Randy Newman on Jackson Browne (on Everyman)

Jeff Helgeson sent this along when Stayin Alive helped him put some Randy Newman puzzle pieces together: 

After reading Stayin’ Alive, I now know why Jackson Browne matters to Randy Newman. Newman’s song, “Piece of the Pie” was always an enigma. The main point is hard to miss: “Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low,” Newman sings over a carnival of piano and wind instruments, “The rich are getting richer/I should know/While we’re going up/You’re going down.” 

But I never understood the punchline: “And no one gives a shit but Jackson Browne/Jackson Browne/Jackson/Jackson.” Never, that is, until I read Cowie’s description of Browne’s song, “For Everyman” (written in response/reaction to CSN's call for exodus in "Wooden Ships"). Jackson Browne, says Cowie, “knew that he had chosen the only viable option: a lifelong alliance with people he neither understood nor with whom he could always agree.” (Cowie, 183)

Newman and Cowie, it turns out, have quite a bit in common. They not only share an appreciation for Browne’s populism, however meek it might have been, but they both also manage to deliver depressing news in an enjoyable package. And they both manage to connect the thinness of American pop culture's class critique with the structural transformations of the American economy of the 1970s. Newman’s a bit more concise, but his “Piece of the Pie” and Cowie’s Stayin’ Alive echo each other: The lack of security for ordinary people in the wealthiest nation in the world....The failure of popular culture to respond to inequality.... 

Here are the lyrics:

Like us all you want the very best of life
A car, a house, a neighborhood that's nice
With flowers and trees and lots of little kids around
Where public schools aren't breeding grounds
for vice

You say you're working harder than you ever have
You say you got two jobs and so's your wife
Living in the richest country in the world
Wouldn't you think you'd have abetter life

If you lived in Norway
You'd be fine right now
Get sick there
You make the doctor wait
If you lived in Belgium
You could mediate
[Flemish/French debate]
Hey knock it off!
And the French fries are great
Hey!

Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low
The rich are getting richer
I should know
While we're going up
You're going down
And no one gives a shit but Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne

Jackson
Jackson

There's a famous saying someone famous said
As General Motors goes so go we all
Johnny Cougar's singing it's their country now
He'll be singing for Toyota by the fall

[Patriots]:
That's not true
John's a patriot
He's not like you
He's a......

Jesus Christ it stinks here low and high
Some get rich
And others just get by
Bono's off in Africa - he's never around
The country turns its lonely eyes to who?
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne

A piece of the pie
That's all we're asking for
A piece of the pie

- Randy Newman, “A Piece of the Pie”