The song Paul McCartney wrote to emulate Randy Newman
While the names of Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan and Brian Wilson jostle for real estate in the ‘Mount Rushmore’ of music fans, there are alternative, arguably more impactful, names carved deeper into the granite wall. While the aforementioned are important cultural pillars, they stand on the shoulders of past giants whose more humble pursuits often result in their greatness being overlooked. Randy Newman is certainly that kind of artist.
Responsible for penning hits ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’, yet largely overlooked for such an achievement, his career is one of quiet influence. While his record-buying audience may have only boasted 200,000, of that number you can bet that a large portion was purchased by artist you consider the greats. Dylan, Lou Reed, David Byrne, the list of icons whose living rooms rung with the sounds of Newman goes on.
In fact, modern culture’s songwriting poster-boy Bob Dylan claimed Newman was the craft’s master, stating: “Now Randy might not go out on stage and knock you out, or knock your socks off. And he’s not going to get people thrilled in the front row. He ain’t gonna do that. But he’s gonna write a better song than most people who can do it. You know, he’s got that down to an art”.
So in 2004, when Paul McCartney was producing his 13th solo album and the realms of playful experimentation were fully exercised, writing a track that doffs it’s cap to Newman felt like one of the few avenues left to explore. While McCartney boasted more than an album’s worth of tracks that adopt the compositionally humble approach of someone like Newman, he’d also been the spearhead of innovation for the past few decades.
With nothing but a piano as the backdrop, McCartney’s track ‘Anyway’ is an instinctual musical voyage that tries to evoke the same stripped-back vulnerability as Newman. “It started off as the [sings] ‘If you need me,’ the little verse thing, [sings] ‘won’t you call me?’ which is just about, ‘If you love me will you call me?” McCartney explained.
“And then, you know, it was going quite straightforward, and for some reason, I was getting this feeling, again, why do you get these feelings?” he explained. “I don’t know, but I was getting this feeling as if it was the deep south of America, like Charlestown, Savannah, something about the chords, I think. There was just something reminding me, almost sort of Randy Newman kind of thing, I thought I was doing. As always it turns out nothing like him but at the time I think I’m doing this thing, so that was going on”.
While McCartney’s explanation does signpost similarities you may not have noticed previously, he is correct in saying that the essence of Newman isn’t something that can necessarily be captured. Perhaps his indelible link to the world of animated movies enhances the feeling, but ultimately, Newman’s work is poignant and ballad-like but dressed in a sense of elusive playfulness. While McCartney can, of course, get silly with the best of them, dressing him up in an oversized bow tie and colourful suit would become more of a fashion statement than an exercise in authenticity, whereas for Newman, that’s nothing more than a Friday night dinner outfit.
