Rednecks (song)

Rednecks is a song by Randy Newman, the lead-off track on his famous 1974 album "Good Old Boys".

Lyrics and interpretation

Like several of Newman's songs, "Rednecks" is sung from the perspective of an interesting, non-neutral narrator — in this case a stereotypical Southern "redneck". In it he expresses his dismay at the way that the North looks down upon The South. In particular the narrator describes his ire at watching a "smart-ass, New York Jew" [cite web
url=http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/randynewman/albums/album/129751/review/6068141/good_old_boys
title=Music Reviews: Randy Newman: Good Old Boys
publisher=Rolling Stone
accessdate=2008-05-15
last=
first=] mock Lester Maddox on a television program (this is an allusion to Maddox's 1970 appearance on "The Dick Cavett Show" whose eponymous host is actually a gentile). In response to his frustration at the television show, the narrator goes on to list, sarcastically, a litany of negative qualities that Southerners are reputed to have. He focuses especially on their reputed institutionalized racism, or, as the narrator puts it: "keeping the niggers down."

However, as the song ends, the narrator turns the knife on judgmental Northerners, calling them out as hypocrites. He achieves this by singing that the "North has set the nigger free," but pointing out, again sarcastically, that African-Americans are only "free to be put in a cage" (i.e., segregated) in various bad neighborhoods of big Northern cities — victims of, one assumes, the exact same racism that the Southerners are reputed to have. The song's final verse lyric is: "They [the Northerners] gatherin' 'em up, from miles around/Keeping the niggers down."

Like many Newman songs, it is difficult to tell with certainty how much or little Newman himself identifies with the narrator. Clearly, Newman desires to poke fun at smug Yankees that tar all Southerners with the same brush as ignorant, racist fools. But at the same time, he also pokes fun at the narrator himself, demonstrating the narrator's own clear prejudice ("smart-ass New York Jew") and his slavish adherence to his own kind ("he may be a fool, but he's our fool.") In a sense, "Rednecks" shares a lot with another famous Newman tune "I Love L.A." in that Newman both identifies with and seeks to make fun of the narrator at the same time.

Music

"Rednecks" is written in the key of G, although it features an opening lament-like stanza in the relative E-minor key. This lament part is simple piano-vocal only, but on the transition to G-major, the instrumentation fills out with winds, bass, drums, guitars, etc. to provide a very full sound. While the music is characteristic of Newman's semi-gospel style, "Rednecks" features a relatively complex piano part, and is not an easy song for fans to pick up and play.

References