„A Few Words in Defense of Our Country“ | EUROtoday

Im April 1927 brauten sich über den Südstaaten der USA schwere Wolken zusammen. Es begann zu regnen, und es hörte nicht mehr auf. Der Mississippi trat über die Ufer, über 700.000 Menschen wurden obdachlos, Hunderte starben. Heimgesucht wurden vor allem die Ärmeren. Auf die Naturkatastrophe folgte das Versagen der Behörden. Rassismus und Missmanagement vereitelten die nötige Hilfe. Das musikalische Gedächtnis erzählt davon bis heute. Charley Patton, Memphis Minnie und Bessie Smith besangen das Hochwasser, selbst Led Zeppelin aus England ließ den Staudamm brechen. Bob Dylan widmete sich dem „High Water“, doch es war Randy Newman, der die politische Dimension der Tragödie auf den Punkt brachte. Er legte in dem Song „Louisiana 1927“ den Alleingelassenen den Satz in den Mund: „They’re trying to wash us away“.

Newman ist wie kein anderer Songwriter ein Psychologe der amerikanischen Seele. Seit dem Debütalbum von 1968 stellt er deren Befindlichkeiten in Miniaturen bloß. Die Kunstfertigkeit seiner Songs besteht neben der berückenden Melodieführung und den schnörkellosen Texten vor allem in dem Kunstgriff, als akustischer Schauspieler mitunter verstörende Rollen einzunehmen. Er singt aus der Perspektive eines Vergewaltigers, der sein Opfer per Zufall in einem Telefonbuch ausmacht („Suzanne“). Er mimt den bornierten Amerikaner, der sich aus Mexiko eine billige Arbeitskraft mitbringt und sich im eigenen Reichtum spiegelt („My Life Is Good“). Er verkörpert die Vorurteile gegenüber Minderheiten („Short Peo­ple“), versinkt im Selbstmitleid des Alkoholikers („Guilty“) und bringt die Gewaltbereitschaft eines Homophoben zum Ausdruck („Half A Man“).

Seine Songs seien keine Intelligenztests, hat Newman zu Protokoll gegeben, aber man muss zweimal hinhören, um zu begreifen, wer mithilfe einer einschmeichelnden Melodie dazu einlädt, den Strand zu verlassen und ein Schiff zu besteigen: Es ist der Rekrutierer von Sklaven, der die Afrikaner mit Versprechungen lockt: „In America you’ll get food to eat / Won’t have to run through the jungle / And scuff up your feet“ („Sail Away“).

He ruthlessly dissects the driving forces of American culture and was ennobled when radio stations boycotted his songs. For example, when he sang about the “rednecks” within the southern states, these white conservatives whose necks are reddened by the solar as a result of they do not put on lengthy hair just like the hippies. Newman makes use of a phrase within the track that was already offensive as a portrait of the southern states when the album “Good Old Boys” (1974) was launched, however can nonetheless be learn spelled out on present editions: “We talk real funny down here / We drink too much and we laugh too loud / We’re too dumb to make it in no northern town / And we’re keeping the niggers down.”

The music journalist Greil Marcus devoted a chapter to Newman in his legendary ebook “Mystery Train” (1975) that’s nonetheless value studying at this time. David and Caroline Stafford introduced a biography in 2016. Now Robert Hilburn takes you thru the albums and lyrics, sheds mild on life and entices you to hear once more. His ebook relies on conversations with Newman and doesn’t supply a crucial account of the work. He prefers to let Newman remark himself moderately than obtain depth by way of his personal interpretations, however he does reveal his placing relevance. In “Ghosts,” for instance, a track from 1979 a couple of run-down struggle veteran, Hilburn acknowledges the kind of left-behind individuals who at this time fall for the guarantees of Donald Trump: “Work all your life / And you end up with nothing.” Trumpism has a protracted historical past. Newman seems to be their chronicler.

Early on he described predatory capitalism as gas for ethical neglect. “I don’t love the mountains / And I don’t love the sea / And I don’t love Jesus / He never did a thing for me / …It’s money that I love”. Money may purchase half a pound of cocaine, a limousine and a sixteen-year-old. “Now that may not be love / But it is all right”. With caustic humor, Newman holds up a mirror to power-hungry America. He is never perplexed. He caricatured Putin and rejected a draft track about Trump as too vulgar.

It could be a misunderstanding to disregard Newman’s loyalty to the United States, even when he lacks patriotism. “Being a Jew in America is different. Nobody wants to be an American more than a Jew,” he asserts. “Is this really our country? Sometimes I think, maybe not.” His eccentricity isn’t just creative.

Newman is the funniest songwriter American popular culture has produced. And the saddest. As a baby, Newman suffered from misaligned eyes, was the laughing inventory of his classmates, and needed to endure painful surgical procedures. For him, inventive peaks are adopted by depressive exhaustion. The relationship together with his father is strained. After a live performance, he requested his son what was improper together with his voice; it sounded so chilly. It is his unmistakable trademark. You can hear how she has to combat for the heights.

But it’s exactly the brittle, scarred sound that offers expression to the unusual characters of his track protagonists, the weird humor, but in addition the depths of his emotions. What a loneliness it’s when Newman sings “I Think It’s Going To Rain Today,” certainly one of his earliest songs. The now eighty-one-year-old nonetheless masters this artwork. In just some sentences in “Wandering Boy” he experiences the ache of a father, spoiled for fulfillment at wealthy individuals’s events, whose son lives on the road: “I hope he’s warm and I hope he’s dry / And that a stranger’s eye is a friendly eye / And I hope he has someone / Close by his side / And I hope that he’ll come home”. This track would not simply carry tears to the eyes of the good Linda Ronstadt.

Hilburn places Newman’s musical “Faust” into perspective intimately. Film scores have earned him twenty-two Academy Award nominations and two trophies. The craft ran within the household: three uncles have been revered movie composers. Newman can create songs on movie; it takes him three minutes to create a psychogram of a lifetime. He is a eager, typically caustic observer, however for all his jokes, he’s no comic. For him, humor comes from ache.

Once he even slipped into the function of God with a view to dismiss individuals’s beliefs as insanity: “I burn down your cities – how blind you must be / I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we / You all must be crazy to put your faith in me” (“God’s Song”). Life, a nasty joke. That’s exactly why Newman is one factor above all: a humanist: “I believe in not hurting anyone.” When an African American wrote a letter complaining in regards to the N-word in “Rednecks,” Newman referred to as him and defined his causes.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southeastern United States. Over 1,800 individuals died. George Bush was accused of not caring about black individuals. Randy Newman then re-recorded “Lousiana 1927” for a profit album for the victims of the catastrophe. It grew to become an anthem of protest and human assist.

Robert Hilburn: „A Few Words in Defense of Our Country“. The Biography of Randy Newman. Hachette Books, New York 2024. 544 S., Abb., geb., 26,25 €.