can't even remember mine after that one.
Now, what motivated you to enter a jingle writing contest for Dr. Pepper?
Artistic sort of freedom they gave me.
And I love Dr. Pepper.
Do you really?
Sure.
Now, you don't remember it at all, how it went?
Yeah, the most original.
It went like Birmingham.
I saw Birmingham there.
It was the most original soft drink ever in the whole wide world.
And then they go, Dr. Pepper.
It was really a lot of fun.
Yeah.
And I liked it better than that, the one they had after.
The one they had before it, I liked better than mine.
Yeah.
But I don't remember it.
Will, is this the one that you were involved with, this Dr. Pepper commercial
at all?
Oh, sure.
Really?
It's a big favorite.
Musicians just loved playing it.
All the musicians would go play it at their house and everything.
Yeah, we're up to the Dr. Pepper part now, Will.
That's probably the jet lag from the Orient.
You also, there was a time in your life when you were a, worked for a
publishing company,
a record company, writing hits?
Yeah, just write, well, no, I didn't write any hits, but you can't accuse me of
that.
But I was trying, you know, I tried to write follow-ups for people.
Anything come to mind there?
Who were the artists for whom you were writing?
Oh, you know, anybody.
It was the thing, let's see, the Fleetwoods, when I started a long time ago,
Gene McDaniels was there, Bobby V, things like that.
It's one label.
A long time ago, back in the Pleistocene era.
And you would write the songs that...
I would try, I would write the songs that they would turn down and do songs by
Carole King.
But you were also on the other, the B side, as they say.
Yeah, a couple times, of a Fleetwoods hit, now and then, you know, kept me
alive.
Yeah.
So it was nice.
What is the song you're going to do now, Randy?
I think I'll do Political Science, or Let's Drop the Big One.
Okay, and is there anything that you want to mention, or...?
No, it's about U.S. foreign policy.
In Europe, they thought it was a joke when I played it.
All right.
Well, I'll play it.
Okay.
Randy Newman, ladies and gentlemen.
You all right?
No one likes us.
I don't know why.
We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try.
But all around, even our old friends put us down.
Let's drop the big one and see what happens.
We give them money, but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful.
They don't respect us, so let's surprise them.
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them.
Asia's crowded and Europe's too old.
Africa's far too hot and Canada's too cold.
South America stole our name.
Let's drop the big one.
And if there's no one left to blame us, we'll save our strength.
Don't want to hurt no kangaroo.
Buildin' all American amusement parkin', they got surfin' too.
Boom goes London, boom Paris.
More room for you and more room for you.
And every city, the whole world around.
There'll just be another American town.
Oh, how people it will be.
Well, set everybody free.
You wear a Japanese kimono bed, there'll be Italian shoes for me.
They all hate us anyhow.
So let's drop the big one now.
Let's drop the big one now.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Terrific, Randy.
Thank you very much for being here.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Thank you.
Randy Newman, ladies and gentlemen.
We'll be back.
Take a visit to Coney Island.
you