Thought I’d close out Randy Newman Week with an illustration as to how demagogues operate. BTW, didja know that Huey Long built his own full-scale replica of the White House down in Baton Rouge? Now you do:
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Song Of The Day: April 8, 2018
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I meant to do this yesterday, but Newman also addressed how populist demagogues get elected — their voters get sick of being ignored:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGs2iLoDUYE
The short version, for those who don’t know the history: New Orleans businessmen, fearing for the city, blew up the levee to the north. The city was spared; 400,000 rural folks were displaced. Yep, that’ll get a populist elected.
Also, too, we managed to spend a week on Randy Newman, on a political blog, without discussing his masterpiece.
If there’s a better cover of it than Etta James’, I haven’t heard it. She was on this in 1973, the year after it came out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwj1GJXkNm8