Added: 4 years ago
From: lestermann
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  • Always liked Randy Newman's voice! :)

  • great fucking song

  • Really, among the most brilliant songs written in my lifetime.

  • it would be great if you'd include the lyrics to this! i know they're already on the internet but it would help people trying to learn the song, as this is a very good rendition and recording

  • @mollyfurie yeah that's the reason Karen Carpenter is an all time classic because of her voice and those so-so songs. and after no one knows what we did or tried to do they will remember her. You definitely know your music.....I think your post is toneless what can you sing??

  • siehe 365sterne.de --> Song --> Sail away

  • i love his voice. soothing.

  • Oh my God! One of my favorite songs. I heard it the first time last year thanks to Erick Bamy in France got Talent, during Christmas time and since this music makes me always happy !

    Sorry for my English, I'm French. :)

    Season's Greetings

  • Does this remind anyone else of the soundtrack of true grit?

  • Thumbs up that last comment I posted. I'm shameless and that was off the top of my head - and it was bad - i'm bad - i'm really bad

  • What does he mean by Buckwheat QKingeen?

  • @communitymart The line is "ain't no lions or tigers, ain't no mamba snake, just the sweet watermelon & the buckwheat cake. Everybody is as happy as a man can be, climb aboard little wog & sail away with me".

  • Every Randy Newman video on here has people all stirred up. So he did exactly what he intended to do. People are taking these songs at face value.

  • I'm glad I don't live somewhere that there are things can eat me. Or can stop my door down. Or live in a place where something like a cobra can crawl into my bathroom. I can even carry a gun where I live in America. The people in England are disarmed. So the rioters and looters run wild. Just like back in the jungle.

    The biggest problem I see in America is people come here and want to bring their $hit hole "CULTURE" with them. Why didn't they just stay where they were if it is so great?

  • @notahemi your grammar atrocious.

  • @notahemi TROLOLOLOLOLOLOLOOOOOO

  • So much better than so much shit out there today. Oh sorry... LOL this lik that faggot from family guy... duuuuuuur!

  • it git foogy

  • really great song

  • i love it

  • hes got a unique voice.

  • Just a guy at a piano.But man,this guy hits your heart,and he hits it hard.

  • Whenever i hear a Randy Newman song in a film, i always say "Good old Randy" and then my family laughs and then I start to quote the family guy parody...

    hahaha Lois "Lets get the hell out of here"

  • His best song !!!!

  • It's weird how different the meaning could be now. Now, it could be heard as the promise of the New World, or the lies told by slave traders in America's early history. Wonderful song, either way.

  • @pencil20000 Now? You don't think that was the intention? And I don't think it's one or the other. It's ironically contrasting between the American Dream immigrants were expecting and the reality. Maybe I'm thinking about it too hard, but I can't imagine Randy Newman intending the line "In America every man is free" unironically.

  • @johnnye87 this song is about bringing african slaves to america - this is the sales pitch that the slave trader might give to the slaves to lure them onto the boat - pure sarcasm - slaves - not immigrants.

  • @LeesolNinety I quote Mr. Newman from his notes in his anthology: 'A recruiter for the slave trade? how else could I do it- slavery is bad?"

  • You Got A Friend In Me

  • Chilling.

  • is this song about the first immigrants coming to america?

    do i interpret right?

  • @bongoProd Slave traders pitch to attract slaves to come to america.

    Wiki says so anywho, songs are open to interpretation.

  • @Manovmilk

    Though why the slave traders would have to have a pitch is beyond me, they were buying already enslaved people from native slave traders. Oh well, at least in America they could have a family.

  • @lesterclaypool1 Oh well, at the least in Amerioca they coul dhave a family...lol, you dont know any better or you are born with an extra chromsome

  • @skyiscrying53

    I think that I would rather be able to procreate and have some kind of legacy rather than have my balls cut off by some Arab slave trader. But hey, if you like the idea of the latter go on with your bad self.

