Ladies and gentlemen, the new side by Randy Newman.

Newman, who is white, is openly supporting President Barack Obama. He says he wants the public to find comedic relief in the song, but to also know he’s serious about his thoughts that racism is well and alive in the world — and in the current presidential race. He called racism “the great issue of this country.”

“I felt that that sentiment exists in the country,” Newman said in an interview Monday. “I don’t know how many people you can get to admit it. I think maybe zero.”

The song will be released as a free download Tuesday and Newman is encouraging listeners to donate to the United Negro College Fund. …

“It’s delicate enough that I’m not going to offend people every which way, but I wanted to get it right as best I could,” said Newman, who added that he’s always worried there may be some backlash following the release of a song like this one.

Newman believes Obama will be re-elected in November and feels that Republican contender Mitt Romney isn’t a “serious candidate for president.” Newman said he’s proud of how America has progressed, though, but adds that “there’s a long way to go.”

“No European country would have elected a black man,” he said. “I can’t believe it happened. I think it’s fantastic, like a step on the moon.”

The lyrics:

George Washington was a white man
Adams and Jefferson too
Abe Lincoln was a white man, probably
And William McKinley the whitest of them all
Was shot down by an immigrant in Buffalo
And a star fell out of heaven

I’m dreaming of a white President
Just like the ones we’ve always had
A real live white man
Who knows the score
How to handle money or start a war
Wouldn’t even have to tell me what we were fighting for
He’d be the right man
If he were a

I’m dreaming of a white President
Someone whom we can understand
Someone who knows where we’re coming from
And that the law of the jungle is not the law of this land

In deepest darkest Africa nineteen three
A little boy says, “Daddy, I just discovered relativity.
A big eclipse is coming
And I’ll prove it. Wait and see!”

“You better eclipse yourself outta here, son
And find yourself a tree
There’s a lion in the front yard
And he knows he won’t catch me.”

How many little Albert Einsteins
Cut down in their prime?
How many little Ronald Reagans
Gobbled up before their time?

I don’t believe in evolution
But it does occur to me,
What if little William Howard Taft had to face a lion
Or God forbid, climb a tree?
Where would this country be?

I’m dreaming of a white President
Buh buh buh buh
‘Cause things have never been this bad
So he won’t run the hundred in ten seconds flat
So he won’t have a pretty jump shot
Or be an Olympic acrobat
So he won’t know much about global warming
Is that really where you’re at?
He won’t be the brightest, perhaps
But he’ll be the whitest
And I’ll vote for that

Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Yes
Whiter than this?
Oh yeah

The gorgeous theme song from Babe: Pig in the City, written by Randy Newman, performed here by Peter Gabriel at O2 World Berlin with the New Blood Orchestra. Watch out; if this song catches you in the right mood you might find yourself tearing up. That’s right, tearing up. Over a pig.

This is from someone’s video camera, but has surprisingly good audio.

A couple weeks ago
My wife and I
Took a little trip down to
Mexico
Met this young girl there
We brought her back with us
Now she lives with us
In our home
She cleans the hallway
She cleans the stairs
She cleans the living room
She wipes the baby’s ass
She drives the kids to school
She does the laundry too
She wrote this song for me
Listen
Yeah

The other afternoon
My wife and I
Took a little ride into
Beverly Hills
Went to the private school
Our oldest child attends
Many famous people send their children there
This teacher says to us
“We have a problem here
This child just will not do
A thing we tell him to
And he’s such a big old thing
He hurts the other children
All the games they play, he plays too rough”
I said hold it teacher
Wait a minute
Maybe my ears are clogged or somethin’
Maybe I’m not understanding
The English language
Dear, you don’t seem to realize

My life is good
My life is good
My life is good, you old bag
My life

Just this evening
Some young associates of ours
Are flying in to see us from
New York City
They’re gonna stay with us
A couple of weeks or so
I’m gonna take ‘em to
Restaurants and everything
We’re gonna get ‘em some
Real good cocaine
They don’t get much
Where they come from
And this one guy’s wife
Is such a pretty little brown thing
That I’m liable to give her a poke or two
Whaddaya think of that?

