Good Old Boys (Randy Newman album)
| Good Old Boys | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album / Concept album by Randy Newman | ||||
| Released | 10 September 1974 | |||
| Recorded | Warner Bros. Studios in North Hollywood, California | |||
| Genre | Rock, honky tonk | |||
| Length | 33:28 | |||
| Label | Reprise | |||
| Producer | Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman | |||
| Randy Newman chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  |
| Pitchfork | 9.3/10 |
| Robert Christgau | (A) |
| Rolling Stone | |
Good Old Boys is the fifth album by Randy Newman, released in September 1974 on Reprise Records, catalogue number 2193. It peaked at #36 on the Billboard 200, Newman's first album to obtain major commercial success. The premiere live performance of the album took place on October 5, 1974, at the Symphony Hall in Atlanta, Georgia, with guest Ry Cooder and Newman conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Initially envisioned as a concept album about a character named Johnny Cutler, an everyman of the Deep South, a demo of which was recorded by Newman on February 1, 1973. These 13 songs were subsequently released as the bonus disc for the 2002 reissue, entitled Johnny Cutler's Birthday.
The kernel of this concept survived into the released album, although as Newman's take on viewpoints from the inhabitants of the Deep South in general, rather than from a single individual character. As on his previous release, Newman addressed generally taboo topics such as slavery and racism, most stringently on the opening song "Rednecks," a simultaneous satire on institutional racism in the Deep South and the hypocrisy of the northern states in response.
Newman also incorporates actual historical events into the album, remarking upon the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 on "Louisiana 1927" and a plea to Richard Nixon to alleviate poverty as a result of the recession of the mid-1970s on "Mr. President (Have Pity on the Working Man)". Preceding an original song ("Kingfish") recounting achievements and slogans of Louisiana politician Huey "The Kingfish" Long, Newman performs with members of the Eagles on a song written by Long himself, "Every Man a King".
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