Randy Newman: C or D/S & D

Newman's an honest American artist, and perhaps one of the few well known guys even slightly connected in show-biz who'll acknowledge all those contradictions in American society and hang them out to dry -- a real-life Trojan Horse

like Jack Nitzsche, he might be a backroom boy in the bullshit showbiz world, but here's a guy who delivers America faithfully when it's his turn to make an album -- never confuse his work with his art -- and full credit to him for clearly distinguishing the two

Also search: his very funny/sharp Oscar acceptance speech Sunday night.

I've always been on the fence about Randy. I wouldn't hesitate to call myself a fan, and that includes records like Little Criminals and Born Again even as they creep toward total immersion in dim Tom Lehreresque satire . . . that mars even the early records. (Which was the record with "It's Money That Matters"? That was awful.)

I actually think many of his best songs were written very early. His first album has some brilliant ones but unfortunately Newman hasn't really learnd to use his voice to his best advantage yet. Someone should compile a collection of singles written by Randy and performed by others, from the days when he was a songwriter-for-hire à la Carole King.

Dusty's version of "I've Been Wrong Before" is the best thing I associate with Randy. "Suzanne" is pretty great too. Although I adore Leonard Cohen it is a pretty nice riposte just the same.

As for his supposed nastiness (he often repeats the line that he was the most offensive thing on the radio before gangsta rap), I actually wish he would have indulged it a bit more, especially on Good Old Boys which seems like a bit of a hedge to me.

I still don't think the record is all that great, except for a few stray things like "Louisiana 1927" and "Guity."

Hm, I don't know what's come over me; I've been needlessly argumentative lately, which Lord knows is not what this board needs.

Randy Newman is, again in my 'umble opinion, the best songwriter of the last...name it. Also, a great orchestrator, arranger...in short, he leaves most of the folks who've done popular music since about 1965 in the dust. Unless, of course, craft and all that old-fashioned stuff don't mean anything to you, which I can well understand how it might not...a conflicted American artist and one that we as conflicted Americans should be right proud of...I've listened to 'em all and really there's not a bad Randy Newman record with the possible exception of "Little Criminals."

Newman's ability to turn jokey premises into genuinely moving (or disturbing) performances is pretty impressive, and I think most of his power comes from his ambiguity: he's always been on the fence about everything - which, ironically, (I think ironically: I've always been wary of using that word ever since an editor told me 99% of the time it was used wrongly) can make it hard to really love, not just admire him. But when Newman sings certain songs - like "Davy the Fat Boy" or "Suzanne" or "God's Song" - I get the sense that he BELIEVES what he says, at least at the moment, and he's allowed himself to be taken over by the subject of the song, and that's not something I can say of someone like Zappa, who rarely (never? I couldn't say, as I can't make myself listen to all 654,000 of his albums to be sure) shows any sympathy or warmth for anything he ridicules. Newman is all about the contradictions, and I like that.

'Thanks for the compliment'

Just for that comment, he is now a hero of mine.

oh just fck off to the opera and leave pop alone.

magnusson would have known better !

new album out today, Harps and Angels to which I just started listening

the arrangement on the title track is just breathtaking, as is the vocal delivery

2nd song is a devastating/devastated lost-love ballad in the style of "Living Without You" and others in that unironic mode - it is brutal

awes. i've been curious, but on a budget :/

bad love was ok! (can not believe that was like 9 years ago)

oh cool I hadn't realized a new record was coming out. I've been listening through the box set with the kids a lot lately, and in particular the cd of film music has been hitting hard. Those arrangements! And these are more recent work than the usual classic stuff I focus on with Newman, so I'm totally open minded about new work with him.

I can't make it past this 2nd song. It is so incredible. I think you have to be old to dig it but I could be wrong.

the substitution chord he goes for at about 1:48 is just unspeakable cruelty

I met a bunch of guys I went to school with a few days ago and they're all massive Randy Newman fans. Thought it was kinda weird, I mean they're all like 20 but Randy Newman is the big thing.

Just sayin'

That's good news!

amazing lyric (especially considering that, as far as I know, RN & JB go to the same parties) in re: class disparity in the U.S.:

Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low
The rich are getting richer, I should know
While we're going up, you're going down
And no-one gives a shit but Jackson Browne

yeah this is a much more bitter & better album than Bad Love

i think i was around 19 or 20 when my boy j@s0n brought home 12 Songs & Good 'Ol Boys home from Davidson. Pretty much all we listened to that entire summer. well, that, Steely Dan, Some Girls & ATLiens.

lol old heads

oh man he reprises "Feels Like Home" from Faust (there sung by Bonnie Raitt), I mean this is one of the hardest most devastating songs

holy Christ

there's a live version (piano + vocals) on the box set (of "Feels Like Home"). Does the new version have a fuller arrangement? It's a powerful song, "I can almost see through the dark there's a light", *almost*.

it's arranged, yes. I mean, I love this song on Faust; it's like the crystallization of every song in its mode - Newman in his maturity has a subtlety that's almost invisible ("hope this feeling lasts/for the rest of my life" contains the seed of that hope's vanity & hopelessness). Here, it's pretty huge; he puts it at the end of the album, which I read as: "You may have missed this one. It's one of my good ones, have a look."

