July 28, 1972 review: Randy Newman and John Prine in the Fillmore Room at UB

 

The new biography of singer and songwriter Randy Newman prompted our old friend and WBFO honcho David Benders to recall that Newman played the Fillmore Room in 1972. I was there too.

July 28, 1972

Songwriting Geniuses Newman, Prine Meet

         Randy Newman was bouncing out “Political Science” (They don’t like us anyhow, so let’s drop the big one now”) in the spotlight, but wait – over there in the shadows, there’s John Prine, listening intently.

         It finishes and Prine takes another cigarette, lights it and smiles as he joins the applause, much like Newman did as he watched Prine’s set.

         Superlatives would make the meeting of Newman and Prine in the Fillmore Room of UB’s Norton Union Thursday night seem a bit ludicrous. No summit meeting, please. More like two genius songwriting loners running into each other behind the garage.

         The crowd from the first show said Prine was brilliant, Newman not so good. Too sarcastic. Newman’s second set, however, was at least the equal of Prine’s, although there were still a few people talking through the quiet parts, still a few people walking out.

         Prine is bolder, easier to understand. Maybe that’s from growing up in Chicago.

         There’s no doubt about something like his leadoff “Spanish Pipedream,” with its harsh humor echoing early Bob Dylan and glorifying simple country life. Or the desolation of a long and empty marriage in the next song, “Angel from Montgomery.”

         And Prine was looser. Faded jeans, denim jacket, boots, eyes closed as he automatically picked his guitar and sang in his raspy voice. A little into the beer, but he’s better that way, it seems. He drank from one can, set his cigarette on the other.

         A spontaneous singalong swelled the chorus of “Illegal Smile.” Applause for the start of “Sam Stone,” his classic about a Vietnam vet who comes home a heroin addict (“There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”)

His raps were funny and carried him through a length change of a guitar string. He broke the same one on the same song in both sets.

After an hour of Prine, Newman seemed quieter, subtler, more evasive and ironic. Maybe that comes from growing up in Los Angeles.

Hard to tell if the curly-headed Newman is really joking because of all the undertones. He’ll lean his head back, close his eyes behind his glasses and put his mumbling style to something like “Lover’s Prayer,” and it’s both funny and desperate.

His intro to “Suzanne” best explained the warp of his love songs: “This is like Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne,’ only on a lower moral plane.” In one called “Lucinda,” the hero loses the girl when they’re swept up by a beach cleaning machine.

Mostly, however, lust makes his love songs funny. And simple descriptive touches make his lonely songs extraordinarily sad. The last song before his encore, “I Think It’s Going to Rain Today,” made the room very small and quiet.

His running jokes about his non-stardom and his piano playing coalesced into a long intro to “Sail Away,” which he envisioned as a 10-minute sequence in a movie made with other big pop stars like Elton John (“I call him Elton. Or Elt.”)

During intermission, the sponsoring UUAB Music Committee announced that it has a 1972-73 budget four times bigger than ever before. The Newman-Prine promises to be the first of many great UB concerts this year.

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Randy Newman in Amsterdam in March 1972.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Setlist.fm offers just one song, "Political Science," from Randy Newman's UB date. However, you can hear a complete show from July 29 at the Lenox Music Inn in Lenox, Mass., on a website called wolfgangs.com. Seven of the songs are from his "Sail Away" album, which had come out in May:

Lover's Prayer

You Can Leave Your Hat On

He Gives Us All His Love

Yellow Man

Lucinda

Living Without You

Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear

Love Story

Suzanne

My Old Kentucky Home

Sailor Story

Sail Away

Lonely at the Top

Davy the Fat Boy

I Think It's Going to Rain Today

Political Science

Last Night I Had a Dream

There are two songs from John Prine on setlist.fm from that night at UB – "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" and "Sam Stone." A better indication of what Prine was doing in those days comes from Sept. 11 at the Bitter End in New York City:

Spanish Pipedream

The Torch Singer

Illegal Smile

Donald and Lydia

Sam Stone

Take the Star Out of the Window

Rocky Mountain Time

Pretty Good

Hello in There

Six O'clock News

Everybody