Song of the South: Randy Newman's Good Old Boys

by David Kastin

By the time of "Good Old Boy"’s release on September 10, 1974, Randy Newman had established himself as a revered cult figure and critical favorite. But fueled by its controversial opening track, “Rednecks,” his ambitious concept album about the American South became Newman’s first hit - and over the following decades, its reputation has only continued to expand.

"Song of the South: Randy Newman’s Good Old Boys" traces the evolution of Newman’s album from its roots in an abandoned project titled, Johnny Cutler’s Birthday;” recounts his arduous journey to bring his reimagined concept to fruition; catalogs its cast of misfits and misanthropes; and explores its central themes in the context of Newman’s half-century-long career.

It’s a compelling story enhanced by the author’s personal interviews with the key members of Newman’s production team, as well as by his unique access to previously unavailable material.

129 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 8, 2014

About the author

Music historian and educator David Kastin is the author of I Hear America Singing. His work has appeared in DownBeat, the Village Voice, and the Da Capo Best Music Writing series. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a new thing in the world, first of a series of critical essays longer than an article, shorter than a book, released only online. Kind of like the 33 1/3 series, but maybe slightly shorter. Any way, while I enjoy any discussion of a record as great as this one, and while it did give me a little bit of insight into Newman's creative process on the project, I was disappointed at the lack of in-depth analysis. Kastin is way better on the lyrics than the music, which is a shame, as the music on this record is complex, nuanced, and stunningly beautiful. And he did his research, reading everything ever written about Randy Newman, and interviewing many people involved with the record (though not Newman himself). I hope other work in this series will be better, but even if it stays at this level of extremely good magazine features, I'll try to support the effort. Maybe then they can afford to use a copy editor.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been listening to a lot of Randy Newman music lately, and so I looked up his album Good Old Boys on Wikipedia. Through that page, I found this book, which is a small book entirely about the album. It's an excellent overview of Newman’s career and everything that went into making Good Old Boys, which, I learned, actually started out as much more of a concept album, but when the concept didn’t work out well, it was pared down into the album it became (Much like Pete Townshend’s Lifehouse concept that became Who’s Next.)
Some people, I’m sure, don’t “get” Randy Newman, and many, many more have no idea who he is. But he’s a brilliant songwriter and satirist, and his musical talents are diverse and wide-ranging; I’m sure he makes most of his money from the movie scores he writes rather than his singer/songwriter life, but that’s OK with me.

[Simon Sweetman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic summary of one of Newman's very best albums, maybe one of the best single volumes I've read that's dedicated to a particular album.

[Thomas Thieme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a worthy addendum to Robert Hillburn's recent biography of Randy Newman. I thought it was going to be redundant but it provided details specific to Good Old Boys which made it worth the read.