I really love Newman in his love-that-will-surely-kill-you mode, it wastes me.

John, you're selling this to me. Was thinking about getting this but the reviews I'd seen were a little sniffy. Is there anything as bleakly comic as 'The Great Nations of Europe' on it?

haha yes a couple of things. the main thing is, his structures are really complex now - they use to be more readily available, now they sound loose. They're not, actually, but they demand more scrutiny than a lot of stuff. Van Dyke Parks comes to mind - that kind of "so much going on it seems chaotic/unfocused."

But to me the album's about 3/4 "Great Nations" and 1/4 "Feels Like Home." I could go with all "Feels Like Home," 'cause I'm emo like that, but if irascible Randy is yr deal, well, how you not gonna like a song like "Korean Parents"?

John's doing a great job of selling this already but Losing You completely floors me. I interviewed him recently and he said he always prefers the bitter songs but he knows that most people will go for Losing You and Feels Like Home, just like they went for I Miss You or I Think It's Going to Rain Today, even though he thinks he sounds "mewly" when he sings ballads. I must say most people have a point - the older he gets, the more devastating the sad songs become. Potholes has a jollier arrangement but the lyrics are heartbreaking - the story about his shitty dad showing him up in front of his wife-to-be is true.

Jesus Christ it stinks here high and low
The rich are getting richer, I should know
While we're going up, you're going down
And no-one gives a shit but Jackson Browne

Damn, this is pretty good.

I got a chance to hear the first couple of songs on this today, and though I *really* want a new randy newman album to be good, they weren't knocking me out. part of it was that a lot of the music sounded familiar, which is always going to be a problem for someone who bases their harmonic ideas on music written 75-100 years ago -- but in this case, i actually thought they sounded mostly like other randy newman songs. i'll listen to the rest of the record today and hope for the best.

in fairness, I liked but didn't love Bad Love, and can barely stand to listen to Faust. I may be a randy newman rockist.

I love Faust unreservedly.

there was a fantastic tv special (only half an hour long !) on channel 4 on friday night. jon roson narrated, he's like an *insane* fan. there was this incredible edit where our man talked about how, as a youth, he'd wanted to relate to/be like springsteen but couldn't. was, he wondered aloud, there anyone out there who felt like him ; malevolent, sarchastic, jewish, etc etc.
very quickly an air-punching brooce clip ("baaaaawn in the usa ...i was...baaaaawn!!!...") cuts to newman tinkling live, 1st verse in on 'old kentucky home'("sister sue is short n stout, she never grew up, she grew out...") oh it was a fantastic shortcut thru the usual documentary waffle.

-- piscesboy, Monday, 24 November 2003 12:15 (4 years ago)

i dunno. u wait FIVE YEARS and then...

http://arts.wowtv.tv/episodes/the-art-show-i-am-unfortunately-randy-newman

(click download video if u get no instant access)

I'm going to get this tomorrow. Bad Love is great.

I was disappointed with Bad Love, but this new record is very entertaining. Nothing seems over arranged to me; everything is exactly where it should be. Some of the punchlines are spot on, and Potholes hits the nail on the head with alarming precision (as does A Few Words In Defence Of Our Country, obviously). I really don't need to hear Feels Like Home again (and if I did, it would be the Faust take), though I would sell my grandmother to hear Randy singing Toy Story 2's "When She Loved Me".

not entirely feeling this which is sad to me

i did really enjoy hearing the brushed drums come in behind randy at the beginning - seemed to signal something about the feel of the record i can't quite explain other than boringly musowise, viz.: the combo playing isn't as good as 12 songs and the arrangements aren't as great as '..creates something new' but the sum of the two seems to work better than anything else of his i've heard

& it's funny yes ("'he spoke french!'")

but doesn't seem to have enough convincing SMALL moments, the stuff that makes newman totally kill when on his game - dillingham above:

"But when Newman sings certain songs - like "Davy the Fat Boy" or "Suzanne" or "God's Song" - I get the sense that he BELIEVES what he says, at least at the moment, and he's allowed himself to be taken over by the subject of the song"

- there's these points where the way the treatment of the BIG thing in his best songs is subsumed into / refracted by the stuff going on with character and with performance, whereas in his not-best songs (e.g. 'short people') it just kind of remains totally external - which say 'a few words...' suffers from a lot, no matter how well it achieves its big thing. ('good old boys' is fantastic because after a while you feel like actually it's johnny cutler maintaining his ironic distance from randy newman.)

plus melodically it feels a little lazy - oh look, a blues bit you can't hum, a tin pan alley bit you can't hum, done with that now, back to "talk-singing" - i realised halfway through my first listen that it reminds me, worryingly, of william shatner's 'has been'

footnote: obviously that's not the only reason 'good old boys' is fantastic. there are others.

