"Sail Away"Randy Newman
What better way to celebrate my reluctant return to America than with a little Randy Newman? Much of the master songwriter's material is informed by his own love/hate relationship with the country, though admittedly it often falls further to the "hate" side of the spectrum. "Sail Away" however, is a welcome exception. In many of Newman's songs, his irony comes down with a sledgehammer force, but here it is relatively subtle and is countered by the beauty of the tune and his majestic orchestral arrangement. Unconventionally, he starts off the song accompanied only be a stately woodwind section, and the piano doesn't come in until the second verse. The arrangement immediately evokes classic American orchestral music (particularly Copeland) and provides the perfect foil for the lyric, which Newman has said comes from the point of view of a slave recruiter. Thirty-five years after this record's release, we still haven't fully come to terms with our nations contradictions, and no one else has ever captured them as poignantly in three minutes or less.
2 comments:
Welcome back (though this song. . . eh not so much).
So glad you're starting this back up. Love love LOVE this song, album and Randy Newman in general. I think you hit the nail on the head with your thoughts on it. I'd add that I think Newman's greatest appeal is his ability to see contradictions, accept the truth in both sides and laugh about it rather than despair.
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