RHINO QUADIO batch #6 - Speculation Extravaganza!

[steelydave]

Sadly the quad master tapes for the Focus albums are MIA according to the guy who curates their reissues over on the Hoffman forums. I suspect that when ABC/Dunhill (who distributed Sire, the label that licensed Focus in the US) and GRT (who did the Q8 duplication for them) were both almost simultaneously teetering on the bankruptcy abyss that they both eventually tumbled into that these tapes were either pilfered by people with access to the vaults or thrown away to save storage costs. Let's hope they turn up somewhere, someday.

 

[humprof]

Very glad for the rawkers and those who missed the DB box--and I know we Randy Newman fans have already gotten one classic album from the wizard of dry wit. But a review of a new biography in this morning's Times is making me wish for one (or two) more--and reminding me of a time when "rock" was a rather more expansive category:

[Newman] was writing songs professionally while still in his teens and by his early 20s was recognized as an uncommon sort of genius. His first four records, released between 1968 and 1974, floored those who knew the real thing when they heard it. His songs were literate, mocking and dense with the ghosts of American history.

His greatness did not go unsung. Rolling Stone named Newman Rock Star of the Year for 1971, the same year Marvin Gaye released “What’s Going On,” Joni Mitchell released “Blue” and the Rolling Stones released “Sticky Fingers.”

Sadly, it sounds like the biography isn't really worth buying. ("Newman, 80, is a serious, complicated man who deserves a serious, complicated biography. Robert Hilburn’s new book, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman, is not that book.") The review is a great read, though!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/books/review/randy-newman-biography.html
(Gift version.)

 

[~dave~~wave~]

Very glad for the rawkers and those who missed the DB box--and I know we Randy Newman fans have already gotten one classic album from the wizard of dry wit. But a review of a new biography in this morning's Times is making me wish for one (or two) more--and reminding me of time when "rock" was a rather more expansive category:



Sadly, it sounds like the biography isn't really worth buying. ("Newman, 80, is a serious, complicated man who deserves a serious, complicated biography. Robert Hilburn’s new book, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country: The Biography of Randy Newman, is not that book.") The review is a great read, though!

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/14/books/review/randy-newman-biography.html
(Gift version.)

Thanks for the gift NYT link!

Hilburn is interviewed on his Newman book and his lengthy experience of the LA music scene on this recent podcast on Rock's Backpages.
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Podcast/Episode/e186

For this episode we're joined – all the way from sunny Southern California – by L.A. Times legend Robert Hilburn.

Bob beams in to discuss his new biography of the peerless Randy Newman, but we start by asking him about the early childhood memories (of his native Louisiana) that he shares with Randy himself. From there he takes us from the Eureka moment of hearing a then-unknown Elvis Presley on the radio for the first time – through his teen years in suburban SoCal – to his early freelance pieces for the Times. Which include his account of accompanying Johnny Cash to Folsom Prison in January 1968...

Bob's famously influential 1970 review of Elton John at West Hollywood's beloved Troubadour club gives us a chance to discuss the halcyon days of singer-songwriters and leads directly on to Randy Newman, whose "Troub" debut in the same year Bob also reviewed. We talk at length about the satirical genius behind 'Sail Away', 'Short People' and 'I Love L.A.', revisiting the 50-year-old Good Old Boys in depth and listening to clips from John Hutchinson's 1983 audio interview with Randy.

 

[humprof]

Thanks for the gift NYT link!

Hilburn is interviewed on his Newman book and his lengthy experience of the LA music scene on this recent podcast on Rock's Backpages.
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Podcast/Episode/e186

For this episode we're joined – all the way from sunny Southern California – by L.A. Times legend Robert Hilburn.

Bob beams in to discuss his new biography of the peerless Randy Newman, but we start by asking him about the early childhood memories (of his native Louisiana) that he shares with Randy himself. From there he takes us from the Eureka moment of hearing a then-unknown Elvis Presley on the radio for the first time – through his teen years in suburban SoCal – to his early freelance pieces for the Times. Which include his account of accompanying Johnny Cash to Folsom Prison in January 1968...

Bob's famously influential 1970 review of Elton John at West Hollywood's beloved Troubadour club gives us a chance to discuss the halcyon days of singer-songwriters and leads directly on to Randy Newman, whose "Troub" debut in the same year Bob also reviewed. We talk at length about the satirical genius behind 'Sail Away', 'Short People' and 'I Love L.A.', revisiting the 50-year-old Good Old Boys in depth and listening to clips from John Hutchinson's 1983 audio interview with Randy.

That interview sounds better than the book! (To hear Dwight Garner tell it, anyway.) Definitely cheaper....