Randy Newman - Good Old Boys

Released - September 1974

Genre - Jazz Rock

Producer - Lenny Waronker & Russ Titelman

Selected Personnel - Randy Newman (Vocals/Piano/Synthesiser/Arrangements); Ry Cooder (Guitar); Jon Platania (Guitar); Ron Elliott (Guitar); Al Perkins (Pedal Steel Guitar); Russ Titelman (Bass); Willy Weeks (Bass); Jim Keltner (Drums); Andy Newmark (Drums); Milt Holland (Percussion); Glenn Frey (Backing Vocals); Don Henley (Backing Vocals)

Standout Track - Louisiana, 1927

Randy Newman's 1972 release Sail Away was, in essence, his breakthrough record as a recording artist in his own right. Up to that point he had been beavering away behind the scenes of the music industry as a songwriter for the likes of Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, but with the (admittedly very modest) success of Sail Away, it first became apparent that Newman was even better suited recording his own work. Ultimately, Newman will be principally remembered as a composer and songwriter, but for me, his work is always at its most potent, funny, biting and powerful when sung and performed by the man himself. There's something about his strangled, gloopy vocals and bright, jazzy sensibilities that really brings out the layered cynicism or the sense of mischievous fun within his music that no number of covers of "I Think It's Going To Rain Today" or "You Can Leave Your Hat On" will ever achieve. In 1974, though, Newman came the closest he would ever come to stardom in his own right via an album that not only sold well but has gone down as a classic.

The original vision for Good Old Boys was for it to be a fairly ambitious and cinematic concept album following the life of a character named Johnny Cutler - Newman had already firmly established on Sail Away that his writing naturally tended towards speaking in the voices of characters far removed from himself, be it the slave trader of the title track or God himself in "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)," so a character-based conceptual album seems a natural progression for him as a writer. The story was to explore issues of racism in the Deep South via the character of Cutler, and a series of demo recordings eventually released under the title Johnny Cutler's Birthday in 2002 show a real sense of cinematic scale to Newman's initial vision that is impressive but difficult to realise. As he talks through his ideas between songs, Newman suggests shifts of perspective between scenes that would be difficult to really make much sense of in any medium besides film, so it's perhaps for the best that the final version of Good Old Boys is a far simpler thing, consisting of a series of short, simple songs. Many of them are united by their themes of life in the Deep South in the mid-70s, though it's less clear if Newman is still trying to tie these songs into a story or if that idea has been entirely abandoned. References to characters such as Johnny's wife Marie are still present, but in general, it feels like the concept has been loosened to consist simply of a series of snapshots of various everyman characters within the world Newman is constructing.

Though the concept is established as an exploration of life in the Southern States, Newman is careful to very early on establish the precise position of his own politics. Whereas on "Southern Man" Neil Young had prompted the ire of Southerners everywhere (particularly Lynyrd Skynyrd, who would rebuff him years later with "Sweet Home Alabama") by dismissing them as backwards racists, on the opening "Rednecks" Newman makes a far more sophisticated and interesting point. While he mocks the racial prejudices of Southerners, it's actually the hypocritical righteousness of the responses of Northern states that emerges looking most ludicrous - "Down here we're too ignorant to realise that the North has set the nigger free. Yes he's free to be put in a cage in Harlem in New York City, and he's free to be put in a cage on the South Side of Chicago." With biting, provocative cynicism, Newman is careful to paint all of America as a nation steeped either in prejudice or hypocrisy that prevents it from making true progress, and it's this cynical worldview against which he paints his portrait of the South, rather than against one of lofty finger-pointing. That such a provocative political point is wrapped up in a song as jazzy and feelgood as "Rednecks" is just another level to Randy Newman's mischievous genius.

If there's one criticism that can be made of Good Old Boys, it's that the musical style and sound of the record becomes fairly predictable fairly quickly. Either we're presented with bouncy, jazzy pop songs in the vein of "Rednecks" or "Birmingham," or we're given slower, undeniably beautiful ballads replete with lush string orchestrations. Musically, there's very little thrown in to surprise the listener, particularly a listener who's already familiar with the musical style Newman had established on Sail Away. There's not a bad tune here, but there's also very little that really makes you sit up and pay attention. Through the familiar template, Newman smuggles in a series of ideas just as daring as the more controversial moments of Sail Away and then some, from the direct plea to Richard Nixon for social reform of "Mr President (Have Pity On The Working Man)" to the attempt to humanise and draw with empathy a drug-addled, alcoholic wreck on "Guilty." The woozy, slightly off-key string and woodwind harmonies on "Guilty" create a sort of wonky, dreamlike idyll against which Newman's images of cocaine and alcohol addiction unfold.

Halfway through the album comes its crowning achievement, the beautiful "Louisiana, 1927," a slow but stately lament telling the story of the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Told from the perspective of an eyewitness, it's almost incongruously majestic, its orchestral arrangements swelling to one of the prettiest choruses Newman ever penned. Its depictions of domestic destruction and homelessness jar with its stirring, beautiful melody, but Newman has always excelled at wrapping up challenging ideas in misleading musical contexts. The album's second half has fewer standout tracks than the first, although the fun, galloping pianos and percussion of "Naked Man" are good fun, and "Back On My Feet Again," while fairly slight, is one of Newman's most immediately catchy and memorable little pop tunes. There's also some disappointing filler like the Newman-ballad-by-numbers that is "A Wedding In Cherokee County." There's also a nice touch in the inclusion of a cover of "Every Man A King" (featuring vocal contributions from the Eagles), a song penned in 1935 by Louisiana's then governor, Huey Long.

Ultimately, it strikes me as odd that Good Old Boys remains the commercial and critical peak of Randy Newman's career as, based purely on the albums I've heard of his (which is only about four or five, admittedly), it's probably my least favourite. There are a couple of wonderful tunes in "Rednecks" and "Louisiana, 1927," and some typically incisive and provocative political ideas that make the slave-trade piss-take of "Sail Away" look fairly tame by comparison, and there's a gleeful sense of fun to the whole thing, but purely in musical terms, it's a long way from being his most compelling record. Too often things are limited to bouncy piano, twaning country guitar and Newman's yowling vocals, all arranged in a familiar country-jazz-pop setting that doesn't do much to surprise anybody who's already familiar with Newman's work. It's by no means a bad album, but I'm always surprised that 1977's wonderful Little Criminals doesn't get more love. Admittedly, lyrically Little Criminals is far less insightful or opinionated even though its songs are far superior, so perhaps it's purely for its political chutzpah and cheeky sense of satire that Good Old Boys wins all the plaudits. On those terms, it certainly delivers, but as an overall package, it's still Little Criminals or Sail Away that takes the prize for me.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Randy Newman except where noted.

1. Rednecks

2. Birmingham

3. Marie

4. Mr President (Have Pity On The Working Man)

5. Guilty

6. Louisiana, 1927

7. Every Man A King (Huey P. Long & Castro Carazo)

8. Kingfish

9. Naked Man

10. Wedding In Cherokee County

11. Back On My Feet Again

12. Rollin'