Although he’s now best known as the curly haired Prince of Pixar (he’s written hit songs for a number of animated blockbusters, including Toy Story 2 and A Bug’s Life, Randy Newman began his career as a misanthropic satirist and thwarted romantic. It’s this version of Newman who shows up for Songbook Vol. 1, revisiting 18 of his compositions, most written in the '60s or '70s, and all stripped down to just voice and piano. The idea is borrowed from vintage tributes to the masters, the "songbooks" of Jerome Kern or Cole Porter, usually interpreted by a great vocalist such as Ella Fitzgerald. In Newman’s case, it’s hard to imagine anyone else singing a slave trader’s smooth sales pitch ("Sail Away"), a deity’s bemused take on mankind ("God’s Song"), or a child murderer’s creepy meditation ("In Germany Before the War"). Stripped of rock backbeats or orchestral sweetening, Newman’s songs reveal their stark beauty and classic craftsmanship even more keenly. What may be most remarkable, however, is how prescient some of the songs seem now ("Lonely at the Top" predates the rise of People magazine and a revolving cast of whining superstars by half-a-decade) and how timely some of its humor is. "Political Science" may have been written during the Vietnam War, but its clueless narrator ("No one likes us I don’t know why/We may not be perfect but heaven knows we try") sounds a lot like a Bush Jr. cabinet member or this season’s hottest Fox News pundit. Since the early ‘80s, Newman has focused the lion’s share of his attention on soundtrack scores and sly but cuddly buddy songs. Songbook Vol. 1 makes one wish Newman would devote more of his energies to writing new songs as topical, vibrant, and biting as his old ones. --Keith Moerer
The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1,Randy Newman,Nonesuch,Piano,Pop,Pop/Rock,Popular Music,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter,United States of America,Vocals
The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1
Average customer rating: 
|
The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1
Randy Newman Manufacturer: Nonesuch ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
| Pop
| Styles
| Music
Singer-Songwriters
| Pop
| Styles
| Music
Pop Rock
| Pop
| Styles
| Music
General
| Rock
| Styles
| Music
Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000AKNEM Release Date: 2003-09-30 |
Tracks:
- It's Lonely at the Top
- God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)
- Louisiana 1927
- Let Me Go
- Rednecks
- Avalon
- Living Without You
- I Think It's Going to Rain Today
- You Can Leave Your Hat On
- It's Money That I Love
- Marie
- When She Loved Me
- Sail Away
- The World Isn't Fair
- Political Science
- The Great Nations of Europe
- In Germany Before the War
- Ragtime
Amazon.com
Although he's now best known as the curly haired Prince of Pixar (he's written hit songs for a number of animated blockbusters, including Toy Story 2 and A Bug's Life, Randy Newman began his career as a misanthropic satirist and thwarted romantic. It's this version of Newman who shows up for Songbook Vol. 1, revisiting 18 of his compositions, most written in the '60s or '70s, and all stripped down to just voice and piano. The idea is borrowed from vintage tributes to the masters, the "songbooks" of Jerome Kern or Cole Porter, usually interpreted by a great vocalist such as Ella Fitzgerald. In Newman's case, it's hard to imagine anyone else singing a slave trader's smooth sales pitch ("Sail Away"), a deity's bemused take on mankind ("God's Song"), or a child murderer's creepy meditation ("In Germany Before the War"). Stripped of rock backbeats or orchestral sweetening, Newman's songs reveal their stark beauty and classic craftsmanship even more keenly. What may be most remarkable, however, is how prescient some of the songs seem now ("Lonely at the Top" predates the rise of People magazine and a revolving cast of whining superstars by half-a-decade) and how timely some of its humor is. "Political Science" may have been written during the Vietnam War, but its clueless narrator ("No one likes us I don't know why/We may not be perfect but heaven knows we try") sounds a lot like a Bush Jr. cabinet member or this season's hottest Fox News pundit. Since the early `80s, Newman has focused the lion's share of his attention on soundtrack scores and sly but cuddly buddy songs. Songbook Vol. 1 makes one wish Newman would devote more of his energies to writing new songs as topical, vibrant, and biting as his old ones. --Keith MoererCustomer Reviews:
Randy Newman...at his best.......2007-07-05
This is a great CD. Great music (including the piano version from one of his songs from "Toy Story") that makes you think about life, the world and the top notch lyrics of Randy Newman.
