Tracks:
Lover's Prayer
Yellow Man
Sail Away
Living Without You
Mama Told Me Not to Come
Rosemary
Last Night I Had a Dream
Let Me Go
Lucinda
I'll Be Home
Suzanne
My Old Kentucky Home
I Think It's Going to Rain Today
Tickle Me
Love Story (You & Me)
Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear
Cowboy
If You Need Oil
Beehive State, The
So Long Dad
Guilty
Lonely at the Top
You Can Leave Your Hat On
Dayton, Ohio 1903
Linda
Memo to My Son
Political Science
God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)
I Love L.A.
Performer Notes:
- While Randy Newman would gain belated fame and fortune in the '90s when his career as a film composer took off (particularly after he wrote the music for Toy Story in 1995), he began to cultivate a cult following and earn critical acclaim in the late '60s as a singer/songwriter whose easygoing melodies and New Orleans-influenced piano were matched with lyrics full of sardonic wit and a curious compassion for his misfit, sometimes reprehensible characters. The People Dressed Like Monkeys offers a look at Randy Newman the cult hero in the '70s; the majority of the disc is devoted to a 1971 live performance broadcast on New York City's WPLJ-FM, with Newman playing 22 songs, including early versions of numbers that would later appear on the albums Sail Away and Good Old Boys, and the little-heard "Rosemary." The quality of the source material is flawed, but the performance is engaging and Newman delivers some cutting wit in his between-song banter. The album also includes six songs from a 1972 performance at the San Francisco club the Boarding House, which was aired by KSAN-FM. The San Francisco selections find Newman playing for an enthusiastic audience, and the fidelity is noticeably better than the New York recordings. Finally, the set closes out with Newman playing a solo version of "I Love L.A." on The Tonight Show in 1984. While the variety of different sources make this seem like something of a mixed bag, The People Dressed Like Monkeys preserves some worthwhile archival recordings from Newman's early years as a performer, and serious fans will appreciate both the performances and the presence of rarely heard songs. ~ Mark Deming
Format: CD (1 Disc); Stereo
Studio/Live: Live
Release Date: 19 March, 2012
Label: Leftfield