We were talking about good songs for this rainy, flooded weekend on the last post, and no one mentioned the most appropriate song of all, Randy Newman’s magnificent “Louisiana 1927.”
This one’s got it all — Newman’s irony mixed with pathos and sympathy for the common man, his orchestral sensibility, history, and his inimitable touch with lyrics. This is, of course, from his wonderful “Good Old Boys” album, which kicks off with the one truly brilliant Newman song that you will never, ever hear on the radio in this country — “Rednecks.” (If anyone overhears you listening to that one, and that person lacks a sense of irony, watch out. But I do recommend it, long as you’re not one a them college boys from LSU who went in dumb, come out dumb too.)
I prefer the original album version, which is below, but I used the one above for the pictures.
The song, of course, is about the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which Wikipedia calls “the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States” — although we seem to be trying to give it a run for its money this weekend.
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Raindrops are falling on my head….
Copy-paste from the other post:
ive Feet High (Johnny Cash)
I Wish It Would Rain (Temptations)
Who’ll Stop the Rain? (CCR)
All Night Rain (ARS)
Backwater Blues (Bessie Smith)
Praying for Rain (new from Don Henley)
Let It Rain (Eric Clapton)
Louisiana 1927 is an awesome song. It’s a shame that Newman’s notoriety is all Short People and Toy Story. He’s done so much incredible work.
Bridge over Troubled Water
Didn’t it rain, children talk about a rain, didn’t it oh, didn’t it oh, didn’t it, oh my Lord, didn’t it rain?
The wild and windy night
That the rain washed away
Has left a pool of tears
Crying for the day
Why leave me standing here
Let me know the way
cos the long and winding road seems to be crumbling all over town.
Rain, rain, go away…