Artist Randy Newman
Album Good Old Boys
Rating *****
Release Date 1974
Label Reprise
Time 33:28
Genre  Rock
Styles  Singer/ Songwriter, Baroque Pop, Chamber Pop, Pop/Rock, Album Rock, Pop
Moods  Sardonic, Bitter, Cynical/ Sarcastic, Literate, Relaxed, Plaintive, Wistful, Weary,
Reflective, Stylish, Yearning, Romantic, Bittersweet, Poignant, Intimate, Earnest,
Melancholy, Provocative, Rollicking, Ironic, Gentle
Themes  Maverick, Mischievous
AMG Album ID R    14023

 Review by Mark Deming
Randy Newman's songwriting often walks a narrow line between intelligent satire and
willful cruelty, and that line was never finer than on the album Good Old Boys.
Newman had long displayed a fascination with the American South, and Good Old Boys
was a song cycle where he gave free reign to his most imaginative (and venomous)
thoughts on the subject. The album's scabrous opening cut, "Rednecks," is guaranteed
to offend practically anyone with its tale of a slow-witted, willfully (and proudly) ignorant
Southerner obsessed with "keeping the n