Bless Randy Newman for offering a little optimism with his new quarantine song, "Stay Away"
There’s been no shortage of coronavirus-inspired music, from timely covers and parodies to originals that, while sweet, are sillier than they are resonant. Until now, the best one’s this infectious (in a good way) hip-hop PSA out of Uganda, but the great Randy Newman is here to give it a run for its money.
Los Angeles radio station KPCC got the ball rolling, asking Newman for his advice during our current crisis. He responded with a song that, in Newman fashion, is warm and funny and kinda melancholy—it’s an actual song, one that’s perhaps suited more than any of its contemporaries to capture the new, odd emotions with which we’re all dealing.
Titled “Stay Away,” it begins with a cheeky riff to the Velvet Underground before asserting that words like “stay away from me” are “words of love in times like these.” Buoyed by jaunty piano, it soon cycles into a touching portrait of a 30-year marriage: “I’m gonna be with you 24 hours a day/ A lot of people couldn’t stand that, but you can,” he sings. “You’ll be with me 24 hours a day/ What a lucky man I am.”
Give it a listen above and read the full lyrics below.
Venus in sweatpants
That’s who you are
And when this mess is over
I’ll buy you a car