randy_newman raze he's one of those songwriters — like john_prine, or lyle lovett, or jane_siberry, or harry nilsson, or harry chapin — who can make me laugh in one breath and then rip my heart right out of my chest before i have time to take another. it was the barbed, funny stuff that hooked me as a kid. "short people", "i love l.a.", goofing on springsteen on "my life is good". but the songs i come back to these_days are the ones that almost hurt to hear. "in germany before the war". find me a more haunting shift to a major key and i will eat my own beard. "same girl" and "texas girl at the funeral of her father" are miniatures that pack more depth and feeling into a dozen lines than most writers manage with a hundred. and "i_think_it's_going_to_rain_today" must be one of the truest things anyone has ever written about what it is to be sad. something about the way randy's voice bends to try and grab at notes that are just beyond his reach makes him that much more human and compelling. his versions of his own tunes are always the definitive readings. even if others have technically sung them "better". to hell with better. better is bullshit. give me something i can feel. the exception to the rule is "nilsson sings newman". listen to harry layer his voice into a virtual choir on "caroline", and tell me that isn't a man who felt those words in his bones. 240814 what's it to you? who go blather from