  • @lesterclaypool1, First of all if you are referring to what Muhammad did to his guards yes that was brutal but to say at least they could have a family shows a lack of history and understanding...the family could be broken up at any time and many of the women were raped just so the slave master could make more money off of them before they even got to the new world...I know a little about slavery my friend and the black family..please

  • @skyiscrying53

    You obviously don't know much about slavery if you think that the examples of castration that I am speaking about are limited to Muhammad. "Have a family", in the original comment, NOT addressed to you, was a play on the words in this song, I used the word "legacy" in my comment to you. I'd rather have the legacy of knowing that my offspring out there somewhere may some day overcome, than to know that any chance of it ended with my scarred scrotum.

  • @lesterclaypool1 no, I do know the legacy of slavery because i know simple existing when you are consider nothing but an animal is no legacy..understand me. And many slaves were killed in the south and n orth of this country....do not go there you wi ll lose..

  • @skyiscrying53 lose ? what are you talking about this isnt a game or compatition is it ? no ,,, if you cant converse you have a problem ,, and trust me i do under stand slavery and whats going on ,, and guess what muslims in africa today are keeping and taking slaves right now ! you will lose bwaaa ha ha h are you for real ? and both blacks and whtes killed my kind this country is filled with invaders

  • @skyiscrying53 uhmmm well that just goes to show your ignorance ,,, muhammad also kept slaves until the day he died ,,, and not only guards were casterated ,, i also have a list of muhammad slaves ,, or better yet look up the story of sahfiyah ,, im glad you have a black friend good for you ,,, look up slavery in afirca today even here on you tube

  • @lesterclaypool1 mmmm, well, keep trying to provoke someone else and keep preaching your selected history to y our nazis, facist friends...take care PS I'm black and I use to be muslim

  • @lesterclaypool1 PS, if you are native they also owned slaves too..thanks

  • @skyiscrying53

    There are few people who haven't owned slaves or been slaves, themselves.

    You have yet to make an argument that shows the benefits of being castrated over those of being able to procreate. You have, however, shown yourself to be a sad and ignorant individual in your inability to acknowledge established historical stave trading practices and it's participants. As there's nothing more fascist than Islam and a "victim" mindset I'm not surprised at your projection.

  • Northwest Fjords

  • I don't see anything insulting about being called an immigrant.

  • love this song

    love randy newman

  • John Prine and Randy Newman are two of America's best songwriters in the last 30 years. If you don't like them you ( this means you ) don't get it !

  • @TheVagolfer its entirely possible to understand what randy is singing about and still not like him. not everyone has the same personal taste as you

  • @TheVagolfer - I coouldn't have said it better myself, about both Newman and Prine. They are both "American treasures", with with such diverse musical backgrounds. I think only songwriters , musicians and "smart people give them their appropriate due.

    

  • @Revolution1117 I happen to agree with you. Prine, Newman, Paul Simon, Steve Goodman and Bob Dylan are at the top of my all time greatest songwriters of all time! All American Treasures!!!

  • @TheVagolfer - I couldn't have said it better myself, about both Newman and Prine. They are both "American treasures", with with such diverse musical backgrounds. I think only songwriters , musicians and "smart people give them their appropriate due.

  • Did you know this song is about back when slaves were around hes supposed to be a buisness man that went to Africa and tells them how good America is.

  • yeah dude, its amazing, how people think my comment means I dont like his message, not at all hes calling everyone a hippocrite, no I agree with it, so I said im sailing away, personally it makes sence, I dont know less hate, more freedom, grow up people, when the internet kill switch gets flipped, will you go outside then?

  • Randy Newman is political satire.Racist? No one could be farther from it.

    At times, as in the song Rednecks, if you had turned on the song,never having heard it or knowing anything about Randy, it would be easy to conclude that he is a bigot,but what Randy had done with that entire album was to take a giant slap at bigotry and white racism.Randy's fault was that not many people knew his intentions at the time so before you go basing Randy how about doing a little research first.

  • This song is a sales pitch from a slave trader to African people.

  • Why cant you guys just enjoy beautiful and amazing music like me?? :D

  • As an immigrant to the States, this song holds a completely alternate, but still profound meaning for me.

  • @levopierrot We're all immigrants, unless your Native American and we pretty much wiped them out.

