54 – A Few Words in Defense of Our Country- Randy Newman – 2008

A Few Words in Defense of Our Country - Randy Newman 

       A spoken word exposition with music, but it expresses beliefs closer (I think) to his own, of the GW Bush years. He’s not portraying a character/stereotype as in “Short People” or “Rednecks.”

      

                   “I'd like to say
                   “A few words
                   “In defense of our country
                   “Whose people aren't bad
                   “Nor are they mean
                   “Now, the leaders we have
                   “While they're the worst that we've had
                   “Are hardly the worst
                   “This poor world has seen”

                   “Take the Caesars, for example
                   “Why, with the first few of them
                   “They were sleeping with their sister, stashing little boys in swimming pools, and                          “burning down the city
                   “And one of 'em, one of 'em appointed his own horse to be Consul of the Empire
                   “That's like vice president or something
                   “Now wait a minute, that's not a very good example
                   “Here's one, Spanish Inquisition
                   “Put people in a terrible position
                   “I don't even like to think about it
                   “Well, sometimes I like to think about it”

       I like that line, “I don’t even like to think about it….Well, sometimes I like to think about it.”

     

       Who else (Al Stewart, maybe), writes songs about historical figures such as Tiberius and Caligula?

       Later, he “sings”:

                   “A President once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"
                   “Now we're supposed to be afraid
                   “It's patriotic, in fact, and color-coded
                   “And what we supposed to be afraid of?
                   “Why, of being afraid
                   “That's what terror means, doesn't it?
                   “That's what it used to mean”

                   “You know, it pisses me off a little that this Supreme Court's gonna outlive me
                   “Couple young Italian fellas and a brother on the Court now, too
                   “But I defy you, anywhere in the world, to find me two Italians as tight-assed as the                      two Italians we got
                   “And as for the brother, well,
                   “Pluto's not a planet anymore either”

                   “The end of an empire
                   “Is messy at best
                   “And this empire's ending
                   “Like all the rest
                   “Like the Spanish Armada
                   “Adrift on the  sea
                   “We're adrift in the land of the brave
                   “And the home of the free”

                   “Goodbye

                   “Goodbye
                   “Goodbye”

       Not “Ha-Ha” funny, but amusing and, ultimately, a little sad.