Veteran musician still pleasing wide audience
Nearly 50 years into Randy Newman’s recording career, he remains much-beloved by the rock ‘n’ roll generation, even though he never sang rock ‘n’ roll.
His concert crowds, in fact, seemingly suggest an appeal stretching far beyond his own demographic.
“There are more young people coming out the last couple of years,” Newman said. “I think they range from maybe the late 20s to 105, people my age.”
Newman’s new album, “Dark Matter,” includes a song cataloging American carnage, “It’s a Jungle Out There” — which. he said, he doesn’t really believe.
Quite the opposite, in fact: His life is good.
At 73, Newman on his first studio album of all new material in nine years is still at the top of his game.
“Dark Matter,” released Friday, is an engaging mix of topical tunes, quirky characters, history lessons and wry asides. The funny stuff is counterbalanced by a couple of love ballads, including the sad but beautiful “Lost Without You.”
“From the first day of this project, it was obvious he really wanted to push himself,” co-producer Mitchell Froom said. “He wanted it to be an audacious body of work.”
Topics include President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert Kennedy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the bluesmen — plural — Sonny Boy Williamson.
The album opens with “The Great Debate,” a wild eight-minute examination of the science-religion divide with three voices, and Newman performs them all. It’s part Scopes trial and part “Bohemian Rhapsody,” unlike anything in the Newman canon, and ends with welldeserved applause.
“Three different voices is maybe not the best use of the form,” he said by phone from Los Angeles. “But I couldn’t see a way out of it, and I’m satisfied I did the best I could.”
The cinematic approach makes sense, given Newman’s success as a film composer — and he thinks the structure represents a step forward for his songwriting.
He tries something similar on “Brothers,” in which President Kennedy and his brother discuss the Bay of Pigs and Celia Cruz, with Newman delivering both sides of the conversation.
Such ambitious songs were possible, Froom said, because of the tepid music marketplace these days.
“The way the industry is now — which basically is 99 percent negative — the one thing that’s really great is that in this environment, for Randy, doing something really different and pushing the threshold becomes a very good idea.
“You’re not going to be facing a record company that is going to be disappointed or worried they don’t have a hit. There was no pressure to conform.”
Newman doesn’t follow music trends anyway. He can’t recall the last pop concert he attended, he said.
He does follows current events, though — and one result of that is the single “Putin,” which delights in the Russian leader’s screenidol ambitions. It includes plenty of laugh lines, including a Greek chorus known as the Putin Girls, and a sly dig at Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul. Putin might like it. “When I finished the song, I realized it isn’t that critical of him,” Newman said. “He doesn’t come off that bad. It’s like I’m part of the Trump administration.”
Newman picked a trendier topic than he could have imagined when he began writing the song at least two years ago, well before “Putin” and “2016 U.S. election” began appearing in the same sentence.
“And now here we are,” Newman said, “with him playing a big part in running our country maybe.”
Putin and Kennedy are the only presidents on the album, although Newman said he wrote a song more than a year ago inspired by Donald Trump’s comments about the size of his hands. The tune has the singer bragging that he’s more generously endowed than Trump.
“It ain’t lying if it’s true,” goes one line.
The song didn’t make the cut for the album, and Newman wishes he hadn’t disclosed its existence.
“It isn’t beautiful; I meant it to be obviously amusing,” Newman said with a chuckle. “But I regret ever mentioning it. The vulgarity of it — there’s no sense adding to the general vulgarity of the world.”
Newman plans to record another album, he said, but first will hit the road for some solo dates at the piano.
Overall, he said, he’s delighted by the reception he still receives.
“The whole thing is enormously gratifying and a privilege,” Newman said. “To earn your living this way is amazing to me. If I play a festival and I see people camped out — not necessarily expressly to see me — it’s amazing they go through that kind of discomfort.”