Pleasant But Inessential.......2007-05-26
When a musical artist returns after a period of decades to the same material he has previously set down, the main criterion by which we must evaluate the wisdom of the endeavor is, does he have anything new to say? Has his interpretation "deepened"? Are there shadings available to him that were not available before? To all of these questions I would have to say no (although my questions do not always apply well here; I'm not sure a "deeper" version of "Political Science," which was always puerile and probably was intended to be, is possible or desirable). Newman's performances throughout this set are assured but cautious and low-key; he's *too* familiar with these songs. There's no discovery, or rediscovery, only the professionalism of routine. It's telling that he seems most enthusiastic in the two most recent songs ("The Great Nations of Europe" and "The World Isn't Fair," from '99's unjustly commercially ignored BAD LOVE).
Some reviewers have praised the disc because they prefer to hear him with the accompaniment only of his piano. I don't quite go along with that, as it applies to this set, for a couple of reasons:
(1) Newman is, of course, an estimable composer of orchestral scores, and his skill as an arranger is one of the things that most attract me to his work. I almost invariably have the sense on his pop albums that he has chosen a particular setting for a song for very specific reasons, be that setting spare, lush, something in between, or spare and building *to* lush. Think, for example, of the swell of the strings and brass as the slave trader drives home his pitch in the chorus of "Sail Away" (the verses of which are much more lightly scored). The beauty is as false as the promises the character is making, but the music is as compelling and seductive as it should be: sweetness with a terrible, decadent rot at the center. The "unplugged" version of the same song on the present album seems pallid by comparison. I believe that goes for other songs here that were originally recorded with orchestra: certainly "Louisiana 1927" and "Marie." The quiet, stark version of "In Germany Before The War" included here, on the other hand, matches the LITTLE CRIMINALS version; both treatments well serve this creepy, disturbing song -- a minor masterpiece of elliptical dread and implied menace.
(2) Even though I grant the premise that Newman is capable of captivating performances when he's alone at the piano, I don't think the safety-first displays on THE RANDY NEWMAN SONGBOOK should be anyone's Exhibit A. If you have the 1998 box set, compare the present disc to the demos of "Days of Heaven," "Going Home (1918)," "Something To Sing About," "What Have You Done To Me?" "The Longest Night," and "Laugh And Be Happy." Despite the occasional ragged edge, *those* recordings paradoxically seem like true "performances"; they're full of wit, daring, feeling, boldness, variety of delivery. The SONGBOOK recordings (though intended all along for commercial release) seem like the "demonstrations." Both his playing and his singing were dynamic and energized on the demos, at any tempo, in a way that I missed here. The comparison brings me to another point: while he has lost nothing in his touch at the piano, his vocals have declined post LAND OF DREAMS, and I'm not sure whether it's attributable to the aging process or just a layer of rust that's set in from his devoting more of his time to writing film scores than singing in the last 15 years. I noticed a heavy-handedness creeping in on FAUST and BAD LOVE -- a tendency to sing monotonously loudly and sort of shamble and belt through songs where a lighter touch would have been appropriate (e.g., "Every Time It Rains"; "I Miss You"; "My Country"). It's even more noticeable here, on songs he sang better (in a purely mechanical sense) decades ago.
When I saw the track listing, I most looked forward to hearing "When She Loved Me" -- the poignant ballad sung by Sarah McLachlan for TOY STORY 2 -- performed by its composer, but be forewarned that the version here is only a brief thematic reminiscence on the piano (as are the other movie themes). Thus the album deprives itself of another potential boasting point.
