"Political Science" is a song written and
performed by singer-songwriter Randy Newman
on his 1972 album, Sail Away.
In going along with the theme of the rest
of the album, the song is a satire of a particular
part of American culture and history, namely
its foreign policies at the time.
The unnamed narrator describes the state of
the world, and suggests, "Let’s drop the
big one and see what happens."
Newman later said of the song, "I think I
got into a character, this sort of jingoistic
type of fellow.
You know, it isn’t the type of song I wanted
to write much of.
Not that I didn’t love Tom Lehrer, but I
don’t want to be, like Don Henley says,
'What’s this, another novelty song'.
And I do write a lot of those, songs that
are meant to be funny in a form that listeners
take the people in it more seriously than
literature."Newman performed the song on The
Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972.
"Political Science" is prominently performed
by Newman on the final credits of the 1999
film Blast from the Past.
Newman also rerecorded the song for his 2003
release The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 1.
In October 2006, Newman performed the song
on The Colbert Report after being interviewed
by Stephen Colbert.Artists including Don Henley,
Pedro the Lion, Glen Phillips, Natalie Merchant,
and Wilco have performed live covers of this
song.
The song is also performed in an episode of
Ally McBeal by Jennifer Holliday
