Over the years, Randy Newman has seemed a rather solitary and ambivalent figure. He appears to lurk somewhere on the misanthropic edges of pop, a desolate territory from where he makes his ferocious assaults on the more contemptible aspects of humanity. But that's to miss at least some of the point. Randy Newman is fun. In fact, he's a very nice man, and the only people he has ever offended have been racists, bigots and short disc-jockeys - and we can hardly condemn him for that. Born in New Orleans in 1944, Newman grew up in Hollywood where his uncles Lionel, Emil and Alfred were famous film composers. It's a well-known piece of trivia, but worth repeating all the same, that his uncle Alfred composed the 20th Century Fox theme. Mix those impeccable credentials with a bit of Gershwin and the two Fats - Domino and Waller - and you have that unique musical essence of Newman. The other ingredient is his brutally frank take on things.
He began quite benignly, however, as a staff writer with Metric Music, penning hits for the likes of Judy Collins, Alan Price, Gene Pitney and The Walker Brothers. But by 1968 he was writing for himself and was soon poking lyrically into areas where other writers rarely wanted to go. The difficulty of course was that much of the pop audience preferred not to go there either, and Newman found himself shining brightly only in his own rather unconventional patch. Apart from his movie work he has remained there ever since - a lone voice in some distant borderland, far from the candied heart of pop.
"Things like Toy Story and A Bug's Life are as close as I ever get," he says. "But I'm not sure that I have a talent for writing hit songs. I mean I have a long track record of not having hits! So I have a feeling that that's not what my talent is. There are guys who have it both ways - Paul Simon, Elton John and Stevie Wonder - they write very well and have hits too. I don't."
But there were always those who recognised the genius in what Newman was doing. There was something extraordinary in the way he consistently confused and disturbed the record-buying public. Certainly he wrote some of the most beautiful songs you could ever hear, but he mainly arrested people with his cast of misfits and creeps. By using a third person narrative, he told the intimate and ugly stories of the pitiful and the unpleasant, and in doing so, took some almighty swipes at contemporary American life. "Lately I have been writing more about myself because it's easier to find the stuff by looking at myself. But the first song I wrote in that third-person style was Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear. It just interested me more. It gives you more breadth and more latitude to do different things. Short story writers have that latitude, so why does our stuff have to be first person singular? I know short story writers don't have to go out and read the same story every night, but historically they did - there is that tradition of troubadours and bards."
But it can't be easy making Randy Newman records when the music business cares little for history and even less for intelligence. It's unlikely, for instance, that a song like I'm Dead - a ferocious tribute to popstars who don't know when to quit - will ever feature on the MTV awards. And what are the chances of anything sung in the assumed voice of a southern redneck bigot ever turning up on mainstream daytime radio? It begs the question whether someone such as Randy Newman should even be in this milieu in the first place. The contemporary music scene is not the best forum for tricky concepts like irony.
"It's like I picked the wrong medium to do what I do. But then I never thought myself that complicated really. In fact, I always wondered why don't I have a bigger audience. But yeah, I don't know whether I would actually get my own stuff driving in a car at 60 miles an hour. Oh look irony! It's a little tough on a car radio. But for me, audiences are getting better. I get asked less if I really mean something, when it's clear to me that I don't. But they have got worse in terms of general knowledge. You can't expect them to know for example where Belfast is - if you make a reference to a town, they may never have heard of it. But in terms of understanding what I'm doing, they're all right."
Regarded by many as one of the great American composers, Newman keeps spiritual company with the likes of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin. He has won his Grammys, his Emmys, his dozen Oscar Nominations and has been turning out records since 1968. And let's not forget that Short People was a very big hit indeed. And while he hasn't made it easy for himself, he's done pretty well.
"I don't think it's any abstract loyalty to the muse or anything, it's just trying to do the best I can. It's that important to me and it has been since I was 16 years old. I have written bad things, but I was always trying to write good things. Maybe I should have written more songs that people can sing along with. I find myself listening to radio and that's what I do - sing along. I'd almost rather listen to ABBA than Dylan."
Newman's most recent album, Bad Love, has been welcomed as one of his best. He's certainly as sharp as ever, having a go at everybody, including, we presume, himself. Now in his mid-50s, he is as funny and ferocious as ever. And yet behind it all there is a tenderness so powerful that it might knock you off your feet. Some would call it brave stuff indeed.
"If it's bravery or just stupidity I don't know? I mean, there's a love song to my first wife while I'm married to the second one. It's an odd thing to do all right, but the people involved know me and they know that I'm going to embarrass them again! I'm afraid that I put the songs first. If I thought the song was good, I wouldn't mind what I said in it. I think it's a matter of priorities. People are always saying, first family, then God, then me and then work. My priorities would be turned around maybe a little bit. For a good song I don't know who I wouldn't give up!"