It may seem as though I still am being unduly negative. This warrants three stars for the quality of the songs and the immaculate sonics, but I feel it amounts to less than any non-soundtrack album Newman has ever released, and is less essential even than a few of the soundtracks (certainly RAGTIME). It likely came about as a result of commercial calculations, not on Newman's part but on that of his new label. With Rhino having a one-disc greatest hits album on the market, culled from the superb box set and containing many of these same songs in their original, definitive renditions, his current label, Nonesuch, wanted a competing disc to tempt cultists and to snare (dare I say, mislead) newcomers. I don't blame Newman for going along with it; he has always simply wanted his songs to have the widest possible exposure, and whatever I feel about this particular disc, his songs deserve all the attention they get and more. I only hope that he's been busy writing in the ensuing years, and that his next release for Nonesuch will be as thoroughly original as he is. His gifts are as an observer and a creator, not as the docent of his own musical museum, however gamely he plays that role.
Diamonds in the Smooth.......2006-11-22
If You LIke Wry On The Rocks, Randy's Your Man.......2006-10-15
Every once in awhile, you come across an artist that speaks to you, personally, intellectually, intuitively and gracefully. Someone you think, "I would love to have a conversation with, and what a great friend he would be." That person for me is Randy Newman. My best friend re-introduced me to him. We had the pleasure of seeing him in concert at Carnegie Hall, recently. Randy Newman walked on stage and it was his; his and the piano. He sat down and the evening became him. The songs are his and he speaks to us, and he brings us into the music. The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol.1 has taken awhile and as he says "Interviewers will ask why it took me five years to make an album and I'll say, `It didn't take five years -- I didn't do anything for five years,I watched tv like you do."
"It's Lonely at the Top", starts the CD and he is more reflective and mature. On this evening, Barbra Streisand was playing at "The Garden", and Randy had played this song to her. "She may be singing it this evening he mused." We all recognize his satire in "God's Song" - in which the Gods has contempt for all faiths. "Political Science" is even more to the point as it was in the Vietnam era, with its US view of the rest of the world. He may still be playing a devil in "Sail Away", and "Rednecks" which speaks about Lester Maddock and the wonderful self deprecating" It's Money That I Love". "Living Without You" and "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" shows us his poignant and tender songs. As with his would-be ladies man "You Can Leave Your Hat On" he makes these characters sound so human and we recognize them as us. It was Joe Cocker, he says, that put the beat and rhythm to the song that made it so popular. "Lousiana Rain" is as poignant and meaningful now as it was in the 1920's.
The intelligence, grace, and craft of Newman's songs are shown here at his peak. And while there's a little flash in his piano playing, a little boogie, alot of blues, he is recognized by me and others as a down to earth man, one we would like to know. This CD starts to summon his songs written over the years, and this is the first of three. It appears that Randy is not in any hurry to finish these songbooks, but we do know the best is yet to come.
The Guardian sums up Randy Newman; "He may well be the greatest contemporary American songwriter; he's easily the cleverest. And, by a long shot, the funniest. If you like wry on the rocks, Randy's your man."
Intelligently, Gracefully, Heartily, and Wryly Recommended. prisrob 10-15-06
Randy' Still Got It.......2006-08-02
This album, with Newman and his piano, is the "Randy Unplugged" version of songs ranging from his classics, like "Sail Away," and "It's Lonely at the Top," to newer material, like "The Great Nations of Europe," and "The World isn't Fair," and there is not a clunker in the bunch.
If you like Newman, you can't pass this up. If you are just discovering him, this is a terrific place to start. I still love the orchestral versions of these pieces, but stripped-down here, they offer a clean, clear look at the man's genius, just him and his keyboard.
(And you might want to find Bad Love, his previous album which was underrated and full of gems, while you are at it.)
Yeah, the movies and the Oscar(tm) and all, but this is where Newman shines -- when he is by himself and telling it like he sees it.
Rap Music:
- This Fire
- Tiny Cities
- Tom Tom Club
- Tonight and the Rest of My Life
- Train
- Trout Mask Replica
- Veneer
- War of the Worlds [Original recording remastered]
- What If It All Means Something
- Wind & Wuthering [Original recording remastered]
Recommended Music:
Schoneberg [CD-single] [Import]
100 Ans De Jazz [Limited Edition] [Import]
Music: Music from Copland House: The Chamber Music of Aaron
Yo No Quiero Pierda en Mi Camino [Import]
You've Come a Long Way, Baby [Clean]