Oct. 3, 1977 review: Randy Newman and John Prine at Kleinhans Music Hall

 


After all these years, my mind still rings with the choruses of practically all of the songs on Randy Newman’s setlist. 

Oct. 3, 1977 

Newman-Prine Concert

Is Tailored for Cynics

           “I’ve never felt like the target of a song before,” an associate laments after Randy Newman finishes his second encore in Kleinhans Music Hall Sunday night. She’s just heard Newman’s new “Short People” for the second time in an hour and, since she stands slightly better than five feet, she doesn’t like it.

          The cultural schizophrenia that gives Newman’s odd little songs their crackle may backfire on him this time. Despite the brotherhood-of-man interlude in the center, the message can’t be hidden: “Don’t want no Short People/ ‘Round here.”

          What’s more, Buffalo may be making a hit of it. WGRQ-FM’s John Velchoff has played it for an hour, over and over. The response to it is terrific.

* * *

WHEN NEWMAN repeats it for his second encore, the crowd claps along. He may wind up with the only fan club that’s sued for having a height requirement.

          Usually when Newman mines the depths of social psychosis, the results are rich with irony and cynicism. Among the better-known examples are “Rednecks,” which explores racism from a racist’s point of view, and “Sail Away,” in which a slave trader promises African natives a good life in America.

          Newman, tall, curly-haired and bespectacled with a checkered shirt, delivers his outrageous proposals over the kind of schmaltzy piano solos that Stephen Foster might have hummed to himself. In Newman’s “Old Kentucky Home,” however, the inhabitants get drunk at night and knock each other down the stairs.

* * *

HIS QUIET portraits of crazed loners (“Old Man on the Farm”) are less successful with the college-age crowd of about 2,000 at this Buffalo State College-sponsored show. They hoot and make animal noises..

          The best responses are to his cheery early ‘70s lampoon of pollution (“Burn On, Big River”) and atomic annihilation.

          “They all hate us anyhow,” he sings in “Political Science, “so let’s drop the big one now.”



          Singer-songwriter John Prine covered some of the same territory in his opening set, but his outlook is far more affectionate. The picture of bleak middle-age in his oft-sung “Angel From Montgomery” is softened with compassion. He still performs it.

* * *

STANDING ALONE with his guitar, Prine applies his elementary strum and limited vocal range to seven years of tunes that have established him as a major writer – “Dear Abby,” “David and Lydia,” “Hello in There” and “Paradise,” which is part of his encore.

          His new numbers earn him friends also. He sings about Sabu the Elephant Boy visiting “the Land of the Wind Chill Factor” and about a car falling forever in “The Bottomless Lake.”

          It used to be that Prine could only perform while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, but that’s no longer the case. He’s cleaned up his act. His hair looks hot-combed. He’s so unruffled that even a broken string on his first strum of the night fails to shake him. Prine, who’s just signed with a new record company, appears ready for a comeback.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTOS: Undated Randy Newman photo from the mid-1970s. John Prine performing at Grand Ole Opry in October 1977.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: “Short People” turned out to be Randy Newman’s greatest hit, climbing to No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Although it was meant to be a satire on prejudice, it was widely taken as an endorsement of bias, especially by height-challenged folks like my friend Barbara.

          There’s no setlist for the Kleinhans show at setlist.fm, but here’s what he played a week earlier at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia:

          Yellow Man

          You Can Leave Your Hat On

          I’ll Be Home

          Birmingham

          Jolly Coppers on Parade

          Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

          Marie

          Old Kentucky Home

          Louisiana 1927

          Guilty

          A Wedding in Cherokee County

          Rednecks

          Political Science

          Sail Away

          Lonely at the Top

          Linda

          Davy the Fat Boy

          Sigmund Freud’s Impersonation of Albert Einstein in America

          Short People

          I Think It’s Going to Rain Today 

          Song info from John Prine’s 1977 dates is scarce on setlists.fm. The site doesn’t even mention his stop here in Buffalo.  

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