12 Songs From Randy

Original released on LP Reprise RS 6373

(US, April 1970)

This LP can be considered an integral example of the early development of what is now called “Americana”.  (Of course, Americana was always there, but it was originally called folk, blues, country, and so on).  The compositions – all but one (“Underneath the Harlem Moon”) by Newman – display a fully developed, mature style that draws heavily on late 19th/early 20th century genres such as ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, and minstrel-show music, as well as early jazz and blues, and on a couple of tracks, country. Lyrically, this is a typical Randy Newman album, with a generous helping of his trademark dark humor, typically focused on certain, shall we say, atavistic tendencies in the American psyche… many of the tracks are personality sketches of diverse unsavory characters, primarily of the rural Southern male variety (judging by the dialect and accent). For example, the pedal-steel-soaked “Old Kentucky Home” is sung by a stereotypical inbred hillbilly; Uncle Bob of “Uncle Bob’s Midnight Blues” is the kind of guy you hear muttering curses under his breath as you walk past him sitting on the front porch; and the protagonist of “Suzanne” sounds like a stalker, although more pathetic than scary… it’s pretty obvious this guy doesn’t get a lot. The theme of frustrated lust crops up on a number of other tracks, such as “Rosemary”; “Have You Seen My Baby” (the most rocking track on the album); “Lover’s Prayer”, in which the singer is humorously particular about the kind of girl he wants God to provide; and the gas station attendant’s plea, “If You Need Oil”.  Another theme – the offhand racism that pervaded popular culture up until sometime in the 1960s – appears in two songs:  “Underneath the Harlem Moon” from 1932, and Newman’s own “Yellow Man”. Instrumentally the album is gorgeous; the slide guitar of Ry Cooder (another significant early practitioner of Americana) really stands out, especially on the sparse and eerie “Let’s Burn Down the Cornfield”, but other musicians include guitarists Clarence White (Byrds) and Ron Elliott (Beau Brummels), prominent studio percussionists Milt Holland and Jim Gordon, and drummer Gene Parsons (Byrds). There are some nice old-fashioned horn arrangements too (on “Yellow Man” and “Rosemary”).  It’s just a shame that Newman’s voice (none too clear under the best of conditions) is buried so deep in the mix on some cuts that you have to strain to get any idea at all of what he’s singing.  Thank goodness for the lyric sheet. (in RateYourMusic)