Even by Lyle Lovett standards, this is an odd bunch.
There's one where he sings about the foul smell of "Fat Babies." Another in which he steals his dying grandmother's gold tooth to have it made into a ring. And on the funkiest, he confides: "I don't go for fancy cars, diamond rings or movie stars. I go for penguins."
But their vintage, not their content, is the strangest thing about the tunes on "I Love Everybody" (Curb/MCA),the Texas ironist's fifth album. Just when Lyle Lovett, 37, has finally become a household name and is poised to follow up the critical and commercial success of 1992's rich, gospel-flavored "Joshua Judges Ruth," he goes and releases 18 old, small, peculiar songs, recorded without the aid of his powerfully accomplished Large Band.
Make that really old, small, peculiar songs: The most aged of these off-kilter compositions, "Record Lady" -- in which he drops the name of Robert Earl Keen, his old buddy and "This Old Porch" co-author -- harks back to 1977, when Mr. Lovett was a journalism student at Texas A&M.;
"Each of my records has been a combination of old and new songs," Mr. Lovett says.
"The idea to make this a record of all old songs first occurred to me last fall. I had a number I was interested in doing, and I went into the studio in Los Angeles with John [Leftwich] on upright bass and Russ [Kunkel] on drums, and we recorded eight in just a couple of days. And I thought, 'Gosh, I've got almost a whole album already.' Which enabled me to go back to others I didn't have in mind and pick out my favorites."
Mr. Lovett dug up some more nuggets written when he was shaping his musical identity under the influence of cherished Texas songsmiths such as Guy Clark, Willis Alan Ramsey, Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson.
There's "They Don't Like Me," about an unfriendly encounter with potential in-laws. "The Fat Girl" is about an obese, picked-on child who grows up to "sing of love and blind compassion," though "she don't mean it." And "Old Friend" was written in 1981 for the express purpose of winning back a girlfriend. ("I'll try anything," he now says. "That time it worked.")
"Just the Morning" is an early sketch for "Flyswatter/Icewater Blues," from "Joshua," which he never performed live: "It was just too nice." And "Creeps Like Me," intended to be the title cut, warns, "This world is full of creeps like me."
"These songs are short, and they're not narrative in nature," Mr. Lovett says. "They're like a series of stray thoughts. And once I decided that they would work best together, I was interested in ** presenting them in an acoustic format, without a big rhythm section. Because they're odd, word-oriented songs, I thought the more I stayed out of the way, the better the song would come across."
Mr. Lovett enjoyed the process of excavating his past, and, he will admit, the luxury of presenting material conceived before he became a regular at supermarket tabloid stands.
"At this time in my life, I was pleased to be able to not offer something up that people would try to read some personal interpretation into," he admits.
At this time in his life, Mr. Lovett, of course, is married to a very famous movie star. He and Julia Roberts, the woman who told Premiere last year that "he's like the universe God," celebrated their first anniversary in London on June 27.
He would prefer not to talk about his private life, such as where he and Ms. Roberts will be spending Thanksgiving. However, he will own up to conjugal bliss, saying that, when their schedules permit, the pair cohabit at either his renovated farmhouse in Klein, Texas, or her Manhattan penthouse co-op.
"I mean, we're married," he says. "We live together."
He's a happy guy ("I might even get a T-shirt printed up: 'Mr. Happy'"), but Mr. Lovett is unconcerned that contentment will dry up his darkly cynical pen.
"It's easier to be reflective when no one will talk to you," he says. "But whatever situation you're in, just to express what you're thinking about and how you feel is a challenge. It's not so much what the situation is, it's just to get it down in a form that turns into a good song."
The tabloidization of his life is a nuisance. "It's like being a character in a really bad soap opera," he says. "They should pay you. They pass it off as news, but it's just not. It's really just entertainment."
But he tries not to let it get to him.
"The biggest thing I don't like about it is the sheer amount of exposure you get," he said. "I think people realize it's all comic-book stuff, but I'm concerned that they'll stop being curious enough to buy your records or come to a show just because they see you so much."
People will get to see Mr. Lovett in December in Robert Altman's high-fashion send-up "Pret-a-Porter," in which he plays a boot maker from Texas. It's the third film he's done with Mr. Altman, after "The Player" and "Short Cuts." He has no intention of going Hollywood, he says, though he relishes the opportunity "to be a ** part of somebody else's process."
Rather than a new career direction, Mr. Lovett sees acting as a diversion from his job of making up songs and taking them on the road. It's sort of akin to the musical side-projects he's been busy with. He recorded "Funny How Time Slips Away" with Al Green for the multi-artist "Rhythm, Country & Blues" album. He's producing demos for talented but thus far commercially luckless country singer Kelly Willis. And he recorded "Mack the Knife" with a full orchestra for the "Quiz Show" soundtrack.
After he's through giving "I Love Everybody" the promotion it deserves, Lovett says he'll go back in the studio to record a batch of songs that are already written. (A rumored Large Band live album is at least two years away, he says.)
"I really enjoy going out and performing with these people in the band that I've had a personal relationship with all these years. . . . But making up a good song is still the toughest thing I have to do. So though these songs feel like early works to me, depending on how stupid I feel on any given day, I'm liable to say to myself, 'Wow, these songs are really great.'"
'
LYLE FOR "EVERYBODY"
To hear excerpts from Lyle Lovett"s "I Love Everybody." call Sundial, The Sun"s telephone information service, at (410) 783-1800. In Anne Arundel County, call 268-7736; in Harford County, 836-5028; in Carroll County, 848-0338. Using a touch-tone phone, punch in the four-digit code 6197 after you hear the greeting.
#
Lyke Lovett live
When: Monday and Tuesday.
Where: Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington
Tickets: $27.50
Call (410) 481-SEAT