They're similar in lotsa ways -- both enjoyed using The Eagles as backup singers, both were smart-asses with, amazingly, only one radio hit -- a cheap joke that their fans are sick of.
But -- Zevon could actually rock, and not in a condescending/parodic way (is Sentimental Hygeine the best REM album? Yes.)
Then again, Newman's mastery of every trick of American songwriting is unmatched, he's a brilliant arranger, and even his "lesser" stuff is nearly always interesting, at the very least.
I go with Randy, but it's a photo finish.
― A|ex P@reene (Pareene), Monday, 12 September 2005 01:21 (twenty years ago)
i don't think that's true of randy. "i love l.a." and "it's money that matters" got played on the radio a lot in the '80s.
― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 12 September 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)
But...
is Sentimental Hygeine the best REM album? Yes.
No.
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 12 September 2005 01:30 (twenty years ago)
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 12 September 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)
for all their parallels -- and you could add that they both served in the'60s as warped brill-building songwriting types -- there was something different about them at their core. zevon was a rock and roller at heart, with aspirations that fell somewhere between bruce springsteen and the eagles. he was more of a performer than newman was. newman was more of a songwriter than zevon was. he existed in rock and roll only as an accident of time. i've never heard any evidence in his music that rock mattered much to him. he was a great american songbook guy at heart. (and those '60s songwriting exercises of his were a lot better than zevon's '60s songwriting exercises, as anyone who owns "dusty in memphis" knows.)
zevon had plenty of songs that would've made pretty good newman songs ("carmelita," "johnny strikes up the band"), and newman had plenty that would've been damn good zevon songs ("you can leave your hat on," "memo to my son," "rednecks"). but i don't think zevon would have ever got to the great last verse of "rednecks," which turns what appears to be an anti-southern novelty into a complicated masterpiece. zevon was more transparent about his literary ambitions (co-writing with tom mcguane, hanging around with hunter thompson). but i think newman was better at it. newman had more musical range, too, and his great albums were more consistent than zevon's great ones.
but i'm probably scarred by the fact that the first rock book i ever read was "mystery train," and i was young and impressionable, so randy's always had that built-in advantage.
zevon had a way with really direct, hit-you-in-the-gut songwriting, like "boom boom mancini," a style that newman's work suggests he's largely suspicious of. and that's the thing about zevon that's always made him so great to me.
so my brain says newman. but my heart says zevon.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 12 September 2005 03:20 (twenty years ago)
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 12 September 2005 03:21 (twenty years ago)
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 12 September 2005 03:26 (twenty years ago)
― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 12 September 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)
― Sym Sym (sym), Monday, 12 September 2005 06:50 (twenty years ago)
Plus some of Randy's songs are LOL funny. 'My Life is Good' for example. "Say, Rand, how would you like to be the Boss for a while?"
Rand's the boss for me.
― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), Monday, 12 September 2005 08:28 (twenty years ago)
yeah isn't that part followed by a saxophone solo? :D
― Ludo (Ludo), Monday, 12 September 2005 09:18 (twenty years ago)
― avery keen-gardner (avery keen-gardner), Monday, 12 September 2005 09:33 (twenty years ago)
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 12 September 2005 09:34 (twenty years ago)
Randy wins.
― Jazzbo (jmcgaw), Monday, 12 September 2005 10:39 (twenty years ago)