I started recording because I was always complaining about the records that I was getting of my songs. At least if I did them and messed them up, I wouldn't have anyone else to blame.

He returned to film work with 1981's Ragtime for which he was nominated for two Academy Awards. Notable performances and appearances
In 1985 Newman performed a set at the first Farm Aid concert that featured a duet with Billy Joel on facing grand pianos. The song addresses the deceitful manner in which New Orleans's municipal government managed a flood in 1927 during which as Newman asserts "The guys who ran the Mardi Gras the bosses in New Orleans decided the course of that flood.

He has scored six Disney-Pixar films: Toy Story A Bug's Life Toy Story 2 Monsters Inc. Newman will be inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013. For example the 1972 song "Sail Away" is written as a slave trader's sales pitch to attract slaves while the narrator of "Political Science" is a U.