100 Best Albums Of All Time

01 Sail Away

02 Lonely at the Top

03 He Gives Us All His Love

04 Last Night I Had a Dream

05 Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

06 Old Man

07 Political Science

08 Burn On

09 Memo to My Son

10 Dayton, Ohio – 1903

11 You Can Leave Your Hat On

12 God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)

Randy Newman was called the King of the Suburban Blues Singers by his childhood friend Lenny Waronker. The two Jewish boys were born into the music business – Newman’s uncles were acclaimed composers in old Hollywood and Waronker’s father founded Liberty Records and was an acclaimed producer. Without those connections it’s unlikely that an artist as unique and provocative as Randy Newman would ever have seen the light of day. In the early ’70s, Waronker funded eccentrics such as Van Dyke Parks, Lowell George and Ry Cooder, who created an exciting new kind of American music that didn’t sell. Sail Away is the perfect example of this rare moment in time.

Having already made three albums and seen some success as a songwriter for hire for Alan Price and Barbra Streisand, Sail Away was Newman’s bid for commercial success. But, as he told Rolling Stone, it was a long shot. ‘I don’t think the stuff I end up doing is the type of stuff that a lot of people are going to like. Not because they’re dumb or anything, but because they’re not maybe that serious about it. It isn’t their fault, I mean it isn’t the type of stuff that you can put on while you’re getting loaded. It requires that it be the thing you’re listening to.’

Sail Away featured the cream of Waronker’s crew with Van Dyke Parks handling the string arrangements, Ry Cooder adding menacing guitar and Jim Kelter’s warm and reliable drums.

Newman’s deep love of America is best expressed by his melodies, which draw on all the strands of American music. Aaron Copeland, Gershwin, big band jazz, dirty New Orleans blues and rock & roll all make appearances in the tunes on this album. Not since Cole Porter has an American songwriter been so versatile and playful with such serious intent. And like Porter, Newman is best known for his lyrics.

In the early ’70s, when it was all the rage to put your diaries to music, Newman wrote songs from the point of view of characters. The title track is the spiel coming from the slave trader inducing Africans to cross the mighty ocean for the good life in America.

The words are underscored by the swelling orchestration that could have come straight out of any Hollywood blockbuster. There has rarely been a better analysis of America, and Newman does it in less than three minutes.

Few of Newman’s characters are likeable. There’s the misogynistic lover (‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’), the ungrateful children (‘Old Man’), the spoilt star (‘Lonely at the Top’) and the jingoistic, stupid American (‘Political Science’). ‘A lot of the people I write about are insensitive or a little crazy in a different way than I’m crazy,’ Newman told Bruce Pollack. ‘Still, they’re more interesting to me than heroic characters. Way more interesting. I don’t interest me, writing about me. I couldn’t name you any song where I was writing about me.’

Newman reserves his best lyrics for God. On ‘He Gives Us All His Love’, Newman mostly restates the title phrase over swelling strings and a plaintive piano. You can take the phrase any way you like. The final track, ‘God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind)’, is more pointed. Phrased as God’s reply to Job: ‘I take from you your children and you say how blessed are we/You must all be crazy to put your faith in me/That’s why I love mankind’.

Sail Away was not a commercial success, although ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ was a hit for Joe Cocker, and ‘Political Science’ is frequently quoted to describe George W. Bush’s foreign policy. Like Cole Porter, Newman’s songs will last as long as America.