Randy Newman - 12 Songs
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Randy NewmanEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Reprise / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Have You Seen Me Baby?
- Let's Burn Down The Cornfield
- Mama Told Me Not To Come
- Suzanne
- Lover's Prayer
- Lucinda
- Underneath The Harlem Moon
- Yellow Man
- Old Kentucky Home
- Rosemary
- If You Need Oil
- Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues
Free Music Notes for 12 Songs
Free Music Review: Acclaimed initially, but ultimately forgettable
Hit: 2 Stars
Like Laura Nyro, Randy Newman was a product of the Brill Building and began his career writing songs for other performers before singing and playing piano himself.
However, unlike Nyro's work which holds up beautifully with age, Randy Newman's cannot stand the test of time for several reasons. Most severely, the music on "12 Songs" is really, really slight, so much so that its ability to convey emotion is greatly reduced, One might guess that removing the pomp from the more famous cover of "Mama Told Me Not To Come" would do something to improve it, but Randy seems to put so little passion that there is no gain at all. The closing song, "Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues" has some quite good piano work but Newman's voice sounds like a ridiculously muffled falsetto. Other pieces on this album come of as disguised 1950s rock and roll as if Newman wanted to, like Laura Nyro, come off as opposing the move towards macho loudness that was developing at the time. The key difference is: "12 Songs" seems too self-conscious in this respect and comes out muffled to little effect.
Whilst the lyrics undoubtedly appear wonderfully clever on paper, their meaning is unlikely to be appreaciated much by listening becuase of the problems with Newman's performance.
Even if this album, got some remarkable critical reviews, today "12 Songs" has failed to stand the test of time and instead sounds dated. Stick with Laura Nyro, mid-1970s Joni Mitchell, or Van Morrison to see the best of the singer/songwriters of the 1970s.
12 Songs Poster
With 1970's 12 Songs, Randy Newman eschewed the string-driven expanse of its self-titled predecessor for unorchestrated solo and rock quartet arrangements (Ry Cooder, Clarence White of the Byrds, and Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominos are among the sidemen). If anything, the lyrical perspective on these songs is stranger (and certainly more paranoid) than on any other collection the singer/songwriter has ever done. "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" explores arson as an aphrodisiac. In "Lucinda" the narrator pleads in vain for his California golden girl ("in her graduation gown") to get out of the way of a beach-cleaning vehicle. "Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues" is a free-associating shuffle that manages to evoke Bing Crosby, Sonny Boy Williamson, and the Rolling Stones for no logical reason. 12 Songs sold nearly as pitifully as Randy Newman, but one of its tracks--"Mama Told Me Not to Come"--lined Newman's pockets when it became a No. 1 hit for Three Dog Night in the summer of 1970. --Steven StolderPop Music CDs
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