#394 - Randy Newman - Good Old Boys (1974)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on September 10th of 1974 on Reprise Records and produced by Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman this is the fourth album by the American singer, songwriter, and pianist.
Randy Newman was born in Los Angeles in 1943 but his family moved to New Orleans shortly thereafter before he returned when he was eleven.
As the nephew of three prominent Hollywood film composers he became a musician at a young age and a songwriter by seventeen after being obsessively influenced by Ray Charles.
After dropping out of U.C.L.A. one semester before earning a B.A. in music he decided to go pro.
By 1962 while he was composing background scores for T.V. shows he put out a single that flopped.
He decided to concentrate on writing for other vocalists including Pop songs for movies.
By the mid-‘60s after some successful hits for other artists mostly in the UK childhood friend and future co-producer of this album Lenny Waronker hired Randy as well as singer/songwriter Leon Russell and Van Dyke Parks to play on and arrange recording sessions for bands he was producing as a junior A&R man for Warner Brothers Records.
As Waronker moved up the chain of A&R at Warner Brothers Records he brought his crew with him where he eventually signed Randy to Warners’ artist-centric Reprise label.
Randy’s songs were often structured like traditional American standards but his often caustically humorous lyrics often skewed into our darker psyche.
Similar to his friends and fellow singer/songwriters Van Dyke Parks and Harry Nilsson Newman’s records at the time avoided any real connection to the Rock and Roll of their contemporaries.
They preferred being backed by orchestral musicians.
After one critical but not commercially successful album Randy’s follow ups began to build a following as well as again providing hits for other artists.
Some songs from those first few albums that later blew up were “Mama Told Me Not to Come”, “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”, and You Can Leave Your Hat On.”
By the time he was ready to record this album he was a critical darling and an established cult artist.
Fans really took to Newman’s literate, sly, sardonic, and often polarizing character studies and themes.
And musically his songs started drifting into a rootsier, country-tinged, Americana.
Now Randy had touched upon America’s complicated history with race relations before.
“Sail Away”, the title song to his 1972 album before this was a tantalizing recruitment to slaves to come to the mythical and fantastic place called America.
“Good Old Boys” was going to go even further.
(By the way “Sail Away” was later covered by his hero, Ray Charles).
Now originally Randy was going to make this concept album a musical about a bigoted, everyman, steelworker, from the Deep South named Johnny Cutler and he recorded demos under the title “Johnny Cutler’s Birthday” in early 1973.
However he eventually broadened the scope to include other disenfranchised characters.
The subject matter included racism, poverty, Southern pride, Northern hypocrisy, mental illness, and drinking as well as historical and political themes and events.
It was a critical and popular success going to number 36 on the Billboard chart and staying on for 21 weeks.
After that commercial breakthrough Randy followed up a few years later with two of his most popular songs, 1977’s “Short People” and then 1983’s “I Love L.A..
He then turned primarily back to soundtrack scoring where he become wildly popular.
To date he has released eleven albums and written scores and songs for twenty nine movies including nine Disney/Pixar movies including Toy Story and Monsters Inc..
He has won two Academy Awards, seven Grammy Awards, three Prime Time Emmy Awards and been inducted into The Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002 and into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.
He also has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.