Saturday Night Live Transcripts
Season 2: Mardi Gras Special
Randy Newman performs “Kingfish”
from the album: Good Old Boys (1974)
…..Randy Newman
[ open on Randy Newman at the Theater of the Performing Arts ]
Randy Newman: This is a song, uh, about Huey P. Long. “Kingfish.”
[ singing ]
“There’s a hundred-thousand Frenchmen in New Orleans
In New Orleans, there are Frenchmen everywhere
But your house could fall down
Your baby could drown
Wouldn’t none of those Frenchmen care.
Everybody gather ’round
Loosen up your suspenders
Hunker down on the ground
I’m a cracker
And you are, too
But don’t I take good care of you?
Who built the highway to Baton Rouge?
Who put up the hospital and built you schools?
Who looks after [shit]-kickers like you?
The Kingfish do.
Who gave a party at the Roosevelt Hotel?
And invited the whole north half of the state down there for free
The people in the city
Had their eyes bugging out
‘Cause everyone of you
Looked just like me.
It’s the Kingfish, the Kingfish
Everybody sing
It’s the Kingfish, the Kingfish
Every man a king.
Who took on the Standard Oil men
And whipped their tail
Just like he promised he’d do?
Ain’t no Standard Oil men gonna run this state
Gonna be run by little folks like me and you.
It’s the Kingfish, the Kingfish
Friend of the working man
It’s the Kingfish, the Kingfish
The Kingfish gonna save this land.”
[ audience applauds ]
Randy Newman: Thank you! Thank you very much! Thank y’all, very much!
