Randy Newman

Randy Newman:

Interview by Rob Partridge, Melody Maker, June 1974

PERHAPS THIS boy had an image problem. Randy Newman's first album, for instance, had a picture of him looking like he'd never heard of rock ...

The Devil Made Him Do It: Randy Newman

Interview by Roy Trakin, Addicted To Noise, October 1995

"IT'S HARD TO keep a good man down" goes the refrain to one of the songs on Randy Newman's musical version of the Goethe tale, ...

AUDIO: Randy Newman (1995)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, November 1995

The Great American Songwriter talks about his childhood, being a perennial outsider, life on Warners, the American South, racism, Los Angeles, Faust and much more

File format: mp3; in 2 parts, total file sizes: 69.8meg, total interview length: 1h 16' 17", sound quality: ***

Hyped By Your Heroes: Bob Dylan, Randy Newman

Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, July 1970

THE SUMMER of 1970 will go down in the history books as the time when the music of the period finally let loose the truth ...

Randy Newman: In Praise of the Ten Second Song

Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, December 1970

THE MOST influential record of 1970 was the Edwin Hawkins' Singers' 'Oh Happy Day', which came out in 1969. It takes a while for people ...

Randy Newman: Having Fun But Not Making A Habit Of It

Interview by Bud Scoppa, Sounds, June 1971

WHEN RANDY Newman finally decided to become a performer rather than continue his career as a sequestered genius — "I was surprised when I did ...

Randy Newman: Randy Newman Live

Review by Felix Dennis, Ink, November 1971

STRUCTURALLY, harmonically and lyrically Randy Newman's music little short of an economic miracle, comparing favorably to the late Son of God's number with the loaves ...

Who Is Randy Newman?

Profile and Interview by Steve Turner, Beat Instrumental, February 1972

The name of Randy Newman kept cropping up in the interviews I wrote for Beat Instrumental. First of all it was Keith Reid who claimed ...

Randy Newman: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Jerry Gilbert, Sounds, March 1972

NEWMAN GIVING HIS ALL ...

Randy Newman: The Troubadour, Los Angeles CA.

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, July 1972

THIS GUY GAVE me a ride once, back when I was going to UCLA. He was pretty laconic, but under my expert employment of hitchhiker's ...

Randy Newman: Sail Away

Review by Mark Leviton, Words & Music, September 1972

Randy Newman deals with subjects and values that are all but forgotten in contemporary pop music, reflecting in his ironic, witty songs some profundities which ...

Randy Newman: Enter the Cynic

Live Review by Steve Turner, NME, June 1974

Randy Newman: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London ...

Randy Newman: Aw, forget it. Just ask me my favourite colour…

Profile by Steve Turner, NME, June 1974

Randy Newman says he’s not an over-indulgent cynic. He also says he’s sick of folks asking him silly questions. After all, Dylan’s said he likes ...

Randy Newman: Good Old Boys

Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, October 1974

"A VINDICATION of the South?" Hey Randy – y'all gon' lay A CONCEPT ALBUM on us? Yeeee-haw! ...

Randy Newman: Good Old Boys (Reprise); John Sebastian: Tarzana Kid (Reprise)

Review by Loraine Alterman, New York Times, October 1974

The Songwriter Sings ...

Randy Newman: Good Old Boys

Review by Tom Nolan, Phonograph Record, November 1974

RANDY NEWMAN'S new record is all about the South, a concept album of sorts which stops short of operatic unity but which does exist in ...

Randy Newman

Book Excerpt by Bruce Pollock, In Their Own Words (Collier Books), 1975

SLOWLY BUT SURELY, almost against his will, Randy Newman has become a legend in his own time although not too many people know it, or ...

Elton John: Greatest Hits; Randy Newman: Good Old Boys; Pete Atkin: Secret Drinker

Review by Simon Frith, Let It Rock, January 1975

Randy Newman’s album starts:‘Last night I saw Lester Maddox on a TV showwith some smartass New York Jewand the Jew laughed at Lester MaddoxAnd the ...

Randy Newman: Little Criminals

Review by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, October 1977

ON THE SLEEVE, Randy Newman looks as dour as one of the rednecks he dissected with such fiendish accuracy in his last studio album, Good ...

Randy Newman: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London

Live Review by Barbara Charone, Sounds, June 1978

RANDY NEWMAN just might be the only artist in the whole of the music business capable of getting bedsores from live performances. Noted for his ...

Randy Newman: Short Takes

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, June 1978

AFTER THE show there was a photo session in a back-room of the theatre. Randy walked in and, since there was no other reason for ...

