Randy Newman: C or D/S & D

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.

On Vine Street: The Early Songs of Randy Newman
Released April 1, 2008 (Ace Records UK)

1. The Biggest Night Of Her Life - HARPERS BIZARRE
2. Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear - THE ALAN PRICE SET
3. Mama Told Me Not To Come - ERIC BURDON & THE ANIMALS
4. Have You Seen My Baby - FATS DOMINO
5. Old Kentucky Home - THE BEAU BRUMMELS
6. So Long Dad - NILSSON
7. Love Story - RICK NELSON
8. Vine Street (Intro: Black Jack David) - VAN DYKE PARKS
9. I'll Be Home - LORRAINE ELLISON
10. I Think It's Going To Rain Today - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD
11. I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore - SCOTT WALKER (first issued as by The Walker Brothers)
12. I've Been Wrong Before - CILLA BLACK
13. Take Me Away - JACKIE DESHANNON
14. Happy New Year - BEVERLEY
15. Baby, Don't Look Down - BILLY STORM
16. Friday Night - THE O'JAYS
17. Big Brother - CALVIN GRAYSON
18. Nobody Needs Your Love - GENE PITNEY
19. Just One Smile - THE TOKENS
20. I Can't Remember Ever Loving You - TAMMY GRIMES
21. While The City Sleeps - IRMA THOMAS
22. Take Her - FRANKIE LAINE
23. Love Is Blind - ERMA FRANKLIN
24. Somebody's Waiting - GENE McDANIELS
25. Looking For Me - VIC DANA
26. They Tell Me It's Summer - THE FLEETWOODS

OK, is there really anything wrong with this new record?

That Dusty cover of I Think It's Going to Rain Today is pretty much the saddest record in the world - the strings are heartbreaking, let alone the voice.

Not arguing with that, but don't forget he also has two songs on Dusty in Memphis.

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

-- Billy Dods, Wednesday, 6 August 2008 22:10 (1 week ago)

haha yeah, painful.

it's all about dusty's version of I'VE BEEN WRONG BEFORE

they have cilla black doing it. cilla black is not a very good singer.

so randy has a new proper album out now as well.

heh... five years ago i write: " 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."

i have "it's money that matters" running through my head. choice lines:

Of all of the people that I used to know
Most never adjusted to the great big world
I see them lurking in book stores
Working for the Public Radio
Carrying their babies around in
a sack on their back
Moving careful and slow

All of these people are much brighter than I
In any fair system they would flourish and thrive
But they barely survive
They eke out a living and they barely survive

the rest is sort of underwhelming, although this verse always gives me a laugh:

Then I talked to a man lived up on the county line
I was washing his car with a friend of mine
He was a little fat guy in a red jumpsuit
I said "You look kind of funny"
He said "I know I do, too"

We played his song "Sail Away" at our wedding, bcz it is so beautiful-sounding and we were pretty sure no-one knew it or knew what it was about. One of those minor injokes that add up to a lot of satisfaction in life.

Randy Newman is the best musician I've discovered in the past five years. Well, him and Roxy Music.

Sadly, I have to agree with Dominique. The memories aren't memorable. "Losing You" is almost as good as John D says, but I've heard this sort of thing from me before. "A Few Words in Defense Of Our Country" is obvious Michael Moore digs at front page headlines of the last eight years. I'm going to keep digging, though.

I'm talking about Harps and Angels, of course.

I've listened to the Harps and Angels version of "Feels Like Home" once a day for a week now: thanks J0hn for the tip! The accordion gets me every time, and I'm a sucker for anything this succinctly sentimental.

we've discussed this elsewhere, but i do not get the point of "sail away."

That Ace collection is missing one of Newman's more surreal tunes, the Everlys' version of "Illinois," off the Roots album. That song is so weird. The lyrics read like he like piece commissioned by the state's board of tourism.

we've discussed this elsewhere, but i do not get the point of "sail away."
What exactly don't you get? I must have missed this discussion.

Maybe he's wondering why RN doesn't take a stand against slavery?

He's become an American Institution.

