Take “Political Science,” a new song he wrote in the early 1970s, as protesters on several continents raged against the carnage the United States was perpetrating in Indochina. THE song takes up the voice of the American establishment in matters of foreign policy. “No one likes us, I don’t know why, / We may not be perfect, but God knows we try,” Newman sings with a casualness that quickly leads to the most horrible of all solutions: “Let’s just let it go the big one and see what happens. Think of the glorious result: “There will be no one left to blame us. And “Every city in the whole world / Will be just another American city.” / Oh, how peaceful it will be, / We will free everyone. “Political science” is a hymn to American exceptionalism as imagined by an innocent genocidal man: after the nuclear holocaust, no one will be alive except the Americans. Well, he’d spare Australia: “I don’t want to hurt any kangaroos / We’ll build an all-American amusement park there / They went surfing too.” »

Unlike popular left-wing songs that seek to arouse outrage or exultation or inspire listeners to take to the streets and march, Randy Newman’s political music pushes you to think about the roots of your own beliefs and prejudices and to appreciate the power of characters you despise. . “I believe in not harming anyone,” he said. This simple line is a version of the motto of MP, a left-wing daily newspaper published in New York in the 1940s: “We are against people who push others around, just for the sake of pushing them, whether they prosper in this country or abroad. » Randy Newman has fun putting himself in the shoes of these people.

The irony of this virtuoso of political irony is that his best-known works are completely apolitical. Born in 1943, Newman began his career in the early 1960s writing for artists such as Bobby Darin and Irma Thomas, and recording his own pop and rock songs. But since the 1970s, Newman has written music for 29 films, including animated blockbusters like Toy story (1, 2, 3And 4), Monsters, Inc., And The life of an insect, as well as The Natural, the dark drama about an ill-fated baseball star, played by Robert Redford. When I ask students if they have heard of Newman, most don’t answer. But almost everyone can recite a few lines from “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” which he first wrote. Toy story, a staple of children’s cinema since its release by Pixar in 1995. It has won two Academy Awards for its music and been nominated for numerous others.