Randy Newman: Born Again

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, December 1979

AFTER FIVE ALBUMS and almost ten years of intermittent brilliance, Randy Newman achieves a number one single with a nastily amusing ditty. ...

Standing Up For The Small Man

Interview by Paul Rambali, NME, December 1979

THERE ARE hotels and there are hotels. And then there are hotels like Claridge's, an elegant art deco reminder of the pre-war age of luxury ...

Randy Newman: Dominion Theatre, London

Live Review by Max Bell, NME, December 1979

RANDY NEWMAN was wandering around backstage at the Dominion gazing disconsolately down. "Why doesn't anyone like my ELO song?" he kept asking no one in ...

Ragtime to Riches

Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, January 1982

EVER SINCE his 1968 debut album, many have considered Randy Newman one of the greatest songwriters in America. ...

Randy Newman: Laughter in Paradise

Interview by Richard Cook, NME, January 1983

Punk, people, performing and parenthood – Randy Newman talked about his life, work and hates to Richard Cook ...

Randy Newman: Setting a Standard for Pop Songwriting

Profile and Interview by David Gans, Mix, May 1983

EVERYBODY'S GOT his own definition of paradise, and every paradise has its troubles. Randy Newman's new album, Trouble in Paradise, takes this notion and examines ...

Randy Newman: The Star And Snipes

Interview by Mark Cooper, Guardian, The, May 1987

Mark Cooper talks to Randy Newman, standard bearer against the smug and prejudiced ...

Randy Newman: The Back Room Boy

Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, August 1987

"There's no excuse at all. It's just bad career planning, bad work habits, bad discipline...and I keep doin' it." ...

Randy Newman: A Nightmare on Main Street

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, October 1988

RANDY NEWMAN was sitting in the Forum Arena in Inglewood a while ago, watching the Lakers put on yet another basketball clinic at the expense ...

Randy Newman And Mark Knopfler: Newman's Navigator to A Land of Dreams

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, October 1988

'IT'S MONEY That Matters', the first single from Land of Dreams, bristles with guitarist Mark Knopfler's trademark guitar licks, Randy Newman a la Dire Straits' ...

Randy Newman: Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA

Live Review by Holly Gleason, Rolling Stone, May 1989

Old Four Eyes Is Back ...

Randy Newman

Comment by Mark Cooper, Q, January 1994

Randy Newman does not suffer fools gladly but surely he is currently pushing a point a little too far. ...

Thunderclap Newman: Randy, Poet Laureate of New Orleans

Interview by Chris Bourke, Real Groove (New Zealand), July 1994

I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED what Southerners think of Randy Newman's Good Old Boys, his 1974 concept album about the American Deep South. With its sardonic but ...

Randy Newman: London, Theatre Royal

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Observer, The, November 1994

IT'S HARD to believe that in 1968 Randy Newman claimed he was "very rarely propelled by any great desire to perform live". Especially hard when ...

Randy Newman: Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, January 1995

HE IS TEN SECONDS into his second song, 'Yellow Man', when a bank of spots from Miss Saigon bathes him in a hepatic yellow light. ...

Randy Newman: Faust

Review by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, October 1995

IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME coming, but Newman’s Faust is finally here. Complete with choirs, orchestras, and stellar rock’n’roll guests, it’s surely the most ambitious ...

Randy Newman: "I Love You, You C**t!"

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, August 1998

THE FOLK singer Dave Van Ronk called him "the Hoagy Carmichael of the ’60s". His boyhood friend and longtime producer Lenny Waronker tagged him "King ...

Randy Newman: Here Comes The Rain

Retrospective by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 1998

Ian MacDonald salutes Randy Newman's first solo album as a flawless masterpiece ...

Randy Newman: Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman

Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, March 1999

NEWMAN FANS have been baying for this kind of set for a while, especially as the songwriter's back catalogue has been unavailable on CD for ...

Is Randy Newman the Old Eminem?

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, September 2003

The funniest and least sentimental songwriter in America has revisited his back pages on The Randy Newman Songbook, Volume 1. BARNEY HOSKYNS asks him about ...

Randy Newman: He Shoots From The Lip

Interview by Robert Sandall, Sunday Times, September 2003

Randy Newman’s barbed-wire lyrics and arch social commentary are bang on today – and his new album proves it, says Robert Sandall ...

Randy Newman: Overdue Renaissance Of A Whimsical Prophet

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Independent, The, February 2004

Randy Newman: Barbican, London ...

Randy Newman: Harps For Harps' Sake

Interview by Terry Staunton, Record Collector, August 2008

The new record is in the shops, but RANDY NEWMAN admits he has no excuses for his "ridiculous" output of three albums in 20 years. ...