Customer Reviews

12 Songs

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This album has none of the insecurity of Newman's first release "Randy Newman." On that album, Newman relied heavily on walls of orchestra for backing. On this album, Newman abandons the orchestra almost with a vengence. This album is made up mostly of songs with a small band. There is heavy slide guitar on some tracks thanks to Ry Cooder, and some of Newman's best songs are here.

The obvious one is "Mama Told Me Not To Come" which Three Dog Night took to the top of the charts. The version on "12 Songs" is vastly superior, and considering that song's success it's surprising that more people didn't seek this album out at the time. Sales were poor in general.

"Old Kentucky Home" is one of Newman's best and funniest songs. It also is a harbinger for a future project of Newman's: the American South (he would deal with this topic 2 albums later).

When introducing "Yellow Man" on "Randy Newman Live", Newman describes the song as "a pinhead's view of China." It is just that. This is Newman's first foray into the world of singing about racial sterotypes - references to rice and excessive frugality abound. It is an easily misunderstood song, and similar in theme to some songs that would get him in trouble years later. It's not as outright offensive as some of his later treamtments of racism, so it's harder to catch the joke.

Newman also takes on a rare cover: "Underneath the Harlem Moon." This song also includes at least one racial slur, and the lyrics are strangely absent from the CD booklet. With Newman singing - knowing what we know now - the song takes on an ironic twist. His method of not being afraid of racial sterotypes and parodying them in a subtle way, makes Newman a pioneer in getting these words and feelings into popular culture and thus into popular conscience. Rather than sweep them under the carpet in an "everything's ok" move, he faces them outright, puts them on the table and lets the listener come to their own conclusions. This method would reach its peak on "Good Old Boys" a few years later. "12 Songs" has a taste of what's to come.

Newman's voice is confident and pronounced on this album. His piano, sorely lacking on his first album, pounds wonderfully in the mix. "12 Songs" is well produced, well paced, and brilliantly written. It's no mystery why it makes so many "Best albums of all time" lists.

This may be one of the most brilliant albums ever made, and when you consider that Randy Newman was, at the time, so strung out on one addictive substance or another that he has since admitted he has no recollection of MAKING this album, it's probably not the best thing to play for your kids if you're trying to talk them out of using drugs!

Indeed, I once saw Newman in concert and when somebody called out for "Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues," the strange, paranoid rant at the end of this album, Newman laughed and said, "No, I don't do that one ever since I quit taking drugs."

That said, the songs on this album will burn a hole in your soul with their ascerbic wit. "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" is a favorite with me, as is the song about poor old "Lucinda," and then there's "Suzanne," "Have you seen my baby," and gee, just the WHOLE THING is wonderful. Highly, enthusiastically recommended...

allowing you to play it more often. And you need to play it often because these songs are, simply, extremely complicated. Arsonist, stalker, lonely misogynist, well-meaning racist, self-involved redneck and huckster salesman are just the most obvious of Newman's many personas. The greatness is not that we come to understand these fringe voices, or even that they are granted their say, but that we are hard-pressed to recognize them at first glance. And even after we know exactly who it is we are looking at, we still find ourselves charmed. Beautiful music and ugly folk.

This is such a great record by a criminally overlooked artist, not a weak track in sight and improves with every listen, what more can you want out of one record?

"12 Songs" is among my very favorite albums, much less Randy Newman albums. Totally different in mood and color from his first self-titled record, this one is swampy, murky, and hangs together as an artistic statement without being a self-conscious song cycle. I play this disc more than any other Newman work -- and that's 37 years after I first added it to my collection. The understated,stark accompaniment is pitch-perfect and serves the dark atmospherics of the songs -- just bluesy slide guitars, drums, bass and piano. By comparison, his follow-up, "Sail Away," while extremely brilliant, sounds thrown-together. A top 10 desert island disc, in my humble opinion.

I don't like to classify albums as best or worse, mainly because each album represents a time period in the artists life, so comparing two or three albums wouldn't make much sense.

12 songs is unlike any other newman album. It's VERY bluesy,and has a very smooth atmosphere. You learn this by the second track(lets burn down the cornfield).

It's plane and simply a mood album. And one of the best mood albums I've ever had the pleasure of listening to.

To all the freaks and social outcasts this is exactly the album you need to hear. This singer-songwriter-pianist doesn't appear to inject his persona in any of these top-notch melodic songs. And if he's ever encountered any of these neurotic or psychotic situations in his lifetime, it will remain a mystery. His New Orleans drawl is expressive in bringing forth the debauchery of these outlandish characters. The precise arrangements inform a diverse collection of rock, blues, jazz and country. Elusively, he's spun his web waiting to catch the fly on "Yellow Man" and "Underneath the Harlem Moon" until you figure out they're anti-racist in content. The organ in "Suzanne" sounds as creepy as its lyric. There's an arsonist at large on a cold night ready to experience love in the open air. There's a woman who gets put under at the beach. Newman's so adept at writing that he nails one of rock's greatest metaphors in "If You Need Oil". You get superb bottleneck playing courtesy of Ry Cooder and Clarence White. Of course there's the restrained brilliance of Randy's own piano and Lenny Waronker's production. These songs can be heard as independent mini-movies. One of the greatest albums of all time.

I cannot understand the other review. Of course, I get it that he doesn't like the album, but
why does he want to share such a perverse opinion?
If you have a particular reason for going against the grain -- for example, some people might
warn against buying Pet Sounds because the mix is muddy on a decent hi-fi, as is the previous
version of 12 Songs on CD -- then please share it, but if you just don't like something, keep
it to yourself!

This is a great album, acknowledged as such by all reputable critics and fellow musicians.
Furthermore, as I mentioned, it was high time it was given a sonic overhaul.

Kevin Gray mastered this one and it sounds inferior to the common cd.
Very disappointed.

Randy Newman / 12 songs: All of Randy Newman's songs are wonderfully written and this album presents his early works fairly well, but not memorably. It is a very pleasant four-star release.