last night ray met randy newman. i pulled some strings and got our names on the "backstage list", so after the concert we joined about 8 others, and all corralled into a tiny room to wait to shake hands with a musical god.
i'm getting ahead of myself, though.
the show itself was perfect. he performed solo at the piano, of course, but also sang some songs with the north carolina symphony accompanying him. the big surprise of the evening were the movie suites (toy story, avalon, the natural) which randy conducted from the podium.
during the concert i snuck many peripheral peeks at ray. i have never seen a bigger smile on his face as long as i've known him.
we were stunned to realize afterward that the concert had been almost 2.5 hours long; i had no idea anyone puts on a show that long anymore. (and it is even more surprising in light of the fact that the musicians' union kicks its members into a higher pay scale when a performance tops 2 hours, which i'm sure the symphony's budget doesn't appreciate.) the orchestral arrangements were randy's, of course, and they were lush and beautiful. randy quipped and joked from the stage. everything was spectacular.
ray has been a huge fan of randy newman's for more than 15 years. he owns all of his records, and he says the music kept him sane while he was in the army. ray actually told this to randy as he was autographing his program. ("to ray, thanks for the kind words. all the best, randy newman.") of the 10 of us, ray's autograph was one of the first. we stuck around while randy chatted and signed more autographs, and i looked over at ray at one point, a bit disbelieving that we could just reach out and touch randy newman... he was right there.
the evening's conductor, william henry curry, passed through the room at one point and called randy a genius. (3.6 MB mov)
then they ushered randy away to a reception, and we exited the building. i walked, ray skipped and jumped for joy.
Posted by xta at September 17, 2005 08:14 PM | TrackBackRay didn't hurt his neck when he skipped and jumped for joy, did he? I hope not.
The awestruck joy on Ray's face in that photo as he's watching Randy is really cool.
Posted by: minty at September 17, 2005 10:52 PMSince Ray once gave me some Randy Newman music, I feel connected. :)
Posted by: Joseph H. VIlas at September 18, 2005 12:43 AMI find the music from Avalon to be one of the most
poignant pieces of music I have ever heard. It's as though it's made of velvet.
I too love Randy Newman, I knew there was something I liked about Ray.
I can die now. Best date ever!
For one song, we the audience had our own lines, which he taught us. It was called "I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)". So actually, I met AND PERFORMED WITH Randy Newman. :)
Hilarious how he'd intro some of his stuff, and make comments in the middle of songs.
"I Miss You" - "I wrote this for my first wife, while married to my second."
"Political Science"--first line is "No one likes us, I don't know why"--which he interrupted to say, "That part doesn't work anymore."
"Avalon"--"a movie which no Gentile has yet seen"
Posted by: ra(nd)y neuwbmainger at September 19, 2005 09:44 AMmore reminiscences.
for "It's Money That I Love," he intro'd: 'This is another one of my deep spiritual numbers.'
He had a black left eye. told us backstage that it was from falling out of bed, his face landing on a piece of furniture! the bruise is about the size of a quarter and is largely obscured by the lower rim of his spectacles, in the picture.
I've never even heard of Avalon, but at least I've heard of Randy Newman.
Posted by: Sarah at September 20, 2005 02:09 PMPROGRAM:
Birmingham
Short People
The Girls in My Life (Part 1) ("Now I'm married.../And that's just half the story/Of the girls in my life")
The World Isn't Fair ("If Marx were living today/He'd be rolling around in his grave")
I Miss You ("written to my first wife, while married to my second")
Kingfish ("about Huey P. Long, who was from the late state of Louisiana")
Love Story
Marie
You Can Leave Your Hat On
I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)
The Great Nations of Europe
I Love to See You Smile
_Toy Story_ Suite
_The Natural_ Suite
INTERMISSION ("so you can go shoot up and have a few drinks")
_The Maverick_ Suite
_Avalon_ Suite
It's Money That I Love
In Germany Before the War ("about a child murderer")
Cowboy
Dixie Flyer ("Most of my songs aren't autobiographical, or I'd be in an institution, but this one is")
Better Off Dead ("for the women who love too much")
You've Got a Friend in Me
Sail Away ("the best song ever written about the slave trade")
Real Emotional Girl
Political Science
Louisiana 1927
ENCORES:
Lonely at the Top
I Think It's Going to Rain Today
> PROGRAM
> I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It)
That was an audience participation song. So I (and Christa) have PERFORMED WITH Randy Newman!
He told the orchestra (who otherwise had no part in this song) that maybe they could get a bonus if they sang along too.
In the chorus, Randy sings, "I'm dead, but I don't know it," and we sang, "He's dead, he's dead." He taught it to us and we practiced it once. He joked, "Not so enthusiastically!"
That song was on his last new studio album, _Bad Love_ from 1999. It has many hints that he plans no more. I told him twice in person, Whatever you put out, I'll buy--but he didn't respond. I guess I was hoping it would be enough to make him say, 'Well now that YOU say so, Ray, I hereby commit to doing another album after all.'
I realize y'all are interested in Christa's other goings-on too, but this Randy Newman thing really needs to be the main thread from now on. ;-)
ps
per
http://randynewman.com/tocperformances/performancesupcomingdates
we were supposed to hear songs from
Monsters, Inc.
Seabiscuit
Toy Story 2
but we didn't.
Come back and finish out your contract, Randy!
Oscar acceptance speech (finally a win after 16 nominations!):
http://www.oscars.org/74academyawards/winners/musicsong.html