Rednecks (Randy Newman)

[CTyankee]

I remember this song when it came out. I would hope things have changed but I remember way back when I was a kid growing up in Texas how people felt about New Yorkers and especially Jewish New Yorkers.

I knew some people who felt exactly like what Randy is describing and I wonder if Mike Bloomberg will be viewed with such vile anti-semitism in this day and age.

When I wanted to come East to go to college, I had an aunt who chided me: "All of your people are southern people." You really weren't supposed to leave Texas, much less go East to NYC (actually I went to school in Pittsburgh but wound up in NYC).

Now I am very happy with a Jewish husband and a daughter in law who is a rabbi. I have a three granddaughters raised in Judaism.

My choice for our nominee is Warren, but I would happily vote for Mike Bloomberg as our first Jewish president and hope Newman's song is very much out of date...

[OKNancy]

1. I've known some wonderful people you could call rednecks

Solid Democrats too. One who really sticks in my memory was Harry D. He was a farmer in western Oklahoma. He was my husband's family friend. Ironically I also had relatives from near there too. We went to the cemetery in Canute OK. There, not three graves down from my husband's grandfather was my great-grandmother. Her name was Nancy too.

Anyway, having dinner with Harry and his large family was a real treat. Politics and Republican hate. It was great.
We spent the night in a bed covered with homemade quilts.

Anyway, I digress. It's never a good idea to stereotype IMO.

[maxsolomon]

2. The song is multi-layered and sung from an ironic standpoint.

In the end, it indicts Northern Whites as surely as it does Southern Rednecks.

Newman was a genius in that era.

[CTyankee]

3. I agree.