"After Hours" Survivor

[Freypower]

"Same Girl" is my third-to-least favorite because the concept is so messed up. I know there is a lot of love for Randy Newman as a songwriter and Glenn believes him to be one of the finest songwriters of his generation. I, however, am less impressed. The only song I knew by him for a long time was "I Love LA", which was fun but not exactly epic. I heard "Have Pity on the Working Man" after buying the Forrest Gump soundtrack and I liked it a lot, but it didn't blow me away with its brilliance or anything. I bought Good Old Boys and Little Criminals back in 2005 just because Glenn was on them and I liked them alright, but again, I wasn't blown away - for every terrific piece like "Baltimore," there was a stinker like "Rednecks." Then I bought Faust to hear Don Henley's part, and I found it horrific. Goethe, Marlowe and Milton must have been turning over in their graves at that overwrought, offensive, self-indulgent mess. Faust was so bad that it completely ruined Newman for me.

Still, "Same Girl" has a wonderfully aching vocal by Glenn that actually makes you feel for a pimp. That's an achievement.

I don't like Faust either, but it is an aberration in Newman's career. However, I am sorry that you think Rednecks is a 'stinker' (it is not just sending up the South's attitudes to black people; it is sending up the patronising of black people in the North) and that you have not heard wonderful albums like Trouble In Paradise (which contains Same Girl), Land Of Dreams, Bad Love & Harps & Angels.

I guess people don't like the lyrics of Same Girl and I cannot help them.