"Potholes" slays me — the part about the dad telling everyone about his son's failure on the diamond.
A lot of it is typical Newman, with the pretty New Orleans chords and lazy shuffle, but I suspect it's his best album since Good Old Boys.

I would sell my grandmother to hear Randy singing Toy Story 2's "When She Loved Me".
OTM. That song chokes me up every time I hear it, but I'd still rather hear Newman singing it.

Wait - it's on "The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1." I'm assuming he sings it, since those are all remakes, right?

Damn, I checked. It's just a 1-minute musical interlude between songs.

Thanks for the link piscesx, worth watching just for the story about hitching a lift with the dockers.

And it's not what you think.

I like "Bad Love." Also, I got to see Newman months back, and it was one of the year's highlights for me.

J0hn, I would have bought the new one anyway (my broke ass is just waiting for a paycheck), but it's good to hear some enthusiasm about it. You're actually selling me on "Faust," which I'd avoided up until now...

I liked "Faust" way more than I initially thought, considering the guest artists listed in the liner notes. I mean, James Taylor made for a perfect con man/God/politician.

'davy the fat boy' is blood-chilling, espec: 'YOU'VE GOT TO LET THIS FAT BOY IN YOUR LIFE!'

just reviving to say that Spotify now has what appears to be a very comprehensive Randy back catalogue on there. there used to be gaps and many of the albums missing but now it's the full thwack; live albums, soundtracks, the whole bit. at least in the UK.

Thanks.

Also, Billboard keynote http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/5770720/randy-newman-talks-film-scoring-new-studio-album-kanye-wests

Have to admit I only ever really listened to the obvious albums: Sail Away, Gold Old Boys and Twelve Songs. Where should I go next?

that url is a little misleading

harps and angels
xpost

thx

So far so good. Maybe on to the s/t debut next.

Little Criminals is the other classic i guess. also Land Of Dreams and Trouble In Paradise are great and under rated too!

Randy must have been the first rock musician I ever knowingly heard, though not cognizant at the time of his respectable back catalogue. Watching Toy Story in 1995 as a little kid, sick with fever, hearing him sing "and I will go sailing.....noooooo more..." is one of those kiddie memories that has a little but secure place in my heart. It became even more special when I grew up and became a big fan of his 70s work. Sail Away is an album I never get sick of listening to, and Good Ol' Boys isn't far behind.

Is anything worth getting after the 70s? I've not investigated those yet.

i want to know more about your youth. were you prohibited from listening to rock and/or roll?

Not really, but at five/six, I hadn't got around to checking out zappa/vu/beefheart/can, et al.

well sure but

when were you born

nineteen-ninety.

damn son

there are rock singers who are not as obscure as beefheart and lou reed,
sometimes you hear them on the radio

no kidding.

we didn't play the radio in my house.

to say randy newman was the very first one may not be true. but it's a first memory which i subsequently came to know as the author of "rednecks" and "god's song".

there were other extenuating circumstances which meant that music was not played much in our house. mostly revolving around my mother suffering extensively from mental illness during my childhood, other interests at the time, etc.

in any case, that's irrelevant. anyone know if newman is any good after the 70s?

There are more than a few glimmers of acid brilliance here and there, and some lovely ballads, but a lot of his later albums are actually only good enough. Which ain't bad!

Believe it or not, his songbooks, which feature songs already released performed by just him on piano, are really good. The version of "Lonely At the Top" might actually be even better than the original Sail Away version.

why is Little Criminals held up as a bad Randy Newman album when the second half (start with "In Germany Before the War" + the second side) is so good? I think it's almost as good a second half as Sail Away.

"I'll Be Home" sounds a lot different in sequence here than it does on Nilsson Sings Newman ( and it's not just Newman's voice compared to Nilsson).

the title track is great, I love the way that it manages to mock these people's delusions but still have that excitement + buoyancy be infectious

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/10/10/exclusive-listen-to-randy-newmans-first-new-song-in-four-years-its-about-bare-chested-vladimir-putin-really/

song is hilarious

Kinda formulaic Newman musically though

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/27/537309087/first-listen-randy-newman-dark-matter

this record is so good

this record Randy Newman is so good.

i kinda go back and forth on Maron's WTF, but his Newman interview this week was entertaining.

josh otm

"sonny boy" is wonderful

As is "She Chose Me."

never heard the Sinatra story

http://www.maximumfun.org/bullseye/bullseye-jesse-thorn-randy-newman

On my five favorites....

ta for this, agree with number 1, and glad Harps & Angels got a nod too :-)

He's written a song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Hk2L2G_W0

Just saw that

"Don't touch your face - I saw you!"

https://skeletonstv.bandcamp.com/album/i-think-its-going-to-rain-today

Finally got the Original Album series yesterday that I'd meant to buy for ages but hadn't been in the racks locally.
So have now heard his 1st 5 which are pretty great. Wasn't sure what to expect in terms of settings etc so 1st l.p. was a bit of a surprise. But most of its great.
Will be listening to this quite a bit I hope.