John Prine vs Randy Newman

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Which of dad's favourite sinker-sonkwriters do you prefer?

― , Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

PS What exactly does "maudlin" mean and is it bad?

― , Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think maudlin means overly sentimental. In which case, Randy Newman is really only that way for his stupid movie songs. Nevertheless, he wins this battle for me on the grounds of 1) me liking his style of music a lot more than Prine's, and 2) me having a lot more of his music than Prine's.

― dleone, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Randy Newman. Not only do I like him lots but I've never heard more than a few John Prine tracks and they made no impact on me. Plus the Newman box set was my biggest record shopping bargain ever. The box set I'd never seen for less than £55-60. I found it in a Virgin sale for £16.99.

Unbe-frickin-lievable. Also got Nick Lowe's 4CD set for £12.99

― mms, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

John Prine, by a mile (having consciously heard Randy Newman maybe twice)

Paradise
Far From Me
Angel From Montgomery
You Got Gold

It's true that John Prine hasn't done much on a par with his very first album but who cares? Those songs are all I really need, and there's something so elemental (= easy to play, easy to connect to emotionally) about them that I think some will probably live on long after he's gone.... don't know if the same true of Newman's material.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

disclaimer: I love John Prine above and beyond all reasonable discussion

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this all really comes down to "sam stone" vs "sail away"

― , Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I actually don't like "Sam Stone" so if that's the thing then RANDY NEWMAN!!

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

really, why not?

― , Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

It sounds too much like "The Final Cut".

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Prine's peaks were a little higher, but I think that Newman's been a little more consistent. Who knows if the latter's irony will play better in 50 years than the former's stoner pathos. In any event, Newman for me, if only because nothing about his music reminds me of misty hippies reliving old times.

― Lee G, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't have an answer to the question, but I'd recommend this piece to anyone who cares for John Prine. I think it's one of Xgau's best:

http://robertchristgau.com/xg/rock/prine-99.php

― rob, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sam Stone is a wonderful song. The Swamp Dogg version is a classic. Also, I love Swamp Dogg's voice and have several of his albums, and now I am on another board with him! => a good point for John Prine. And he wrote The Most Unoriginal Sin, of which Willie Nelson did a good version.

However, I find Prine a bit dull as a performer, and Randy Newman is great and funny and wrote lots of good songs. Some good other versions: Aaron Neville's Louisiana 1927, Nina Simone's I Think It's Going To Rain Today and Baltimore (also done by the Tamlins), Etta James's Let's Burn Down The Cornfield, Dusty Springfield's I've Been Wrong Before. So my vote goes to Randy.

― Martin Skidmore, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Randy Newman is the Marilyn Manson of the 70s Singer/Songwriter movement. And no, I don't mean that as a compliment.

― Lord Custos X, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

RN::70s singer songwriter --> MM: What?

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Randy Newman is the Marilyn Manson of the 70s Singer/Songwriter movement.

Explain. I've always thought of Newman as sort of a fish out of water, except in movie scores. I get the feeling he wouldn't be so cyncial if he really were living back in the 30s or something.

― dleone, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think custos is saying he was the singersongwriter who used darkness as his schtick, maybe? relative james taylor or jackson browne or jim croce, i can see where custos is coming from (if that is indeed what he's saying). but that is a compliment.

― , Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

actually, sorta. I mean he liked to write songs that were deliberately formulated to "shock" and "irritate"; Think: his most famous song is "Short People (Have No Reason to Live)"; Granted, thats not the same as being the "Transexual Satanist" shitck.
Being a 70s Singer/Songwriter is scary enough. Imagine Pheobe Snow singing "The Dope Show". Brrrr.

― Lord Custos X, Saturday, 8 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh come on, nobody really likes short people, making fun of them isn't 'shocking'

― dave q, 6'2", Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Being a 70s Singer/Songwriter is scary enough.

