The obvious one is "Mama Told Me Not To Come" which Three Dog Night took to the top of the charts. The version on "12 Songs" is vastly superior, and considering that song's success it's surprising that more people didn't seek this album out at the time. Sales were poor in general.

"Old Kentucky Home" is one of Newman's best and funniest songs. It also is a harbinger for a future project of Newman's: the American South (he would deal with this topic 2 albums later).

When introducing "Yellow Man" on "Randy Newman Live", Newman describes the song as "a pinhead's view of China." It is just that. This is Newman's first foray into the world of singing about racial sterotypes - references to rice and excessive frugality abound. It is an easily misunderstood song, and similar in theme to some songs that would get him in trouble years later. It's not as outright offensive as some of his later treamtments of racism, so it's harder to catch the joke.

Newman also takes on a rare cover: "Underneath the Harlem Moon." This song also includes at least one racial slur, and the lyrics are strangely absent from the CD booklet. With Newman singing - knowing what we know now - the song takes on an ironic twist. His method of not being afraid of racial sterotypes and parodying them in a subtle way, makes Newman a pioneer in getting these words and feelings into popular culture and thus into popular conscience. Rather than sweep them under the carpet in an "everything's ok" move, he faces them outright, puts them on the table and lets the listener come to their own conclusions. This method would reach its peak on "Good Old Boys" a few years later. "12 Songs" has a taste of what's to come.

Newman's voice is confident and pronounced on this album. His piano, sorely lacking on his first album, pounds wonderfully in the mix. "12 Songs" is well produced, well paced, and brilliantly written. It's no mystery why it makes so many "Best albums of all time" lists.


An extraordinary album that is blessedly short,   October 2, 1999
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

allowing you to play it more often. And you need to play it often because these songs are, simply, extremely complicated. Arsonist, stalker, lonely misogynist, well-meaning racist, self-involved redneck and huckster salesman are just the most obvious of Newman's many personas. The greatness is not that we come to understand these fringe voices, or even that they are granted their say, but that we are hard-pressed to recognize them at first glance. And even after we know exactly who it is we are looking at, we still find ourselves charmed. Beautiful music and ugly folk.


DO NOT BUY IF PLANNING TO PLAY ON PC   November 30, 2005
BuyerLSD (edinburgh)
14 out of 30 found this review helpful

This is a copy of the review on Amazon.com for Van Zant's Get Right With The Man which is another Sony corrupted title.

"This CD secretly installs DRM (digital rights management) software on your PC without your permission. Not only does it do this, but the software then hides itself by installing as a "root kit."

As per WikiPedia,

--
Root kit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
A root kit is a set of tools used by an intruder after cracking a computer system. These tools can help the attacker maintain his or her access to the system and use it for malicious purposes. Root kits are known to exist for a variety of operating systems such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows.

A rootkit typically hides logins, processes, files, and logs and may include software to intercept data from terminals, network connections, and the keyboard. In many sources, rootkits are counted as trojan horses.
--

In this instance, Sony installs DRM software to copy protect their CD, and prevent it from being copied to various devices, all the while not telling you, the user, or letting you uninstall it because it hides itself from the user and Windows. Manually trying to uninstall it like some people have done, results in their CD-Rom drives disappearing entirely from Windows, as Sony installs their own custom CD-Rom drivers onto the system.

DO NOT SUPPORT THIS WRECKLESS KIND OF COPY PROTECTION. SHOW THE MUSIC BUSINESS THIS IS *YOUR* MUSIC. *YOU* PURCHASED IT, AND THEY SHOULD *NOT* BE ABLE TO DICTATE HOW YOU CAN USE IT.

Do not buy this CD. "

A list of affected titles can be found here:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004144.php

And another part of an Amazon.com review for the Van Zant CD

"Amazon rocks. They pulled they infected CD's from sale and allowed these reviews that tell of the problems. Shame on Sony they not only messed with the consumers but also the artists."

Trey Anastasio, Shine (Columbia)
Celine Dion, On ne Change Pas (Epic)
Neil Diamond, 12 Songs (Columbia)
Our Lady Peace, Healthy in Paranoid Times (Columbia)
Chris Botti, To Love Again (Columbia)
Van Zant, Get Right with the Man (Columbia)
Switchfoot, Nothing is Sound (Columbia)
The Coral, The Invisible Invasion (Columbia)
Acceptance, Phantoms (Columbia)
Susie Suh, Susie Suh (Epic)
Amerie, Touch (Columbia)
Life of Agony, Broken Valley (Epic)
Horace Silver Quintet, Silver's Blue (Epic Legacy)
Gerry Mulligan, Jeru (Columbia Legacy)
Dexter Gordon, Manhattan Symphonie (Columbia Legacy)
The Bad Plus, Suspicious Activity (Columbia)
The Dead 60s, The Dead 60s (Epic)
Dion, The Essential Dion (Columbia Legacy)
Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten (Epic)
Ricky Martin, Life (Columbia) (labeled as XCP, but, oddly, our disc had no protection)


No sex, but drugs and rock and roll   November 8, 2002
Tom Tuerff (That there Phoenix place)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This may be one of the most brilliant albums ever made, and when you consider that Randy Newman was, at the time, so strung out on one addictive substance or another that he has since admitted he has no recollection of MAKING this album, it's probably not the best thing to play for your kids if you're trying to talk them out of using drugs!

Indeed, I once saw Newman in concert and when somebody called out for "Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues," the strange, paranoid rant at the end of this album, Newman laughed and said, "No, I don't do that one ever since I quit taking drugs."

That said, the songs on this album will burn a hole in your soul with their ascerbic wit. "Let's Burn Down the Cornfield" is a favorite with me, as is the song about poor old "Lucinda," and then there's "Suzanne," "Have you seen my baby," and gee, just the WHOLE THING is wonderful. Highly, enthusiastically recommended...


Short but sweet   March 11, 2000
Leighton Palmer (Cardiff ,South Wales)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

This is such a great record by a criminally overlooked artist, not a weak track in sight and improves with every listen, what more can you want out of one record?