This came out in 2003 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Musicians always say that truly great songs don’t need any bells and whistles — they’ll sound every bit as good performed solo. After listening to singer-songwriter Randy Newman’s latest, you’ll see what they mean.
Although best known these days for singing-toy ballads, in a previous life Newman was perhaps the most brilliantly acerbic songwriter of his generation. Songbook Vol. 1 revisits those days for those who missed out — or feel like a rerun. Somewhere between a compilation and an unplugged disc, this 18-song set features Newman performing solo versions of some of his best and best-loved tunes from the ’60s and ’70s — the endearingly horny You Can Leave Your Hat On, the poignant Let Me Go, the sardonic It’s Lonely At The Top, the sacrilegious God’s Song, the still powerful race-relations classics Rednecks and Sail Away. For fans of his more recent fare, there are even a few instrumentals from his soundtracks. But for me, it doesn’t get any better than 1972’s Political Science, whose take on U.S. isolationist paranoia — “They all hate us anyhow / So let’s drop the big one now” — is every bit as timely now as when it was written. Which, I submit, is another sign of a truly great song.