Actually, part of Newmans' schtick was that he wasn't part of that crew. He says that people don't like him because he isn't Paul Simon or James Taylor. I wouldn't say he was shocking -- irritating maybe, depending on your pov. More of a curmudgeon than a shocker -- but that's only lyrically.

Musicially, he really is the epitomy of sentimentality. It's not just that he often writes oldtime mush music, but even when he doesn't, he actively refuses to acknowledge any development in pop post-1960 (and seems pretty bitter about it; his quote re: "Good Vibrations" - "if we'd had that kind of money, we could have done it too"). When he wants to sound "current", he calls Don Henley or Toto.

Marilyn Manson just seems like a Jerry Springer Halloween episode to me (granted, I know far less of his music).

― dleone, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's a difference between "Ooh, look how scary I am" (MM) and Randy Newman's satires. This isn't a difficult one, surely?

― Martin Skidmore, Monday, 10 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

Prine. (My favorite record of his is Sweet Revenge.)

Does anyone know a good version of "Unwed Fathers" aside from the one on Aimless Love? I find that record so limply recorded and mixed as to sort of ruin what is really an amazing song. How is the Tammy Wynette version?

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 01:12 (twenty-one years ago)

prine is probably the most self-effacing great singer-songwriter I know, which makes even my reaction to him sort of quizzical. some of his songs are barely even there. he really treads the line between inspired sloppiness and laziness sometimes, as he would probably be the first to admit. he is fond of non-sequitirs, which sometimes pans out beautifully ("it was christmas in prison/the food was real good/we had turkey and pistols carved out of wood") and sometimes just leaves me scratching my head.

his version of "diamonds in the rough" is glorious. and this is one of the greatest album covers ever:

ihttp://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000K3LI.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

once more with feeling: http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000K3LI.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

also i think that, while not being a country singer really, prine truly understands country music.... one reason he hasn't felt the need to put so much distance (aesthetically and geographically) between himself and Nashville, even if he remains pretty marginal in terms of the c&w industry.

― |a|m|t|r|s|t| (amateurist), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I think John and Randy are both excellent songwriters. I've always leaned a little more toward RN but recently purchased JP In Spite of Ourselves. I have played this album start-to-finish about every other day for two weeks.

I really haven't found a lot of weak spots. Yeah, the harmonies could be more perfect - being an album of duets - but I think that's the point of it. As near as hearing your neighbors singing as it gets.

Kieran Kane's "In a Town This Size" with Delores Kean speaks to all, such as myself, who live in the rurals.

a|m|t|r|s|t: I don't think that I have heard Tammy's version of Unwed Fathers. Sorry to be of no help there.

― jim wentworth (wench), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I grew up listening to John Prine, my dad's a nut. He figured, hey, simple melodies, lotsa rhyming, let Sweet Revenge (I learned the facts of life from "Dear Abby") follow "C Is For Cookie".
Newman always seemed sort of a cold fish to me, sorta smug, sorta "I'm better than all this" but not in a fun way.
The first three Prine albums (if I have my chronology right: s/t, Diamonds in the Rough, Sweet Revenge?) are far and away the best, but I've got a great fondness for the latter-days of Stax Common Sense.

― Huck, Wednesday, 11 August 2004 04:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I go with Randy. I've kinda heard "Sam Stone" and "Angel from Montgomery" one too many times myself. Prine is good, just not the kind of thing I usually spend much time listening to. Swamp Dogg did do a good version of "Sam Stone."

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 17:25 (twenty-one years ago)

God this is easy, Newman by a landslide. Prince can't touch Sail Away or Good Old Boys. Matter of fact he can't touch Randy's last one, Bad Love either.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

six months pass...

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000K3LI.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

still one of the best record covers i know

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Tuesday, 8 March 2005 05:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I love John Prine with Tracer-esque fervor, but this one goes to Newman, easy... So versatile, consistent, prolific.

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 8 March 2005 06:17 (twenty-one years ago)

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