Randy Newman - Sail Away

"You just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day"

Someday (and I know that this day will come) some hapless politician is going to use "Sail Away" as his or her campaign song. It's a composition that sounds as American as apple pie, full of warm humility and earthy passion, with spare and elegant instrumentation and a delicately beautiful (but undeniably majestic) melody. Newman's vocals are passionate and emotive, his lyrics dreamy and hypnotic. He paints a utopian vision of America, one that echoes with age-old ideals ("In America every man is free") and evocative imagery ("Ain't no lion or tiger, ain't no mamba snake/ Just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake"). It's the kind of thing that can win elections. Presuming, of course, that one doesn't examine the lyrics too closely. Do that, and you'll realize that silly old Randy is singing in character, playing a smooth-talking slave driver convincing Africans to get on the boat with him.

Randy Newman was a master of dark irony and intellectual trickery, and Sail Away is one of his greatest triumphs. The above-mentioned title track is one of his most brilliant and mean-spirited pranks, not only for its skillfully disguised duplicity, but also for how earnest and compassionate Newman's character sounds. The song could easily move some misguided patriot to tears, and strike an equally unaware cynic as a piece of jingoist propaganda. Which is what makes it a masterpiece: It flawlessly (and mercilessly) satirizes the blind, unthinking, if-you're-against-the-war-you're-against-the-troops sort of nationalism that patriotic fervor often degrades into. Newman was a patriot, but he didn't let it cloud his judgement, and "Sail Away" is a gorgeous demonstration of that fact. "Political Science" has a similar (but more explicitly satirical) message. It's a brief, charming, catchy little pop ditty in which Newman (again in character) proposes that America nuke just about every other nation off the face of the earth as a solution to overpopulation and anti-U.S. sentiment. Only Australia will be spared our wrath ("Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo").

Elsewhere, Newman lends his dark vision to the spectre of aging ("Old Man"), fame ("Lonely At The Top"), sex (the bizarre, hilarious "You Can Leave Your Hat On"), and nature ("Burn On," which works because it's hypnotic, because the lyrics are full of imagery, and because Randy sounds adoreable when he says "Cuyahoga River"). "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)" is one of the most devastating songs ever written, a dark meditation on man's relationship to God that offers little comfort to our species. "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" is a brief, gorgeous paean to a simpler time, and "Memo To My Son" is a barbed ode to parenthood.

Cynicism and irony included, Sail Away is a brilliant album, a collection of smart, scathing pop songs. Like Elvis Costello and steely Dan, Randy Newman only seems clean and innocent... April 19, 2008

Sail Away! Randy Newman

sigh . . . evidently no longer a Randy Newman fan. (rememberd "Short People" from way back).

Blessings to Amazon! January 9, 2007

political science

randy's prime is here, his best album along with good old boys, every song is tops from this underated gem. August 2, 2005

Newman At His Best!!

Randy Newman is an America original. He is one of our greatest singer-songwriters, whose trenchant humor, biting social satire, eclectic compositions and intelligent lyrics have set him far above the pack for decades. Musically adept and diverse in style, Newman has dozens of albums and hundreds of songs in his discography. He has composed movie scores including "Ragtime," "The Natural," "Parenthood," "Awakenings," "Toy Story," and "Pleasantville." His work in the film industry earned him 16 Oscar nominations including his first win for "If I Didn't Have You" from the film "Monsters, Inc."

"Sail Away" is one of my favorite Newman albums (1972), and one of his first. The title song is most powerful. Backed by a full orchestra, the track's wonderfully gentle melody provides a dark contrast to the disquieting voice of a slave trader convincing Africans of the bounty America has to offer. "Ain't no lions or tigers - Ain't no mamba snake/Just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake/Ev'rybody is as happy as a man can be/Climb aboard little wog -Sail away with me." Yep! "It's great to be an American!" In the same vein, "Political Science's" casually genocidal American leader has ambitions of making major changes in the world. "Boom goes London and boom Paree/More room for you and more room for me/And every city the whole world round/Will just be an American town." 1972??? The more things change the more they stay the same.

Newman wrote the sardonic "Lonely at the Top," for Frank Sinatra. "Listen all you fools out there/Go on and love me--I don't care/Oh, it's lonely at the top." He thought Sinatra would love it. Old Blue Eyes did not. So Newman recorded it himself.

The terribly poignant "Old Man" never fails to move me. And the bitter, ironic "God's Song," makes some pithy statements about organized religion. "Memo to My Son" is a paean to parents everywhere - or perhaps the empathy here is for the kids. "Burn On," reminds me of the time Cleveland's Cuyahoga River caught fire. Seriously, I was there. Talk about water pollution! You Can Leave Your Hat On" is a mid-tempo erotic rock song that later became a hit for Joe Cocker.

"Sail Away" is an impressively even album. The music is simply wonderful. And the remastered reissue has an additional 5 bonus tracks. If you're a Randy Newman fan, you can't go wrong with this one.
JANA May 17, 2005

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Randy Newman is in a class all his own. That's not to say he's the BEST of the best, but he certainly is a raging iconoclast. I mean, a portly, curly-headed, Jewish-raised Californian who arranges for orchestra, writes for children's films, and sings songs about short people, L.A., good old boys, God, and dancing bears... what? Despite its unconventional exterior the music of Randy Newman is some of the funniest, most intelligent in the pantheon of rock/pop/whatever you want to call it.

Although not his earliest, Sail Away was Randy Newman's first album to generate a deal of noise - it remains a favourite of fan and critic alike and to this day his most consistent seller. There's probably a reason for that: namely the quality of this record. Newman has never given in to songwriting formulas or "conventions", staking out territory where his contemporaries seldom tread. So you don't get the archetypical "silly love songs" or teenage angst so common in rock & roll - you get self-deprecating ironies, tales of African slave recruiters, and Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear, among others.

This idiosyncrasy ranges from the dismal to the ribald and hilarious, and everywhere in-between. For instance, God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) is a bleakly insightful take on religion; the equally incisive Political Science a side-splittingly funny slice of "foreign policy" courtesy one of Newman's trademark wackos. From a technical standpoint all the performances are outstanding, including the virtuosity of Ry Cooder and Randy Newman's own skills as a pianist among others. His voice may be limited, but he makes the best of it in his deadpan delivery. He's also always utilized orchestras in a unique way - you'd never be able to mistake one of his instrumental passages - and they blend totally naturally into the fabric of the music here. Not an easy task; just ask ELO's Jeff Lynne, one of the few songwriters out there whose orchestral arrangements complement the songs as perfectly as Randy Newman's.

As for the bonus tracks, the two original cuts (Let It Shine and Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong) are both excellent (albeit short), as are the alternate takes; the early version of Sail Away is particularly welcome.

Is Sail Away Randy Newman's best album? Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I can tell you what it IS: it's comical, it's perspicacious, and, most importantly, it's massively entertaining. So whether you're a newcomer, a longtime fan, or just somebody looking for a bit of good music, you can't go wrong. April 24, 2005

More reviews at Amazon.com ...