  • @cooltooth112 what exactly was the point of that? In anycase, we're not all immigrants........but most of us have at least one immigrant ancestor. If, for example, your name is Takanawa and you were born in Texas and your parents were born in California and you've never been Japan....it would be down right insulting for me to refer to you as an immigrant.

  • @cooltooth112

    Some of us are still here, and we're not mad.

  • I get it, I hate what hes talking about, but im sailing away asap, you people can have you tube and your earth destroying way of life.

  • @yougreengreentube -- thanks for telling us all off; we're all fascists here and needed the message driven home like a rail-spike since we don't understand sarcasm. I'm sure you'll be 'sailing away' on your bicycle for the afternoon once you're done eating your Snickers and Coke and watching funny-animal videos.

  • @yougreengreentube  sail on sail on.........

  • @yougreengreentube Where you going?

  • Politically correct people will not get Randy Newman because they are too busy being offended to get irony and sarcasm. They er like the people who used to tell on you at school.

  • This song is brilliant. It's written as a pitch from an American slave trader to potential slaves. Newman is the master of unreliable narration.

  • Randy's the best song writer around. Unfortunately a lot of people just don't understand what he is saying! They just don't give him the right license.

  • Dedicated to all the poor refugees and people murdered & tortured by fascists in North Africa.

  • I don't know what a monkey tree is, but I want one.

  • Why can't people understand that the song "Short People" was hating on haters?

  • Brilliant writing.But it's those emotional chords that won't let you go.

  • If you dislike this song, you have no soul.

  • A musical Poet

  • Great song, great lyrics, great country...

  • @buckley1111 might be some sarcasm

    

  • @buckley1111 Oh god the irony...

  • im pretty sure 12 people accidentally missed the like button, and clicked to the right side of it,

    hey, its not fair that we criticize those who cant aim and click,

  • Comment removed

  • so cool

  • I swear I have to be responsible for at least half of these views

  • holy shit this guy is real?

    has family guy ever had anything they made up by themselves?

  • Randy Newman is a North American institution.......... If you don't know who he is or his music then you really haven't experienced American music. Nuff said.

  • Toy Story.

  • SHORT PEOPLE!!!!!!!

  • Not really. Just a low bullshit threshold. You talk some piffle you really do. Read your own post again that I replied to. (I quote) "...not my taste at all. never liked it..."

    But you're here boring me with your tedious criticism because... your friend said give it a go? As I said (echoing an earlier remark, merely) - fuck you. Don't need no short people round here.

  • Comment removed

  • This song...It's so simple yet so emotionally charged. Absolutely magnificent and extremely thought provoking.

  • sail away....

  • @justinbushaw fucking asshole

  • @justinbushaw Prick.

  • @justinbushaw You'll be familiar with the questionable taste greetings cards bearing the legend "Jesus Loves You" on the front and "Everyone Else Thinks You're A Cunt" inside? Good news - I have one just for you. Merely forward your address for immediate mailing. 

  • @ArchangelBoab

    Thank you for giving such a fine example of the very point I was making.

  • @TheVagolfer Always a pleasure, never a chore. Regards.

  • eaaatn an apple... one step, two step

  • STAH WAHS OH STAH WAHS

  • toystory

  • @piney43: The problem with such beliefs, and the reason that many people are angered by such beliefs, is that they have the unspoken implication that "It's okay to abduct people and enslave them for generations because their grandchildren are in a better place now"

  • Easy to tell Ray Charles played a huge role in his career Very similar indeed!

  • how many people sound this great with only using the instument that THEY play. that shit is unknown to us now

  • @tankerjd66442 It really isn't. 

  • absolutely jckoff76 and then some...

  • fantastic song..dont miss the sonny terry version..oh man if only I could tell what key he plays in.

  • From the 1969 movie Cold Turkey, starring Dick Van Dyke as a preacher trying to keep his town from smking for 30 days... Great social satire that is finding new audiences every year. Newman's song is used in the opening and closing credits.

    It was the begining to a very long career, thanks Randy!

  • i love sayaway xXx

  • @missdisneyloverxXx

    I just love anything that Randy sings. Real heart real soul. He does for me!

  • Innn A-merry-cuh. Lol

    (Good song thoungh)

  • Sweet!

