Sail Away

Randy Newman

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1972
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KBX
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #149,343 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential recording
Odd man out in California's early '70s panoply of singer-songwriters, Randy Newman didn't play guitar, refused to confess specific personal dreams and sins, and sidestepped the counter-cultural trinity of sex, rebellion, and self. Newman dared to be a neo-classical pop survivor, narrative guerilla, and prankster, and no album summarizes these gifts better than this 1973 classic, which found the singer, songwriter, pianist, and arranger spreading his wings to fuse the economy of his songwriting with his lush gifts as a composer. The classic title song mingles its elegiac orchestral bloom with the devastating, deadpanned sales pitch of its slave trader protagonist, while elsewhere Newman wraps his whiskey drawl and laconic piano around acerbic meditations on God ("He Gives Us All His Love," "God's Song"), celebrity ("Lonely at the Top"), nuclear Armageddon ("Political Science"), and sex ("You Can Leave Your Hat On"). Funny, tragic, moving American pop at its zenith. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy as a Monkey in a Monkey Tree..., April 23, 1999

By A Customer

"Sail Away" is such an amazing album- lyrically & musically. The arrangements on this record compliment Mr. Newman's compositions better than on the two previous albums. Though those albums are brilliant, Mr. Newman has been learning with each release. Sometimes less is more- like on "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear." Piano and voice- that's all that is necessary on this song. It comes across much better than the Harry Nillson version that has a more complex arrangement, but ultimately- is less effective than Mr. Newman's "simple" recording. Everything is accounted for on this 1972 album. There are the slow-burning late night odes, the tongue & cheek jazzy numbers, and the "lazy Sunday afternoon" songs. This is not a religious album, but God looms above the majority of the tracks- surfacing in sarcasm as a vindictive entity in "God's Song(That's why I love mankind)" and then the opposite in "He Gives Us all His Love." Every aspect of this album deserves to be experienced. You will always find something new here, and Mr. Newman is always ready to play and sing at the push of a button. Buy this disc and press that button.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Piece of Work, April 17, 2000

By A Customer

Wow. This album is what songwriting is all about. I ownnearly all of Randy Newman's CDs and I just keep returning over andover again to this one (which was, ironically, the first one I bought). The sense of intimacy you get listening to this album is overwhelming...the production of the disc is such that you feel as if you're right next to him in his living room, listening to him play just for you. "Sail Away" contains all the best of Randy Newman's melancholy and cynicism, without the distracting hoo-ha of his later albums, when he discovered electronic synthesizers. A perfect album for watching the sun set and reflecting on the ways of the world before you go to sleep. Any fan of genuine songwriting would do well to pick up this phenomenal CD.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Album Will Make An Intellectual Out of You, January 6, 2000

By	Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Randy Newman is a master of irony. He created symphonic sweep compositions reminiscent of the film soundtracks composed by Alfred and Lionel Newman (runs in the family), then slowly dismantled it like a Jenga game with clever, cutting lyrics. This served him well in the many film soundtracks he scored, and especially well in "Sail Away," his best album and one of my "Desert Island Discs."

You've heard many of the songs here before. The lazy "Dayton, Ohio, 1903" was in a lemonade ad. The solemn "He Gives Us All His Love" ran over the final ironic scene of the 1970 film satire "Cold Turkey." "God's Song" received a bluesy treatment from Etta James, and the stomping "You Can Leave Your Hat On" has been covered by vocal studs Tom Jones and Joe Cocker (Jones'in "The Full Monty"). None of them beat Newman's versions here (although you wonder how Sinatra would've done with "Lonely At The Top," which was written for him).

No less than Brian Wilson wrote the whole of an extra 45, "Mount Vernon and Fairway" on the Beach Boys' "Holland" LP after hearing these songs. Check "Sail Away" for yourself and see how smart you feel afterward. This album is a keeper.