Randy Newman - Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman

Randy Newman's three-decades-plus career proves at least one thing: an articulate, bespectacled fellow seated at a piano--a Southern Californian, no less!--can be damn dangerous. In a civil sort of way. This four-disc overview of Newman's fitful but ultimately brilliant career offers a portal into Newman the solo artist, the film composer, and the for-hire songwriter. Discs 1 and 2 (for old fans, the least rewarding of the lot) serve as a greatest hits package--greatest hits being a relative term ("Short People," "I Love L.A.," "Mama Told Me Not to Come," and a few others qualify as commercial successes). Newman's trademark style--mouthing the skewed views of twisted protagonists (including God and Satan)--surfaces in songs old and new. The guardian of an obese boy who puts his charge to work as a freak narrates "Davy the Fat Boy." "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield," "Suzanne," and "You Can Leave Your Hat On" explore perversion; "Rednecks" and "Sail Away" deal with bigotry; "Real Emotional Girl" and "I Want You to Hurt Like I Do" explore wanton cruelty. Disc 3 is littered with fascinating flotsam, beginning with 1962's bewilderingly boyish "Golden Gridiron Boy" (coproduced by Pat Boone!) and tailing into a slew of brooding but truly extraordinary solo demos. Despite his sardonic nature, the Newman of "Gainesville," "Feels Like Home," and "My Name Is James" summons true pathos. Disc 4 samples nine Newman soundtracks, including the orchestral scores to Ragtime, The Natural ("heromuzik," opines the composer), and Toy Story. Guilty is an appreciation of an artist who defies admiration. Here, however, the evidence is overwhelming. --Steven Stolder Amazon.com essential recording

One of the Best Albums Ever

Without question Randy Newman's seminal work "Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman" is a "must have" for anyone who appreciates his music, and especially someone who likes to understand the lyrics to a well written tune. I was pleased with the way Randy organized the tunes and his comments showcase his unique sense of humor.

Anyone who writes a song about turning Australia into an amusement park for Americans will always receive my full respect and attention.

Dave Gubanc July 26, 2008

4 stars for Randy

This album had many good songs and typical Randy Newman style. Enjoyable to listen to! February 15, 2008

God! Is Randy Newman the most underrated artist of our times?

I have bought all the above Randy Newman CD's. I adore his work. Agree that "Guilty" is up there with Randy Newman songbook 1. But truly every song this wonderful man writes is a gem. Every single one. I have many friends who've never heard of him??? I have closer friends who love him as I do.

Folks do not cheat yrselves. Buy one album of the two above and write a review yourself. He's a genius, underappreciated for too long. Or go here him in concert. He's great, the best, my favorite and I love all kinds of music. RN is for that dessert island, the only one you are allowed to take. Think about it... March 20, 2007

Randy in the Wintertime

I've been a Randy Newman fan "ever since there WUZ no Randy Newman," and so picture my delight when my very own kids bought me this boxed bonanza for Christmas (so I wouldn't have to). Randy Newman on the stereo on Christmas morning is about as Newmanesque a way to disturb the warmth of home and hearth as you can imagine. At one time or another I've owned every Newman album ever recorded, so I needed this collection like another hole in the head, but I have to recommend it as much for the surprisingly revealing biographical data as for the song selections. There are surprises here for even an old Newman trivialist like myself, and it was a relief to read of Randy's hardships as well as successes, since the dark side of this dark soul has too often been danced around in past articles and interviews. We learn that Randy's father, Irving Newman, MD, was an overbearing and cantankerous coot not above slugging it out with perfect strangers on public highways. We learn that the distracting eye condition Randy was born with, and the failed surgical attempt to correct it, may have helped to mold not only Newman's unique world view, but his discomfort with public attention. Interviewers (myself included) have generally conceded that "Randy Newman just can't look you in the eye," but then, why should he when he has such a gift for cutting straight to the heart with his nostalgic sentiments and shark-attack wit. Of the many selections in this package, my standouts are his 1962 demo Golden Gridiron Boy, a delight to hear at long last since throughout Newman's career it has appeared as nothing more than a musical history anecdote. Turns out it is a quite competent version of that idiotic pop sub-genre of the '50s and early '60s when unrequited love burned teenybopping hearts alive to the accompanyment of snickering female vocal backups. Then comes Jesus in the Summertime, the highly unlikely mock spirtual that has the distinction of having been so offensive to so many ears that a session musician actually walked out of the studio rather than play on it. Now THAT's chutzpah! Personally, I like it, and find nothing offensive about it, other than the fact that it has the name Jesus in the title. Finally, there's Laugh and Be Happy, an unfortunately incomplete demo that features Newman at his Tin-Pan-Alley best, with a catchy ragtime riff and a delightfully mocking lyric. This number is for my money one of the best tracks ever laid down by one of our most consistently rewarding, if challenging, singer-songwriters. Thanks for the memories, Randy! January 4, 2007

Way to go Randy!

Well, first, Randy Newman is unbelievably talented. He is a song writer, a singer, and last but not least at all, a film composer. And what a composer! This multi talent has a family name, which can be a real pain in the ars. But Randy seems not to be bothered by it at all. He wrote some of the most beautiful scores of the 90-s. His music for Pleasantville should have won him an Oscar. But remember The Natural, Toy Story, Awakenings, just to name a few. This really nice compilation and anthology gives Newman the treatment he has long time deserved. I love the title: Guilty: 30 years of Randy Newman. This man does not seem to take himself serious. Yet his art is pretty serious, and he is aware of it very much. Randy Newman is there in the world of music, yet he is not there. You have to listen to this man to get to know him, and once you meet him, you do not want to part from him, he will be a friend of yours forever.
Randy Newman is right by the side of the greatest composers, Williams, Goldsmith, Bernstein or his late uncle Alfred Newman.
Buy this anthology and get to know this musical giant. July 5, 2006

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