Randy Newman

[benthalo]

A quick beg - if anyone recorded part 3 of The Randy Newman Story last Friday on Radio 2 then please get in touch! I've just discovered that I cocked it up.

Have lively discussion about how fantastic he is below.

[Ciarán2]

"Sail Away" is great, haven't heard much of his other stuff though.

[another Mr. Lizard]

I started a thread about Newman earlier this year, should still be around somewhere.

Jon Ronson did a great little documentary/interview with Randy on Channel 4 a few months ago - Newman was, typically, in brilliant cynical form, playing his songs really badly on purpose, taking the piss out of Ronson, ignoring him, and claiming that 'Short People' (interpreted by most listeners as some kind of arch comment on racism) was actually a song about "a lunatic".

'Sail Away' and 'I Think It's Going To Rain Today' are never far from my stereo, and 'I Think He's Hiding' may be the finest song ever written about religion (with the possible exception of 'Garden' by The Fall, of course).

[thatmuch]

I started a thread about Newman earlier this year, should still be around somewhere.
'Sail Away' and 'I Think It's Going To Rain Today' are never far from my stereo, and 'I Think He's Hiding' may be the finest song ever written about religion

'God's Song' is even better in my opinion. Etta James did an astonishingly powerful version of it. Her 'Let's Burn Down the Cornfield' is amazing as well.

[Fuckwittio]

Randy's great, but never stick 'Rednecks' on a comp tape for parties. You never know who's gonna take it the wrong way.

[Neil]

Uploaded this for the Song Du Jour thread and thought I might as well stick this in here seeing as Randy Newman wrote it:

Van Dyke Parks - Vine Street

[ninestonecreature]

'Political Science' is a piece of concise songwriting brilliance. It's thirty-odd years old, but it could easily have been inspired by the Dubya administration.

[Whug Baspin]

*bump* I was chatting with someone the other day about Randy Newman and thought I'd dig out a thread on him. Also inspired by the idea of G&R trying to write from the point of view of a xenophibic homophobe when writing 'one in a million', which doesn't work, but to be fair it's an incredibly hard thing to pull off.

It is something Randy manages really well, so many of his songs are from a first person perspective where the first person is totally unsympathetic, Rednecks and Short People to name a few, I can't believe he is just being ironic I think he really just wants to write a song from that perspective. I once went to New Orleans and sat in a bar full of rednecks all singing along to Rednecks which was very strange. And the music is just insanely good. I haven't got any real question about him, just wanted to say 'isn't Randy Newman great', Thought I'd get this thread up there incase anyone had any thoughts on him.

[Tom Pynchon's Photo]

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Jon Ronson did a great little documentary/interview with Randy on Channel 4 a few months ago - Newman was, typically, in brilliant cynical form, playing his songs really badly on purpose, taking the piss out of Ronson, ignoring him, and claiming that 'Short People' (interpreted by most listeners as some kind of arch comment on racism) was actually a song about "a lunatic".

.

I hated that show. Ronson has done some good shows but I didn't think that was one of them. Mainly, because I thought I would be watching something abut Randy Newman but he seemed a bit part player in a Jon Ronson programme in which Jon Ronson talks extensively about Jon Ronson - The Randy Newman fan.

[Sadness]

I know this isn't particularly lauding Mr.Newman for his very own talent but everybody MUST own "Nilsson sings Newman". It's in my top-ten of all time and seeing a vocal harmony thread earlier.....well, you could put this in and close the thread, wonderful.

[ninestonecreature]

I know this isn't particularly lauding Mr.Newman for his very own talent but everybody MUST own "Nilsson sings Newman". It's in my top-ten of all time and seeing a vocal harmony thread earlier.....well, you could put this in and close the thread, wonderful

Seconded! The last track on there, 'Snow', is almost unbearably poignant, but on the whole that album is an absolute joy.

Would also recommend the book 'Songwriters on Songwriting' by Paul Zollo, which features an extensive interview with Newman:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Songwriters-Songwriting-Paul-Zollo/dp/0306812657/sr=8-2/qid=1171279983/ref=sr_1_2/202-2210592-9840660?ie=UTF8&s=books

[LadyDay]

Just listening to Harps and Angels, Newman's latest album and I love it. As venomous and funny as ever. Nice New Orleans shuffle from Dr John to Tom Waits with some brilliantly subtle slamming of the Bush administration.

It's a shame he's not released more albums, I dont think he gets the respect he deserves, but as he explained it in a Newsweek interview "If I wanted to sell millions of records and be famous, I made a mistake in being less direct than Neil Diamond, who America loves. They're not going to love someone underhanded like me."

[lazyhour]

A timely bump for me, as I'm just getting into Randy Newman, and I must agree with the love on this thread for Nilsson Sings Newman - what a phenomenal record.  The twofer CD containing it along with Harry is just an amazing thing.  It looks like this:



...and people should get it.  "Snow" is indeed incredible.  Some of the songs could easily be twice as long and they still wouldn't be enough for me.  For some reason I went through a phase of listening to "So Long, Dad" on a loop recently.  There's just something about it.

I can't wait to discover more of Newman's own recordings.