Album Info Hide Show Artist: Randy Newman Album: Good Old Boys Released: USA, 2022 Tracklist: The Original Album A1 Rednecks 3:07 A2 Birmingham 3:45 A3 Marie 3:07 A4 Mr. President (Have Pity On The Working Man) 2:45 A5 Guilty 2:30 B1 Louisiana 1927 2:54 B2 Every Man A King 1:02 B3 Kingfish 2:42 B4 Naked Man 3:06 B5 Wedding In Cherokee County 3:07 B6 Back On My Feet Again 3:36 B7 Rollin 2:53 B8 Marie (Bonus Track) 2:45 Johnny Cutlers Birthday C1 Rednecks 4:38 C2 If We Didnt Have Jesus 3:40 C3 Birmingham 2:37 C4 The Joke 3:59 C5 Louisiana 2:55 C6 My Daddy Knew Dixie Howell 2:56 D1 Shining 4:21 D2 Marie 3:36 D3 Good Morning 3:00 D4 Birmingham Redux 2:20 D5 Doctor, Doctor 2:49 D6 Albanian Anthem 1:41 D7 Rolling 4:10 Info About Buying Vinyl From Our Record Store We are a small independent record store located at 211 High St, Preston in Melbourne, Australia (North of Northcote, between Thornbury & Reservoir) We buy and sell new and used vinyl records – if you have a collection you’d like to sell please click here . We ship Australia wide for a flat rate of $10 for standard shipping or $15 for express post. Free Shipping for orders $150 and over. You can also pick up your order in store, just select Local Pickup at the checkout. We also ship internationally – prices vary depending on weight and location. We ship vinyls in thick, rigid carboard mailers with a crushable zone on either side, and for extra safety we bubble wrap the records. In stock vinyl is usally shipped next business day, please check the availability field at the top of the product page to see whether the record is currently in stock or if it is available from the supplier as well as estimated shipping times. If you order an in stock item together with a pre order or back order (listed as available from supplier rather than in stock) then the order will be shipped together when all items arrive. If you would like the in stock items shipped first please place two separate orders or contact us to arrange shipping items separately. We are strongly committed to customer satisfaction. If you experience any problems with your order contact us so we can rectify the situation. If the record arrives damaged or doesn’t arrive we will cover the cost of replacing or returning the record. If you change your mind you have 30 days to return your record but you must cover the cost of returning it to the store. You can contact our Melbourne record shop at (03) 9939 3807 or at [email protected] Happy Listening! Description Hide Show Randy Newmans Good Old Boys landed in September 1974 on Reprise and has only grown sharper with time. Its one of those records that can stop a room cold, not through volume or flash, but with a voice, a piano and a tangle of uncomfortable truths. Newman sets his sights on the American South, but he also takes aim at the rest of the country, sketching characters who are messy, big-hearted and blinkered all at once. What keeps it from feeling like a lecture is the care in the writing and the tenderness of the music. He loves these people, even when they make him wince. Rednecks announces the tone immediately, opening with a nod to a notorious TV moment involving Georgias governor and then slipping into a first-person drawl that savages Southern racism while poking holes in Northern smugness. It is satire with teeth, yet its also painfully human. Newman sings low and weary, his piano steady as a conscience that wont quiet down. That push and pull runs through the album. Birmingham paints civic pride as a kind of coping mechanism, a bright smile over soot. Marie might be the most beautiful love song he ever wrote, a slurred confession that admits alcohol does what sober courage cant. And Guilty is the morning after, a foggy lament you feel in your stomach. Plenty of artists later took those two ballads into their sets, which makes sense. Theyre classics because theyre honest and unadorned. Huey Long haunts the middle of the record. Kingfish plays like a campaign tune with a wink, and Newman folds in Every Man a King, the real-life theme co-written by Long and Castro Carazo, to underline how populist promises can sound so sweet when moneys tight and hope is thin. The historical threads dont feel academic though. They feel like family stories told around a table, where punchlines sit beside tragedy and no one bothers to separate them. Then theres Louisiana 1927, the song that left its original context to become something larger. Newman recounts the Great Mississippi Flood with cold, cresting water and a bureaucrats shrug, then caps it with that line most people now know by heart: theyre trying to wash us away. After Hurricane Katrina, the track took on a second life as an unofficial anthem for grief and resilience. Hearing it in that light, you realise how carefully Newman measures empathy. He never sentimentalises the South. He just understands it, and he understands how the rest of America talks about it. Sonically, Good Old Boys is plush in the right places and sparse where it counts. Newmans piano is the anchor, but the arrangements bloom with strings and horns that never get in the way of a sharp line. Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman keep the production warm and roomy, the kind of sound that still feels right pouring out of speakers on a rainy afternoon. It was a breakthrough too, giving Newman a proper Top 40 album in the US and drawing strong notices from critics who had already clocked him as one of the great American songwriters of the era. If youre hunting Randy Newman vinyl, this is a cornerstone. An original Reprise pressing has a satisfying heft, and the reissues have kept the dynamics intact, so you cant really go wrong if you find a clean copy. Spin Rednecks and Marie on a Sunday and youll see why this record turns casual listeners into lifers. If you like to buy Randy Newman records online, keep an eye out for editions that mention the bonus demo suite tied to Johnny Cutlers Birthday, the early song cycle Newman worked through while shaping this album. Those sketches show how methodically he built these characters, trimming and refining until they felt like neighbours. Good Old Boys vinyl also pairs neatly with Sail Away and 12 Songs if youre lining up Randy Newman albums on vinyl for a long afternoon. Theres a conversation between them about power, kindness and the stories people tell themselves to get through the day. Pop into your favourite Melbourne record store and youll probably find at least one staffer who lights up at the mention of Louisiana 1927. And if youre browsing from home in Australia, plenty of shops specialising in vinyl records Australia wide stock solid pressings. However you find it, this is a record that rewards time and attention. It makes you laugh, then flinch, then lean closer. Half a century on, thats a rare trick. Product Reviews Hide Show Write a Review