OTM. I nominate him for Kennedy Center Honors.

we've discussed this elsewhere, but i do not get the point of "sail away."

It's your basic ironized pro-slavery song, where the slave trader is conning his victim with a sales pitch about the American dream, leaving you wondering how much of the con the slave trader believes, whether his standard for what it means to be a contented American is a promise or a threat, and whether his casual racism/imperialism/narcissism is still how America presents itself to the world.

Maybe he's wondering why RN doesn't take a stand against slavery?
Why should he? He's telling a story, not running for office.

I mean, should he take a stand against rape in "Suzanne?"

(I was being more than a little facetious w/ my question)

I getcha.
But dad a hits it on the head. That's a recurrent theme in Newman's work, right up to his latest album.

we've discussed this elsewhere, but i do not get the point of "sail away."

um, ok.

anyone still listening to 'harps and angels'?

Yup! It made my Top Fifteen.

I put it at the very top of my Pazz & Jop ballot. There are other albums I listen(ed) to more, but Harps and Angels is pretty perfect. I play it when I can really concentrate on it.

I'm listening to it a bunch lately, but I got it only recently.

this thread inspired me to play "easy street," which has very strong legs - the delivery is so amazing:

all your old friends, you know you love 'em so
it's gonna break your heart, but you're gonna have to let 'em go

Has everyone already heard this 1972 concert on Wolfgang's Vault? Loving it all, especially his left hand on My Old Kentucky Home. Stage patter as cutting as you'd expect, with a long jokey folksy intro (including a parody of an old seafaring song) that sets you up for the sudden change of gears when he hits you with Sail Away. I always thought Sail Away needed that bed of strings, like gloppy saccharin sweets to help you take your harsh medicine, but without them it's even more stark and punishing.

http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/dt/randy-newman-concert/20052964-5721.html

Added bonus: Lennon glasses (no lie).

I'm discovering this guy properly for the first time having really only known the hits and compilations and wow TROUBLE IN PARADISE really is something isn't it?

Is there a good book about the guy?

dunno about books, but the chapter on him in g marcus's mystery train is pretty good

i must check that out thanks. dunno why i never have before actually.

Check out Paul Zollo's book on songwriters... Good interview with Randy. Most interviews with Randy are usually pretty interesting and in good humor. I've never looked, but if somewhere someone's posted the notes he sent out with Bad Love they're worth a read. He did a track by track breakdown and they're as enjoyable as the tunes.

I don't know why this is, but I find I enjoy his later albums MORE than the established classics. I like 12 Songs, Sail Away and Good Old Boys, but I find myself playing Trouble In Paradise, Land of Dreams, Bad Love and Harps and Angels more. I guess part of this has to do with just not being as familiar with the later stuff so it sounds fresher. I've also found myself doing this with other acts like The Ramones and Rolling Stones. Instead of Rocket to Russia or Aftermath, I'm drawn to Pleasant Dreams and Undercover. Anyone else share this affliction? Is there a cure?

well, sure, i think there's something to be said for discovering an artist's later work -- people like Randy Newman never got really horrible or anything, I just think they got more predictable (not a bad thing!). they're kinda doing the same thing over and over, but maybe improving upon the original occasionally. this is maybe more true of filmmakers than musicians? not sure.

"Why must everybody laugh at my mighty sword?"

http://www.amazon.com/Bless-You-California-Various-Artists/dp/tracks/B0034800FA/

also, really enjoying bad love recently. "shame" is pretty goddam hilarious. "you know, i have a lexus now... i don't get out much... you know what i'm saying..."

ok i really like what newman does with the melody in "dixie flyer" (from LAND OF DREAMS). there's a few parts where you think he'd shift into the chorus or pre-chorus but he unexpectedly sticks a few extra lines in the verse.

it happens during my favorite part of the song: the lines "old mother came down to the station to meet us/dressed as black as a crow in a coal mine/she cried when the little girl got off the train/<AND THEN IT HAPPENS RIGHT HERE> brothers and sisters came down from jackson mississippi/a great green hudson driven by a gentile they knew..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jiLL2d-alc

such a beautiful song.

<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.