  • One of the best songwriters ever......period. ♫

  • @TheDorfan that must be the most inadequate response to this song there's ever been

  • @firestartertwistedfi Well it's fitting that it came from an inadequate person :L

  • @firestartertwistedfi Some people just seem hell-bent on telling the world how inane they are; maybe he goes around with a sign around his neck and 'I am an idiot' scrawled in red crayon.

  • awesome song

  • "To be as happy as monkey in a monkey tree." thank you Mr. Newman for my lifes motto :)

  • hes such a genius when it comes to satire. its amazing hes american with that kind of intelligence

  • You've got a friend in me :]

  • I hate people who criticize Randy Newman. I want to say, "some things you DON'T get, but this guy you really need to get." He is, along with Bob Dylan, America's greatest living singer/songwriter.

  • @jkoff76 what do people say, hes athiest?

  • 125144 people missed the like button.

  • Good song

  • I will...WILL..see him in Louisville in September

  • Some of his singing is not so good and his playing, despite being an accomplished pianist, is mostly simplistic. His melodies are often no more than pentatonic and his image isn't even worthy of mention. And yet he's absolutely fucking brilliant!!

    (Being on of the greatest songwriters in popular music history helps a bit!)

  • @Mogggggpiano Some of the greatest songs ever carry a simple melody. It's the delivery and the voice that make the song so great. Think of the Carpenters.

  • @thesix107 Thanks for your reply.

    Sorry, that was exactly the point I was trying to make. Perhaps I was a little too cryptic.

    As you mention The Carpenters, I always found their recordings a bit insipid. Although Karen had a great voice I felt the production often lacked "balls". The songs however were often quite complex in construction by popular music standards "Superstar" and "Close to you", for example are full of unexpected melodic changes and modulations.

    Newman's a genius IMO.

  • @Mogggggpiano I never could stand Karen's voice and the songs were so-so. It wasn't the low pitch, it was the toneless, emotionless timbre. After I learned that she died of complications of anorexia, I realized that starvation probablydoes have that effect on one's voice.

  • joe cocker did a pretty decent version of this too

  • II don't care what anyone says he is a highly influential artist.

  • sounds like bill cosby playing piano

  • Yeah, there is many fantastic black singers like Otis Redding, I really thought he was too, that deep voice. Haha, he sings some amazing songs..

  • this nigga is funny ahahahahahaha

  • hahah this whole time i thought he was black

  • Comment removed

  • Most people in this country don't / can't do irony. It is no accident that it is this way. People with some sense of history and historical perspective , who can see paralells with waht's going on now are a damned nuisance.

  • If you want to feel again, listen to this album.

  • regina spektor reminds me of randy newman.. just sayin.

  • My favorite Randy Newman song.

  • How can anyone write anything negative about Randy Newman? He has brought music to our household for decades and we love that he has brought so much joy to our household. Randy is the man! and i am with adrenelinryan... fuck all you haters !

  • @bullx2 well personally i don't like randy newman because... i just don't like his music. not my taste at all. never liked it. and that deserves a fuck you? that's extremely mature

  • @animegalc4

    That'll be why you typed 'Randy Newman' into the box and hit search then? Your strong yet mature dislike of the man's music compelled you just to confirm? Ehm... yes, that deserves a 'fuck you'. Clown.

  • @PerignonPop well i typed it in because my friend said i should listen to it... you have quite some anger

  • lmao. Family Guy did him perfectly.

  • @tooshmaloosh haha yeah that was pretty great

  • @tooshmaloosh lol i know right!!!

  • Are most of you seriously this stupid? The song is tongue-in-cheek (while also making serious points), sung from the point of view of the slave-traders and what their salesmanship might be to prospective slaves. It's ingenius.

  • I adore this man, his music and his lyrics! 17 times nominated for the oscar, 1 award given. Thank you America. 

  • Doesn't have to be about slavery. It could just be about immigrants in general -- who would do well to look at the situation of blacks in "Charleston Bay".

