Randy Newman (Live)

Though he was just getting started, Randy Newman's 1971 live album serves as a sort of retrospective of his career up to that point. Recorded over three evenings at The Bitter End in Manhattan in September 1970, Randy Newman Live is above all an exercise in simplicity. He not only wanted to reclaim his songs from the pop groups that made them famous (including Three Dog Night, who had a runaway hit with “Mama Told Me Not to Come”), he wanted to reclaim them from himself. Newman’s first two albums were highly produced affairs, featuring orchestras and a bevy of trained session players. With this live offering he was out to prove that what matters about his songs is in fact the songs. The setting here is resolutely spare, featuring only Newman’s voice and his piano — no reverb, no guests, no gimmicks. Most of the songs clock in within the two-minute range, emphasizing the total lack of pretension. The most raucous moment comes midway through “Lonely At the Top,” as Newman and his audience break into laughter when he reaches the line, never more ironic than here: “All the applause, all the parades, and all the money I have made…”