Teacher, let me tell you a little story
Just this morning
My wife and I
Went to this sort of a hotel in the hills
That’s right
The Bel-Air Hotel
Where a very good friend of ours
Happened to be staying
The name of this young man
Is Mr. Bruce Springsteen
That’s right, yeah
We talked about some kind of
Woodblock or something
And this new guitar we like
And you know what he said to me
I’ll tell you what he said to me
He said, “Rand, I’m tired
How would you like to be the Boss for awhile?”
Well, yeah

My life is good
My life is good

There’s also a great version of this song on The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2.

Broken windows and empty hallways
A pale dead moon in the sky streaked with gray
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s going to rain today

Scarecrows dressed in the latest styles
With frozen smiles to chase love away
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s going to rain today

Lonely, lonely
Tin can at my feet
Think I’ll kick it down the street
That’s the way to treat a friend

Bright before me the signs implore me
To help the needy and show them the way
Human kindness is overflowing
And I think it’s going to rain today

There’s a great version of this cynically on-target song on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1. (Here it is at the iTunes Store.)

Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why
If the children of Israel were supposed to multiply
Then why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:

“Man means nothing, he means less to me
than the lowliest cactus flower
or the humblest yucca tree
he chases round this desert
cause he thinks that’s where I’ll be
that’s why I love mankind

I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee
from the squalor and the filth and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That’s why I love mankind”

The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said “Lord the plague is on the world
Lord no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won’t take care of us
Won’t you please please let us be?”

And the Lord said
And the Lord said

“I burn down your cities — how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That’s why I love mankind
You really need me
That’s why I love mankind”

There’s an excellent version of this Randy Newman song on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1. The video is from his 2008 appearance with the BBC Concert Orchestra.

When Karl Marx was a boy
he took a hard look around
He saw people were starving all over the place
while others were painting the town
The public spirited boy
became a public spirited man
So he worked very hard and he read everything
until he came up with a plan

There’ll be no exploitation
of the worker or his kin
No discrimination ‘cause of the color of your skin
No more private property
It would not be allowed
No one could rise too high
No one could sink too low
or go under completely like some we all know

If Marx were living today
he’d be rolling around in his grave
And if I had him here in my mansion on the hill
I’d tell him a story t’would give his old heart a chill

It’s something that happened to me
I’d say, Karl I recently stumbled
into a new family
with two little children in school
where all little children should be
I went to the orientation
All the young mommies were there
Karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight
as these beautiful women arrayed for the night
just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and queens
And they’d come there with men much like me
Froggish men, unpleasant to see
Were you to kiss one, Karl
Nary a prince would there be

Oh Karl the world isn’t fair
It isn’t and never will be
They tried out your plan
It brought misery instead
If you’d seen how they worked it
you’d be glad you were dead
just like I’m glad I’m living in the land of the free
where the rich just get richer
and the poor you don’t ever have to see
It would depress us, Karl
Because we care
that the world still isn’t fair

Some albums I bought recently at Amazon’s MP3 store, and highly recommend. Lots of different styles in this batch, from prog rock to African chants with banjo. The Amazon widget lets you listen to 30-second excerpts from any song on these albums, and if you click through and buy, the LGF weblog fund gets a small cut of the sales price through their Associates program.

An eerie, haunting song by Randy Newman, performed at the 2007 Jazz Open festival in Stuttgart: “In Germany Before the War.” The song is available on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1, a highly recommended collection of Randy’s classic songs rearranged for just voice and piano.

This is songwriting at its very best. He strips the narrative down to the bone, with almost no details. There are very few lyrics, and he plays games with them, letting the piano complete some of the phrases where you expect another line.

I consider this a real work of genius.

(Hit the “HQ” button for better audio and video.)

A beautiful version of a song that’s been covered by several artists, from Randy’s new album Harps & Angels.