Randy Newman Songbook Vol 1
Posted by: hungryhalibut on 14 August 2005
I've been listening again to this record and it really is quite brilliant. The vocals and piano only versions are a great improvement on the somewhat AOR band versions. The final four songs - Political Science, The World Isn't Fair, In Germany Before the War, and Ragtime are the real highlights for me, especially In Germany...; an amazingly moving song about child murder.
There doesn't seem to be much discussion of Randy Newman, but I've loved his stuff for about 20 years.
Are there ont other Newman fans out there?
Nigel
There doesn't seem to be much discussion of Randy Newman, but I've loved his stuff for about 20 years.
Are there ont other Newman fans out there?
Nigel
Posted on: 15 August 2005 by Bhoyo
quote:Originally posted by hungryhalibut:
Are there ont other Newman fans out there?
Nigel
Oh yes. But he's a bit grown up for many of those with poptastic tastes.
Regards,
Davie
Posted on: 16 August 2005 by Mike Hughes
I'm not a fan as such but I bought this last year having previously been unimpressed and I have to say that it totally works for me. Great songs well recorded. When's Volume 2 coming out though?
Mike
Mike
Posted on: 16 August 2005 by O
I used to be a fan of Randy Newman and still listen to some of his stuff, but I do find that his work is all quite similar... I prefer his earlier output actually - '12 Songs' and 'Sail Away', after that he seemed to start repeating himself... Haven't checked out the songbook CD, but I did buy 'Bad Love' and took it back because I thought it was terrible.
O
O
Posted on: 16 August 2005 by hungryhalibut
quote:'Bad Love'
Hmm. Definitely not his best, but Songbook really is good. The piano sound is wonderfully real too.
Nigl
Posted on: 18 August 2005 by woodface
I am a big Newman fan and think he is the best american Singer Songwriter out there (please all you Bob Dylan acolytes spare me as i cannot stand him!). I actually quite liked Bad Love and although he can be a bit patchy at times he always has somthing worthwhile to say.
Posted on: 18 August 2005 by O
I think he's written some fantastic songs, but I find that harmonically and thematically his work often treads the same ground... I suppose the positive side of that is that he has a definite style, but the artists I really relate to are more musically adventurous than Newman tends to be.
O
O
Posted on: 18 August 2005 by woodface
Not musically adventurous; I am not sure what you mean? Newman has used practically every sort of arrangment within his songs from orchestral to all out out rock. He does have favourite themes, particularly the absurdities of modern America, overall he does take risks.
Posted on: 19 August 2005 by Mike Hughes
Hmm, much as I love the album, I'm not convinced by the latter half of this discussion.
He has a style but it has become fairly rigid. Yes, he has used a wide variety of arrangement but hardly in an innovative way. More an extension of his stylistic tics.
As for risks, please give an example. I'd say Newman was a fine example of someone who is an anachronism. On the one hand he is preaching to the converted. On the other, he has less and less to say and has spent recent years 'exploring' soundtrack work etc. rather than progressing in any meaningful sense. If you like, he hasn't updated his muse or rethought his vision in the way that, say for example, Springsteen has done from The Rising onwards and periodically before that. Now, he has no great thoughts or insights on modern life and no-one to say them to. Sad really as he represents a disappearing breed.
The closest he has come to 're-invention' is actually the Songbook album. Much as I love it, it's more as an introduction/compilation than any meaningful, modern, adventurous, risky statement of intent.
Mike
He has a style but it has become fairly rigid. Yes, he has used a wide variety of arrangement but hardly in an innovative way. More an extension of his stylistic tics.
As for risks, please give an example. I'd say Newman was a fine example of someone who is an anachronism. On the one hand he is preaching to the converted. On the other, he has less and less to say and has spent recent years 'exploring' soundtrack work etc. rather than progressing in any meaningful sense. If you like, he hasn't updated his muse or rethought his vision in the way that, say for example, Springsteen has done from The Rising onwards and periodically before that. Now, he has no great thoughts or insights on modern life and no-one to say them to. Sad really as he represents a disappearing breed.
The closest he has come to 're-invention' is actually the Songbook album. Much as I love it, it's more as an introduction/compilation than any meaningful, modern, adventurous, risky statement of intent.
Mike
Posted on: 19 August 2005 by woodface
Hi Mike, I take you point and I agree that laterley he has concentrated on sound track work (although much of it is very worthy). Risks, well, he has written about child abuse, imperialism, racism, hypocrasy etc etc well before certain gimps like Michael Moore decided to base a film career on such things. He did also write a song called 'great nations of europe', which I think is on the 'Bad Love' albumn, this depicts Aids as payback for past imperial indiscressions (slaughter of the Incas etc). On the 'music' front I think if you look back at his peak he has been as innovative as most artists. Your comparison with Springsteen is perhaps a little eronious, as all his work is still recognisably 'him'; the main variation being whether he is with the E Street Band or not. By the way I love Springsteens music! In many ways you could argue that Newman is music equivalent of Woody Allen - but that is perhaps a whole new thread?
Posted on: 20 August 2005 by Malky
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
he has less and less to say and has spent recent years 'exploring' soundtrack work etc. rather than progressing in any meaningful sense. If you like, he hasn't updated his muse or rethought his vision in the way that, say for example, Springsteen has done from The Rising onwards and periodically before that. Now, he has no great thoughts or insights on modern life and no-one to say them to. Sad really as he represents a disappearing breed.
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You're right, but let's hope he may still surprise us in his later years in a similar way to Dylan (after years of mediocrity). There are a few interesting new songwriters around who grab my attention but who will probably never produce a 'Sail Away', 'Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear' or 'God's Song'.
BTW, John Martyn does a fine version of 'God's Song' on 'Church With One Bell'.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
he has less and less to say and has spent recent years 'exploring' soundtrack work etc. rather than progressing in any meaningful sense. If you like, he hasn't updated his muse or rethought his vision in the way that, say for example, Springsteen has done from The Rising onwards and periodically before that. Now, he has no great thoughts or insights on modern life and no-one to say them to. Sad really as he represents a disappearing breed.
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You're right, but let's hope he may still surprise us in his later years in a similar way to Dylan (after years of mediocrity). There are a few interesting new songwriters around who grab my attention but who will probably never produce a 'Sail Away', 'Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear' or 'God's Song'.
BTW, John Martyn does a fine version of 'God's Song' on 'Church With One Bell'.