Remembrance of Ironies Past

Remember the good old days? Remember when we could enjoy the delicious ironies of Randy Newman songs like “Political Science” and part of our enjoyment was knowing that the song narrator’s hilariously psychotic worldview was recognizable –hey, we’ve all had thoughts like this!–but at the same time was a worldview that could never, never, ever, not in a million years, gain any traction here in the real world?
Ahh. The good old days…

Political Science

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 is far too hot
And Canada’s too cold
And South America stole our name
Let’s drop the big one
There’ll be no one left to blame us

We’ll save Australia
Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo
We’ll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin’, too

Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We’ll set everybody free
You’ll wear a Japanese kimono
And 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

link to the lyrics and to the Randy Newman discography and to the rest of his exhaustively thorough (but it’s heaven to me) website.

A personal note (not for the squeamish):

Randy Newman has always been up at the top (where it’s lonely, as he first told us so long ago) of my short list of singer/songwriters/and a few others to whom I would give myself as an eternal love slave.   What a deal!
Alas, there’s never been any takers.

Randy Newman is top of the list because he frequently uses the device of the unreliable narrator in his songs, and if there’s anybody who’s a pushover for that, it’s me.

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UPDATE:  Unreliable narrators are everywhere!  Look at ‘em, all over the place, in many of my favorite songs, literature, movies, and even blogs.

BTW…   I’m yours, Giblets. Command me!

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