For someone with my oft-stated supposed ability to tolerate weird, unconventional voices, I sure seem to struggle with them lately. On first listen to this record, I thought about dropping it, as I wasn’t sure I could deal with the 1968 iteration of Randy Newman’s legendarily unconventional voice.
It is impressive, frankly, that Newman was able to convince people to perform his songs, if he was the one demoing them. Musicians have far more sophisticated ears than I do, but it’s still hard to imagine someone listening to one of these songs on the first go round and thinking “I have to record that!” For me, much of that is actually in Newman’s voice, not so much in his songwriting. (Maybe he had others sing them for the demos?)
I can see the appeal of his songwriting voice, at least a little bit, though. It’s not so much his lyrics at this point, as I feel like he got snider and more clever later. But the construction of the songs feels different from many songwriters, and Newman and Van Dyke Parks (and whomever else) come up with idiosyncratic arrangements and tempos, which arguably make Newman seem more idiosyncratic than he actually is.
I still can’t say I love him as a songwriter. He remains a bit of a mystery to me. But, as a debut, this has lots of promise.
7/10
All songs written and arranged by Randy Newman.
- “Love Story (You and Me)” – 3:20
- “Bet No One Ever Hurt This Bad” – 2:00
- “Living Without You” – 2:25
- “So Long Dad” – 2:02
- “I Think He’s Hiding” – 3:04
- “Linda” – 2:27
- “Laughing Boy” – 1:55
- “Cowboy” – 2:36
- “Beehive State” – 1:50
- “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today” – 2:55
- “Davy the Fat Boy” – 2:50
- Randy Newman – vocals, piano
- Anthony Terran – trumpet
- Herb Ellis – guitar
- Jim Horn – saxophone
- Plas Johnson – saxophone
- Larry Knechtel – guitar, bass, keyboards
- Carol Kaye – bass
- Al Casey – guitar
- Milt Bernhart – trombone
- Mike Deasy – guitar
- Ron Elliott – guitar
- Lyle Ritz – bass
- Jim Gordon – drums
- Tommy Morgan – harmonica
- Ray Kelley – cello
- Ted Nash – saxophone
- Don Bagley – bass
- James Burton – guitar
- Israel Baker – violin
- Arnold Belnick – violin
- Harold Bemko – cello
- Harry Bluestone – violin
- Samuel Boghossian – viola
- Gene Cipriano – saxophone
- Gary Coleman – percussion
- Nick DeCaro – piano, accordion
- Frank DeCaro – guitar
- James A. Decker – French horn
- David Duke – French horn
- Carl Fortina – accordion
- Frederick Seykora – cello
- James Getzoff – flute
- Joe Gibbons – guitar
- William Green – saxophone
- Richard Hyde – trombone
- Armand Karpoff – cello
- Louis Kievman – viola
- William Kurash – violin
- Michael Lang – piano
- Don Lanier – guitar
- Gary LeVant – harmonica
- Tommy LiPuma – engineer
- Leonard Malarsky – violin
- Lew McCreary – trombone
- Jay Migliori – saxophone
- Sid Miller – saxophone
- Ollie Mitchell – trumpet
- Louis Morell – guitar
- Richard Perissi – French horn
- William R. Perkins – saxophone
- Jerome Reisler – violin
- Victor Sazer – cello
- Ralph Schaeffer – violin
- Wilbur Schwartz – saxophone
- Leonard Selic – viola
- Sid Sharp – violin
- Tommy Tedesco – guitar
- Sal Valentino – guitar, vocals
- Tibor Zelig – violin
- Hubert Anderson – percussion
- Joseph DiFiore – viola
- William Hinshaw – French horn
- Thomas Scott – saxophone
- Harold Ayties – viola
- Jesse Emrlich – cello
- Elizabeth Ershoff – harp
- David Filerman – cello
- Gene Garf – piano, organ
- Jan Hlinka – viola
- Norman Jeffreis – drums
- Gordon Pope – saxophone
- James Rowles – piano
- Joseph Tullio – cello
- William Weiss – violin
- Robert Knight – trombone