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7711 - STEVE GOODMAN - Say It In Private (1977)

STEVE GOODMAN
''SAY IT IN PRIVATE''
1977
36:04

1 I'm Attracted to You
Rick Chudacoff / Steve Goodman 3:22
2 You're the Girl I Love
Steve Goodman 3:56
3 Video Tape
Steve Goodman 3:15
4 There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland
Harry Carroll / Ballard MacDonald 1:55
5 Two Lovers
Smokey Robinson 3:46
6 Is It True What They Say About Dixie?
Irving Caesar / Sammy Lerner / Gerald Marks 2:20
7 eary Blues from Waitin'
Hank Williams 3:49
8 Daley's Gone
Steve Goodman 4:30
9 My Old Man
Steve Goodman 4:02
10 The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over
Steve Goodman / John Prine 5:09

Sanford Allen/Strings
Kenny Ascher/Piano
Errol Crusher Bennett/Percussion
Peter Bunetta/Drums
Steve Burgh/Guitar
Jethro Burns/Mandolin
Rick Chudacoff/Guitar, Guitar (Bass), Piano, Piano (Electric)
Selwart Clarke/Strings
Benny Diggs/Vocals
Thomas Dunn/Vocals
Arthur Freeman
Steve Goodman/Guitar, Vocals
Milt Grayson Bass (Vocal)/
Dolores Hall/Vocals
Scott Hamilton/Sax (Tenor)
Milt Hinton/Guitar (Bass)/
Chris King/Vocals
Will Lee/Guitar (Bass)
Charles Libove/Strings
Jimmy Maelen/Percussion
Arnold McCuller
Kermit Moore/Strings
Cliff Morris/Guitar
Rob Mounsey/Piano (Electric)
David Nadien/Strings
Larry Parker/Fiddle
Leon Pendarvis/Piano
Max Pollikoff/Strings
John Prine/Vocals
Roger Rosenberg/Sax (Baritone)
Allan Schwartzberg/Drums
Maurice Smith/Sax (Alto)
Richard Sortomme/Strings
David Tofani/Sax (Tenor)
Kenny Vance/Vocals
Eric Weisberg Guitar (Electric), Main Personnel
Heather Wood/Vocals

REVIEW
by William Ruhlmann
Steve Goodman reached the charts with his first two albums for Asylum Records, Jessie's Jig & Other Favorites (1975) and Words We Can Dance To (1976), and that may have convinced the label to spend more money on his next LP (money intended to be recoupable against royalties should the album take off, of course), because the sessions for Say It in Private appear to have been quite elaborate. For the first time since his second album, Somebody Else's Troubles (1973), Goodman had a real producer (i.e., somebody who produced records for a living), Joel Dorn, and among the six dozen singers and players who contributed to the sessions were plenty of arrangers and string players. Nevertheless, Say It in Private ended up being a fairly typical Steve Goodman album. In a sense, the cover art told the story. It featured a painting by Howard Carriker that replicated Jacques Louis David's famous 1793 portrait Death of Marat, in which French revolutionary and invalid Jean-Paul Marat was shown lying in his medicinal bath after having been assassinated. In Carriker's version, the body belonged to Goodman, who was alive and smiling. So, here was an expensive-looking illustration that was making a macabre joke, and the album was more of the same, really. For all the production and all those musicians, Goodman was still doing what he loved to do, writing a few modest, entertaining songs and gathering other ones from various genres. The covers included the 1913 ballad "There's a Girl in the Heart of Maryland," which, despite the strings and chorus, was essentially a duet between Goodman's voice and Jethro Burns' mandolin; the 1936 country song "Is It True What They Say About Dixie?," another frantic Goodman/Burns duet; Hank Williams' "Weary Blues from Waitin'"; and Smokey Robinson's account of romantic schizophrenia, "Two Lovers." With his own pen, Goodman turned out a couple of warm love songs that were sequenced back to back at the start of the disc, "I'm Attracted to You" and "You're the Girl I Love," followed by a novelty, "Video Tape," and then the four cover tunes. Next came two consecutive musical obituaries, both of them surprising. "Daley's Gone" was this Chicago native's lament for the late Mayor Richard J. Daley, a man much despised by those of Goodman's generation in connection with his activities during the Democratic Convention of 1968. Even more personal was "My Old Man," about Goodman's own father. Some relief was needed after that, and it came in the form of a folk anthem co-written by Goodman and his pal John Prine, "The Twentieth Century Is Almost Over." Again, there was a big vocal chorus, but again the song was in some ways just a duet between Goodman and an acoustic musical instrument played by another mentor, in this case the banjo of Pete Seeger. There may have been 73 musicians in the credits for Say It in Private, but it still ended up sounding like an old-fashioned folk collection most of the time.

