‘Good Old Boys’: Behind Randy Newman’s Subversive Masterpiece

Newman doesn’t merely expose such despicable views; his lyrics hint at the fears that lead to such dehumanising rhetoric: fear of marginalisation, of the unfamiliar, of redundance. Yet there’s also a self-awareness in Cutler’s glorification of his beliefs that suggests Newman could be sending up the caricature that Northern liberal elites have of the South, implying that they are just as guilty of prejudice. And Newman adds another layer in the song’s coda, pointing to the Northern cities whose own planning laws have all but effected segregation in another name. Still, such nuances could be easily lost on crowds, as Newman told Malcolm Gladwell, in an interview for the Revisionist History podcast: “Southern audiences started yelling for it so they could sing along with the chorus. When I thought that that was happening, I stopped playing in the South.”

The character: “I had to explain this guy in the song more”

Rednecks provided a spark for Newman, who quickly wrote two more songs – Marie and Birmingham – for Johnny Cutler. “I felt like I had to explain this guy in the song more,” Newman wrote in the sleevenotes for the expanded reissue of 1974’s Good Old Boys. “You know, give him a job and a wife. So that’s what I did.”

Marie is one of the best Randy Newman songs. A heartbreaking ballad that finds Cutler returning home drunk and sentimental, it drops in on the only time the character is able to tell his sleeping wife how he feels about her. And yet, Marie is no simple love song; Cutler’s regretful tone suggests an undercurrent of violence (“Sometimes I’m crazy, but I guess you know/I’m weak and I’m lazy and I’ve hurt you so”).

“He certainly loves her. It would seem that that isn’t drink, but it might be,” Newman said on Revisionist History, adding, “Is this a good guy? And my answer to that is, ‘I don’t know.’ I’m suspicious of this – I’m drunk right now, baby, but when I’m awake I might knock the shit out of you sometime.”

Birmingham initially appears to be more straightforward – a neat, airbrushed biography of Cutler and family, with a chorus that airily extols the virtues of the character’s hometown, “The greatest city in Alabam’” – until Cutler merrily introduces his pet, an attack dog, in the final verse, shattering the wholesome scenes (“Get him, Dan!”).

The concept: Johnny Cutler’s Birthday

The songs kept coming, and Newman began working on a concept album titled Johnny Cutler’s Birthday. Intended to cover a day in the life of the titular character, Newman’s 13-song piano-and-voice demos for the project, complete with scene-setting narration – recorded in February 1973 during a single session – were eventually released on the 2002 expanded reissue of Good Old Boys.

Newman’s vision was to follow Cutler from a park with his daughter, Suzy, to a trip to church (the fearful gospel of If We Didn’t Have Jesus) and on to his boozy birthday party (The Joke, Louisiana, My Daddy Knew Dixie Howell), followed by the morning after (Good Morning, sung by Marie), a run-in at the steel factory (Birmingham Redux), a conversation with a doctor about Cutler’s brother’s mental-health issues (Doctor, Doctor; Naked Man) and an evening indulging in the escapism of drinking and watching television (Albanian Anthem, Rolling).

The final album: A broader exploration of the South

From the demos alone, it’s clear that Johnny Cutler’s Birthday could have been a great concept album, but one of its songs, the stirring classic Louisiana – released on Good Old Boys as Louisiana 1927 – pushed Newman towards a broader exploration of the South. In an aside from Cutler’s birthday celebrations, Louisiana looks back to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, when an area of 27,000 square miles was submerged in up to 30 feet of water. Thousands were made homeless and nearly 250 people died.

The federal government’s mishandling of the situation led to the election of left-wing populist politician Huey Long as governor of Louisiana. Newman was fascinated by Long – who was elected to the US Senate in 1932 and was assassinated on 8 September 1935 – and recorded a pair of songs that brought him into the album’s narrative: the original Kingfish, a fictional Long campaign speech set to music that veered between the triumphant and the sinister, and a bawdy cover of the Long campaign song Every Man A King, featuring members of Eagles.

The Long-centric tracks added an extra dimension to Good Old Boys’ rich and outspoken exploration of the Southern United States. And, despite the controversial nature of many of its lyrics, the album became Newman’s biggest-selling release to that point, reaching No.36 on the Billboard 200. What’s more, many of its tracks have remained classics – a reminder of Newman’s ability to craft universally loved songs with challenging subject matter. There would be many more of those to come.

Find out where Randy Neman ranks among the best songwriters in history.