Songfacts®:

• Although Newman is a pianist by training, the dominant instrument on this number is a slightly distorted electric guitar played by Mark Knopfler, a sound which is as natural as the choir on the chorus. In many ways this four minute track is a typical Randy Newman song, and epitomizes the ambiguity that so many successful Americans feel about their country. Unquestionably personal, it relates how he looks around and sees people who are more intelligent, gifted and industrious than himself ekeing out a living. This can't be fair, he thinks. Then he hearkens back to his boyhood and an encounter with a rich man who tells him it's money that matters. This is of course a well worn cliché, but leaving that aside, Newman is a shade too hard on himself. He may not be a brain surgeon but his talents as a performer and more particularly a composer have more than earned him his share of the American dream. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• This topped Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks for two weeks in November 1988. It is Randy Newman's only #1 on any chart as an artist.