BIOGRAPHY
courtesty of Wikipedia
Steve Goodman - July 25, 1948 - September 20, 1984
Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Goodman began writing and performing songs as a teenager. By 1969, after a brief sojourn in New York City's Washington Square, Goodman was a regular performer at the well-known Earl of Old Town folk music club in Chicago, while attending Lake Forest College. During this time Goodman also married Nancy Pruter, and paid bills by writing and singing advertising jingles.

It was also during this time that Goodman wrote many of his most enduring songs, including "City of New Orleans", the song which would become most associated with Goodman. Goodman's songs first appeared on a locally-produced record, Gathering at the Earl of Old Town, in 1971.

In 1971, Goodman was playing at a Chicago bar called the Quiet Knight as the opening act for Kris Kristofferson. Kristofferson, impressed with Goodman, introduced him to Paul Anka who brought Goodman to New York to record some demos; these resulted in Goodman signing a contract with Buddah Records.

Seeing Arlo Guthrie in a bar, Goodman asked to be allowed to play a song for him. Guthrie grudgingly agreed on the condition that Goodman buy him a beer first; Goodman played "City of New Orleans" which Guthrie liked enough that he asked for the right to record it. Guthrie's version of the song became a hit in 1972, and provided Goodman with enough financial success to make his music a full-time career. The song would become an American standard, covered by many other musicians including Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, and Willie Nelson.

In 1974, singer David Allen Coe achieved considerable success on the country charts with Goodman's "You Never Even Call Me By My Name", a song which good-naturedly spoofed stereotypical country music lyrics.

Goodman's own success as a recording artist was more limited. Although known in folk circles as a great song writer and highly influential, his albums received more critical than commercial success.

Goodman's singing career remained centered around the folk music clubs of Chicago, and Goodman wrote and performed many humorous songs about the city, including two about the Chicago Cubs: "The Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" and "Go, Cubs, Go." Others included "The Lincoln Park Pirates", about the notorious Lincoln Towing Company, and "Daley's Gone," about Mayor Richard J. Daley. Another comic highlight is "Vegematic," about a man who falls asleep while watching late-night TV and dreams he ordered a slew of products he saw on infomercials. He could also write serious songs, most notably "My Old Man," a tribute to Goodman's father, Bud Goodman, a used car salesman.

Goodman was closely involved with the Old Town School of Folk Music, where he met and mentored his good friend, John Prine. Ironically one of Goodman's biggest hits was a song he never wrote; The Dutchman which he popularised, was written by Michael Peter Smith.

Around the time Goodman's career began to take off, he was diagnosed with leukemia. The entire time he was writing and singing, he was also fighting cancer. On September 20, 1984, Goodman died at University of Washington Hospital in Seattle, Washington . Eleven days later, the Chicago Cubs, the baseball team Goodman rooted for and wrote two songs about, would play their first play-off game since 1945 at Wrigley Field.

MORE BIOGRAPHY
BY ITUNES
Growing up in what he called "a Midwestern middle-class Jewish family," Steve Goodman began playing the guitar as a teenager. He was influenced by the folk revival of the early '60s and by country performers such as Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams. After attending college in the mid-'60s, he turned to playing in Chicago clubs by night and writing commercial jingles by day. In 1971, he opened for Kris Kristofferson and was seen by Paul Anka, who financed demo recordings that led to a contract with Buddah Records and the release of Steve Goodman, which featured his train song "The City of New Orleans," a Top 40 hit for Arlo Guthrie in 1972 and now a folk standard. Goodman made a second album for Buddah, Somebody Else's Troubles (1973), then broke with the label, which went on to issue an outtakes record, The Essential Steve Goodman (1975). Goodman moved to the singer/songwriter-oriented West Coast label Asylum for his first charting album Jessie's Jig & Other Favorites in 1975, the same year that outlaw country singer David Allen Coe made the Top Ten of the country charts with a cover of his "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" from the Steve Goodman album. Goodman's subsequent Asylum albums were Words We Can Dance To (April 1976) (featuring "Banana Republics," popularized by Jimmy Buffett), Say It in Private (October 1977), High and Outside (February 1979), and Hot Spot (1980). None became a major commercial success, but Goodman established himself on the national club and festival circuits, frequently appearing with mandolin player Jethro Burns, formerly of the country duo Homer & Jethro. Goodman turned record producer for his friend and fellow Chicagoan John Prine on Prine's 1978 album Bruised Orange. In 1983, Goodman followed Prine in establishing his own independent label, Red Pajamas, which released the live Artistic Hair and Affordable Art (1984). Goodman died of leukemia after battling the disease for many years. Red Pajamas released Santa Ana Winds (1984) posthumously, as well as a double-disc LP drawn from a concert in his memory, A Tribute to Steve Goodman, which featured John Prine, Bonnie Raitt, and others. After a second posthumous release, Unfinished Business, Red Pajamas licensed the Asylum material and put out two Best of the Asylum Years compilations.

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