Randy Newman: C or D/S & D

<sheds a lonely tear for randy newman>

fine, whatever. there's a moment on the bonus disc to the reissue of GOOD OLD BOYS, which comprises a series of demos cut for the album, where randy--who is recording in a studio with only an engineer as witness--starts explaining his rationale for the concept album and interjects, "wait, who the fuck am i talking to?"

ha, that bonus disc is gold.
soooo, are those "early Newman" comps worth getting?

you mean the collections of his early songs covered by other folks? YES, YES, 1000x YES. they are better than almost any of his LPs IMHO. and i LIKE his LPs.

yeah, that Vine Street comp and the one you linked to above ... I've heard a handful of things from each, but there are a ton I've never heard.

the fats domino track is fantastic.

why do we love this guy? randy newman you big so and so

I have listened to Beverley's "Happy New Year" about fifty times in the last day probably.

Randy Newman on the Oscars:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2011/02/randy-newman-on-playing-at-the-oscars-toy-story-3-song.html

"It's a long show and it's hot in there and if you're playing, you're playing to a crowd where the majority of people haven't won anything, so they don't even want to be there. I mean, it's not, ahem, a great audience."

Classic for arranging "Is That All There Is?" along with his other accomplishments.

Really love the Nilsson sings Newman album. "Cowboy" is such a sad song and I'm not even really too sure what it's about.

I love all versions of that song

dude is about as classic as they come. a friend of mine made me a big compilation of people covering newman's songs from 1962-1971, kind of a fun alternate walk through the 1960s.

Classic for arranging "Is That All There Is?" along with his other accomplishments

I didn't know this and yet I did

recent Pitchfork piece on Best Coast made reference to the fact that when it comes to lyrics the singer is "not exactly the Randy Newman of beach-pop". struck me as odd because how many average Pitchfork reading Best Coast fans would even know who he is, but it's cool he's still getting referenced for his wordsmithery because really even now, who else *is* there that can compete?

Tyler- any chance of that compilation making the blog?

Classic for arranging "Is That All There Is?" along with his other accomplishments

I didn't know this and yet I did

ez - it's all official stuff, so probably not, but i can get it to ya privately in the next couple of days.

Thank you kind sir.

there's also this

yes! that's where a lot of it is drawn from, but my friend expanded it to three or so discs. really cool stuff.

"Ragtime" (1982) ... "My song was sung by John Schneider from "The Dukes of Hazzard," which I guess is what I mean when I say the whole experience is pretty strange."

lol, I remember a TV shot of Randy sinking into his seat.

john schneider can sing! same with tom wopat.

jesus christ why isn't there a video of this performance online! internet you disappoint me.

"Your son is home dad, and he's found a girl/and she's the greatest girl in all the world/I think you'll like her Dad, I hope you do/but if you don't that's alright too"

God I love the way he sings this line

Tom Wopat is a respected cabaret/Broadway-caliber singer. Schneider's singing was... colorless.

there's also this

which was itself followed up by this

Randy Newman, C/D? Are you kidding me? He's at the pinnacle of the songwriter heap and I have to listen to Sail Away at least once a month. I love the way he plays the piano too.

those Ace songwriter comps are cool, i need to get the goffin/king volumes!
http://www.amazon.com/Goffin-King-Carole-Collection-1961-1967/dp/B000UX43Y6/ref=pd_bxgy_m_img_b

might be UK only this but BBCs new online archive throws up this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs/castaway/328c86db#b00dybps

That Desert Island Discs site is awesome!

Warren Mitchell, 13/11/67
3. Karlheinz Stockhausen - Kontrapunkte

Harrison Birtwistle, 16/1/94
7. Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons - Sherry

etc etc etc etc

How did I not know that Vol. 2 of the Songbook comes out next week? I loved the first one to bits.

Jesus.

I was at an engagement party tonight, and all of the semi-professional musicians (me too) were bashful about singing songs, because we couldn't think of unabashedly appropriate songs to sing, and then the housewife who no one knew could sing got up and sang this, and it was fucking amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkLE33XCZ_0

:.)

awesome.

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imECa3rx8fQ

listening to "Nilsson Sings Newman" for the first time

wtf is this "Yellow Man" bullshit. can anyone defend these lyrics? This is like "Kung Fu Fighting" level idiocy.

Yeah, and short people have no reason to live, either.

i think it's supposed to be sung from the point of view of a dude who has no idea what he is talking about.

^^^weak sauce

Very far away in a foreign land
Live the yellow woman and the yellow man
He's been around for many a year
They say they were there before we were here
Eatin' rice all day
While the children play You see he believes in the family
Just like you and me
Oh, yellow man, oh, yellow man
We understand, you know we understand
He keeps his money tight in his hand
With his yellow woman he's a yellow man
Got to have a yellow woman
When you're a yellow man

I assume this is satire but it's like z-grade satire imho

i can't believe that 'sail away' shit, slavery is clearly evil

that is a different, much better song

shakey, don't you think the target of the song is idiotic notions of other cultures? i always laugh at the "Got to have a yellow woman/When you're a yellow man" because it's just like the emptiest phrase, like the singer saying, ummm i do not know anything about the yellow man.

yellow man is a dumb song but I lol @ it

I lol @ exactly what tyler posted

[btw, i won't defend yellow man as a particularly great song, it's extremely minor Newman]

btw what do you think of nil sings new, it is one of those albums that's so fucking incredible that I hated it for a while but when I came around to it it can't be fucked w/, it's one of those kinds of albums

that may be the target but I don't like the presentation, which Newman is delivering from a position of power - it's hard for me to shake the impression that he is playing with offensive terms because, as a white guy, he can, as long as he injects it with a suitable level of irony (not sure suitable levels are achieved here, song seems very lazy to me)

I dunno I found this really jarring on the Nilsson record, it bugs me.

xp

it is the worst song on the album yea