720 Randy Newman - 12 Songs (1970)

 720 Randy Newman - 12 Songs (1970)

Studio album - Blues/Roots



About the Act:

Even if you don't know who he is, you would probably recognise his voice and his piano playing. He has been inescapable after writing "You've Got A Friend In Me" - that song from Toy Story. He has done many more songs and soundtracks for many more films, including "I Love To See You Smile" - the opening song from Parenthood. From the 80s onwards, he has mostly been doing film music, but in the 70s he had a moderately successful career as a singer/songwriter creating albums of his own songs, and back in the 60s he was writing songs for other people. Before that he did normal things like going to school.

He grew up between LA and New Orleans, and maybe considers himself to be from New Orleans more. His style is certainly reminiscent of that. He plays piano in a kind of jelly-roll honky-tonk way that smells like the bayou, with hints of soul and even gospel in it. His voice sounds like he is black but he is from Jewish descent and about as white as can be. He sings songs that have stories, and content to them, and his satirical side has a wicked sense of humour that somehow he gets away with. "Short People" is sung with affection, but describes short people as being rather horrible and hopeless.

You know that song, the one that Tom Jones covered, that was originally a hit for Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me Not To Come? It's a 70s classic. Written by Randy Newman.

About the Album:

This was his second album. Although all the songs (bar one) are written by Randy, some of them have been released by other artists before this album. 

My History with this Album:

I have a copy of this, I have listened a few times, I would not say I know it.

Review:

The songs are all story/perspective songs from various characters, imagined by Newman, no doubt. There is a spread of down-to-earth and somewhat grotesque scenarios, and I found Old Kentucky Home to be possibly the most satirical, mimicking Country style as well as Southern attitudes.  Randy has a somewhat bizarre and sometimes dark sense of humour, and the songs are mostly worth a listen from that perspective.

Musically it's "rootsy" - lots of Blues feel, some country, swamp-stuff, all of that Americana, mostly liberally sprinkled with his own particular style of piano, which is king of honky-tonk, sleazy bar stuff, and he sings like he wishes he was Louis Armstrong. That's just his style, I was most surprised when I found out he is a white Jewish guy. We also have Ry Cooder on slide guitar, and that has got to be a good thing.

It's a good album, it's robust, it's funny, it's curious, he has a rich imagination. For me the highlight is probably Mama Told Me Not To Come which you may know because Three Dog Night did a charting cover of it.

Not many marks out of ten for the album title, though.

7.6/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3HhJGNadZnFCkAYrPgSuVR

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzv30H0qx5BcMMz0J0OFjPHtesyrPv5zI

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Songs_(Randy_Newman_album)



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