  • @thekaje2

    But then you have to ignore the "Wog", "rub through the jungle and Scuff up your feet" and "monkey" Comments, and no one exactly tries persuades immigrants with some racist stereotypes, such as Singing about Jesus, Sweet Watermelon and Buckwheat cake.

    I think the song has more dimensions, yeah. But It's immediate subject is pretty evident.

  • @gothdeer Nah, you're right.

  • it's funny and fesicious. stop taking the lyrics literally people! the song isn't even from his point of view!

  • randy is the shit

  • Randy Newman wrote some the best tunes I've ever heard. It's too bad the industry doesn't appreciate people who can write anymore and doesn't let the ones that can get airplay.

    I sometimes think people are either too brainwashed by empty-headed corporatism or too bogged down in personal and outside politics to really listen to or appreciate music anymore. I enjoy music like Newman's for the sheer joy of it. I put the other crap aside and listen.

  • @bandcouver

    Yes. he has great music

  • The words have to be taken at their face value sometimes, folks try to read too much into the lyrics.

    'Watermelon and buckwheat cakes'

    'In America EveryMan is free to take care of his home and Family and to be as happy as a monkey in a Monkey tree.'

    Stop right there an write down EVERY connection that comes to mind;

    then keep those associations in your mind and build a new world.

  • Classic! 5*

    Many thanks for posting

  • sad that as much as people hate each other we still end up watching the same videos... how different are we now?

    :)

  • I think a big part of this song that people aren't mentioning is that there are people who were/are revisionist and tried to act like slavery wasn't totally a bad thing. I think the basic idea Randy is pointing out is that that's bullshit, that it was a racist institution, and provided none of the benefits of American life, so the lyrics reflect the absurdity of trying to act like that's not the case, someone who puts nostalgia on it only shows their underlying racism and stupidity.

  • The icing on the cake is that Randy's song is from the perspective of someone asking a slave to go onto a boat, which obviously never happened; the underlying fundamental wrong of taking away a person's freedom is pointed out in ol' Randy's turning it upside down, showing how ridiculous the apologist's perspective is.

  • I love Randy and his music... He has been with me for so long now... I am grateful for his gift given to us all. Thanks God

  • To get a reminder of how powerful this song is, listen to the Ray Charles version. Yes, there is a Ray Charles version.

  • hi everyone, check out the chuck farley version i've just uploaded. x

  • xeno087 Man, you try to listen to some music, scroll down to see what people have to say and you have ....... No we have lost our innocence and look for the underlying agenda in everything. Mainly because there is a underlying agenda in everything. It kinda sucks but it is what it is.

    GOODDAY

  • @ASAdamson If you want to just listen to some music, you can ignore the lyrics entirely. Or you can take the lyrics at face value, but then it should be pretty obvious that something's not quite right about them.

  • @johnnye87 I don't remember my comment and cant find it. Maybe I was thinking too much the Night I was listening to Newman. I really like his crazy style. No telling what frame of mind I was in. Thanks for the response.

  • Satire is one method that works to awaken the nearly dead, nearly brain dead. Helloooo.

  • I know cynicism was big in the 70s, but still: can't ya just picture it?

  • Randy is a classic songwriter... or should I say "Story teller" with music. His original style is always refreshing!

  • Alright guys everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Let's just love this song

  • Since when did slave traders try to entice slaves aboard ships? I reckon the standard interpretation of this song makes no sense. For me, it's a metaphorical condemnation of the promise of a better life in the hereafter, as promulgated in the Christianisation of African Americans. Accept your lot and you'll be rewarded in heaven/Charleston Bay.

  • is there any way to block a whole page of comments? we seem to have drifted away from randy newman and this song

  • you stupid fucking conspiricist get the fuck of randy newmans thingy or i'll get zombified stalin to come and rape you evil robot poodle!

  • I just wanna learn how to play this song. I don't care what anyone thinks about it politically, it's a great riff.

  • Sam Shepherd used this song in one of his plays. That's where I first became acquainted with Newman's art.

    He's simply fabulous. I don't know if he knows how good he is. Maybe that's a good thing.

  • ..you know John Wilkes Booth tried to make this story not happen, but time moves on. And the lyrics live on and on..

  • i usualy listen to heavy metal but this is just so great, love it!