{"id":803848,"date":"2020-02-05T11:04:33","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=948172"},"modified":"2020-02-05T11:04:33","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T18:04:33","slug":"that-time-randy-newman-wrote-the-theme-for-a-musical-cop-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/that-time-randy-newman-wrote-the-theme-for-a-musical-cop-show\/","title":{"rendered":"That Time Randy Newman Wrote the Theme for a Musical Cop Show"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Before Randy Newman<\/a> scored his most recent Oscar nods<\/a> (for Toy Story 4<\/em> and Marriage Story<\/em>), he won an Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Music and Lyrics<\/a> for the theme song to the short-lived Nineties series Cop Rock<\/a><\/em>. The title? \u201cUnder the Gun,\u201d of course.<\/p>\n

The song features some truly Eighties-era production, as Newman, perched behind his keyboard, sings, \u201cDays of sunshine, tears of rain\/Precious memories of days gone by\/Eyes of darkness, feel the pain\/\u2026Did what had to be done\/living under the gun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cop Rock<\/em> was a 1990 TV show on ABC that merged a gritty crime drama with a musical \u2014 yup, citizens and law enforcement burst into song, seemingly for no reason. Unsurprisingly, it was canceled after 11 episodes. \u201cWhen I was making Hill Street Blues<\/em>, a Broadway producer talked to me about the possibility of doing Hill Street<\/em> as a Broadway musical,\u201d producer Steven Bochco told the New York Times<\/a><\/em>. \u201cFor all sorts of practical reasons, that wasn\u2019t possible, but the idea of a musical cop show stuck with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bochco tracked Newman down via his agent, he recalls to the AV Club<\/a>. \u201cI told him my concept, and he said, \u2018You\u2019re crazy. It\u2019ll never work.\u2019 I talked him into it anyway. It was amazing working with him, though, and we\u2019ve been friends ever since. You know, Randy\u2019s a genius. \u2026 He got the only positive recognition that anybody<\/em> got for that show!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Newman wrote five songs for the pilot: \u201cHe\u2019s Guilty,\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve Got the Power,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019re the One for Me,\u201d \u201cSince She Chose Me\u201d and \u201cSandman.\u201d Oddly enough, \u201cShe Chose Me,\u201d a stunner of a romantic track, appears on his 2017 standout album Dark Matter<\/em>. \u201c[In the show this] supposedly ugly guy [has] an absolutely beautiful wife, and he was wondering how he could be so blessed to have this wonderful person loving him. And that\u2019s not a bad idea. It\u2019s kind of a big idea. It\u2019s certainly worth a song or two,\u201d he told Pitchfork<\/a>. \u201cSandman\u2019s Coming\u201d appears on 1995 musical Randy Newman\u2019s Faust <\/em>with a brushed-up title.<\/p>\n