Randy Newman - Rednecks

Randy Newman & Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,
cond. Roelof van Driesten.
Rotterdam, Netherlands, 1979

• Category

  Music

[64wally64]

You sir are an idiot. You are missing the point of the song, he is saying that the north is now treating Black people worse then southern people do. In the north they are thrown into slums and that is the end of it. It is ignorant assholes like you that miss interpret what he is saying. Also he is from the south.

[MrLozengerZ]

I bet you don't know your ass from a hole in the ground. :)

[JOEJOEBOJOEMOJOE]

I'm sorry this song sucks!

[DavelovesRealMusic]

It is a shame he is BANNED from singing this song on ANY TV broadcast in the USA. he cant sing it on any award show, any nwtwork broadcast. A aong that has so much in it--that says so much about the irony and hypocrisy tat says so many words of TRUTH is so musundestood, so shoved under a rug so that they can push their artist of the month that they invested heavily in who wont be rememberd in two years. newamn just got his rock and roll induction with a great speech by Don Henley :)

[William Vanderburg]

Newman is a transplanted southerner. He was born in Los Angeles, CA and moved to Louisiana when he was kid. He did not live there after age 11. Rednecks shows the ugly side of "institutionalized" racism on both sides of the coin. He pointed out that those who looked down on the south and Maddox as Governor of Georgia, were no better themselves. Every town/section he mentions in the last half of the song is a ghetto. The "NY Jew" (Dick Cavett) was actually not a Jew.

[Yohfay]

First of all, he's from Louisiana. Second, it's satire. His point is that for all the posturing the people in northern states do they do the same and worse than people in the south. Randy Newman often uses unreliable narrators in his songs. Basically he's singing the song as a character than he created.

[Devi1sBackboneTavern]

Ugh, no he is not. You're missing the point too, but in a ironic and comical way. The point is racism is universal, and northerns think the South is full of racist rednecks, which helps them to ignore the North is treating blacks poorly. He is NOT saying one is more racist than the other. That is the southerners whole point in the song: treating blacks poorly is everywhere, but the North holds an elitist attitude towards the South, and this provides a means to ignore its own problems.

[Atish Raja]

you are projecting jackie boy, im not a racist

[jack bobrick]

if you say your not a little bit racist, your a liar

[eegork]

Wow, I read hundreds of negative comments about this song. It's clearly a satire aimed at the ignorance of racism.

For those that don't get it... You can't handle the truth!

[IAMIAN002]

You are clearly too dumb to understand satire