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Sail Away | 
 enlarge | Artist: Randy Newman
Label: Rhino / Wea
Category: Music
List Price: $11.98
Buy New: $6.98
You Save: $5.00 (42%)
New (19) Used (9) from $6.00
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 4727
Format: Original Recording Remastered, Original Recording Reissued, Extra Tracks
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 78244
UPC: 766481752028
EAN: 0081227824426
ASIN: B000065DVA
Release Date: May 21, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Sail Away | | • | Lonely At The Top | | • | He Gives Us All His Love | | • | Last Night I Had A Dream | | • | Simon Smith And The Amazing Dancing Bear | | • | Old Man | | • | Political Science | | • | Burn On | | • | Memo To My Son | | • | Dayton, Ohio - 1903 | | • | You Can Leave Your Hat On | | • | God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind) | | • | Let It Shine | | • | Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong (Studio Version) | | • | Dayton, Ohio - 1903 (Early Version) | | • | You Can Leave Your Hat On (Demo) | | • | Sail Away (Early Version) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Album Description
2002 expanded & remastered reissue of 1972 album with 5 added bonus tracks (all previously unissued) 'Let It Shine', 'Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong' (studio version), 'Dayton, Ohio-1903' (studio version), 'You Can Leave Your Hat On' (demo) & 'Sail Away' (early version).
Amazon.com essential recording
Odd man out in California's early-'70s panoply of singer-songwriters, Randy Newman didn't play guitar, refused to confess specific personal dreams and sins, and sidestepped the countercultural trinity of sex, rebellion, and self. Newman dared to be a neoclassical pop survivor, narrative guerilla, and prankster, and no album summarizes these gifts better than this 1973 classic, which found the singer, songwriter, pianist, and arranger spreading his wings to fuse the economy of his songwriting with his lush talents as a composer. The classic title song mingles its elegiac orchestral bloom with the devastating, deadpanned sales pitch of its slave trader protagonist, while elsewhere Newman wraps his whiskey drawl and laconic piano around acerbic meditations on God ("He Gives Us All His Love," "God's Song"), celebrity ("Lonely at the Top"), nuclear Armageddon ("Political Science"), and sex ("You Can Leave Your Hat On"). Sail Away captures funny, tragic, moving American pop at its zenith. Rhino's 2002 remixed, expanded reissue is fleshed out with early versions of "Dayton, Ohio 1903" and "Sail Away," the rarities "Let It Shine and "Maybe I'm Doing It Wrong," and a demo take of "You Can Leave Your Hat On." --Sam Sutherland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
Flawless, genius December 6, 2008
It's not rock'n'roll, but in the broader 'rock' context, one of the very best albums ever made. Not a weak track on it, and several mind-boggling, if not life-changingly profound, songs to ponder (Old Man, God's Song). Even the songs with a veneer of dittiness (Simon Smith, Political Science) are rich in meaning. Death, sex, love, politics, religion, the environment... they're all in there, and more, covered with Newman's typically skewed but skewering insight. A songwriter's manifesto which is as terrifying as it is inspiring, because it's so good.
a classic October 19, 2008
I am just rediscovering the joys of listening to this artist. He is extrordinarily witty and real and that is something very lacking these days. This album is considered one of his finest, but I have about six of them now, and they are all just as good. Do not hesitate, this is worth every cent you pay.
"You just sing about Jesus and drink wine all day" April 19, 2008
Someday (and I know that this day will come) some hapless politician is going to use "Sail Away" as his or her campaign song. It's a composition that sounds as American as apple pie, full of warm humility and earthy passion, with spare and elegant instrumentation and a delicately beautiful (but undeniably majestic) melody. Newman's vocals are passionate and emotive, his lyrics dreamy and hypnotic. He paints a utopian vision of America, one that echoes with age-old ideals ("In America every man is free") and evocative imagery ("Ain't no lion or tiger, ain't no mamba snake/ Just the sweet watermelon and the buckwheat cake"). It's the kind of thing that can win elections. Presuming, of course, that one doesn't examine the lyrics too closely. Do that, and you'll realize that silly old Randy is singing in character, playing a smooth-talking slave driver convincing Africans to get on the boat with him.
Randy Newman was a master of dark irony and intellectual trickery, and Sail Away is one of his greatest triumphs. The above-mentioned title track is one of his most brilliant and mean-spirited pranks, not only for its skillfully disguised duplicity, but also for how earnest and compassionate Newman's character sounds. The song could easily move some misguided patriot to tears, and strike an equally unaware cynic as a piece of jingoist propaganda. Which is what makes it a masterpiece: It flawlessly (and mercilessly) satirizes the blind, unthinking, if-you're-against-the-war-you're-against-the-troops sort of nationalism that patriotic fervor often degrades into. Newman was a patriot, but he didn't let it cloud his judgement, and "Sail Away" is a gorgeous demonstration of that fact. "Political Science" has a similar (but more explicitly satirical) message. It's a brief, charming, catchy little pop ditty in which Newman (again in character) proposes that America nuke just about every other nation off the face of the earth as a solution to overpopulation and anti-U.S. sentiment. Only Australia will be spared our wrath ("Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo").
Elsewhere, Newman lends his dark vision to the spectre of aging ("Old Man"), fame ("Lonely At The Top"), sex (the bizarre, hilarious "You Can Leave Your Hat On"), and nature ("Burn On," which works because it's hypnotic, because the lyrics are full of imagery, and because Randy sounds adoreable when he says "Cuyahoga River"). "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)" is one of the most devastating songs ever written, a dark meditation on man's relationship to God that offers little comfort to our species. "Dayton, Ohio - 1903" is a brief, gorgeous paean to a simpler time, and "Memo To My Son" is a barbed ode to parenthood.
Cynicism and irony included, Sail Away is a brilliant album, a collection of smart, scathing pop songs. Like Elvis Costello and steely Dan, Randy Newman only seems clean and innocent...
 Sail Away! Randy Newman January 9, 2007
0 out of 12 found this review helpful
sigh . . . evidently no longer a Randy Newman fan. (rememberd "Short People" from way back).
Blessings to Amazon!
political science August 2, 2005
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
randy's prime is here, his best album along with good old boys, every song is tops from this underated gem.
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