Newman Has His Say in the First Person : Pop music: The underdog champion, who has been busy behind the scenes, will play Irvine.

Short guys, fat guys, desperate guys, four-eyed guys. Inbreds, rednecks, losers, crooked politicians. A rogues’ gallery of the physically imperfect and morally retarded populates the world of Randy Newman’s creations, helping to make him one of the most unique and idiosyncratic voices in pop songwriting.

With a career that began more than 30 years ago, Newman--who performs Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre--has carved an unusual niche for himself by championing society’s castoffs and inculpating the intolerant, and doing so with a barbed and cynical wit.

Ironically, the intentions of this odd, owlish singer/pianist have been endlessly misconstrued. Newman been accused of insensitivity and questionable morals for such songs as “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” “Short People,” “Davy the Fat Boy,” “Redneck,” “My Life Is Good,” “Christmas in Capetown” and “It’s Money That Matters.”

Typically, those critical of Newman’s output didn’t bother to listen closely to his lyrics or to read between the lines. Many of Newman’s songs are written as first-person narratives, wherein the singer assumes the role of the small-minded antagonist, speaking directly to the listener. Because of this, the PC crowd has often taken Newman to task, believing that he is the racist, the sexist, the ignoramus, rather than the character.

“People aren’t used to hearing first-person things on the radio,” said Newman in a recent phone interview. “Maybe they’re getting more used to it now. Ice T said that’s what he was doing; Axl Rose said that’s what he was doing, but there still isn’t that much of it. Not many people have chosen that method of indirection, but it’s almost always what I’ve done, for more than 20 years. It interests me more to be able to range around it.

“I guess I have a tremendous sympathy for the underdog. I never root for the favorite, really. Those songs are about the narrator’s lack of sensitivity. I always figure that my audience and I are a step above on the evolutionary ladder. Like in ‘My Life Is Good,’ if I were really that kind of (jerk), I wouldn’t admit to it. The guy in ‘Christmas in Capetown’ makes his case, but it isn’t a convincing case.”

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Initially, Newman was something of a cult performer, an industry secret whose songs were covered by such diverse acts as Harry Nilsson Jerry Butler, the Fleetwoods, Cilla Black and Three Dog Night, which had a No. 1 hit in 1970 with Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come.” Newman became well-known in his own right in 1978 when “Short People” became a million-selling novelty hit, reaching No. 2 on the charts. In 1983, Newman became omnipresent on the fledgling MTV network with his amusing video of “I Love L.A.” The song was also used for television ads promoting the Los Angeles-sponsored Olympiad the next year.

Since then, Newman has released only one album, the little-heard “Land of Dreams” from 1988, and has spent most of his ensuing time scoring soundtracks for films such as “The Natural,” “Parenthood,” “Awakenings” and “Avalon.” He has two more works in the can, soundtracks for animated features to be released by Disney and Hanna-Barbera studios.

Currently, Newman is putting the finishing touches on a musical version of “Faust” he’s written that will feature performances by Don Henley, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt and James Taylor as well as himself. He anticipates a fall ’94 album release, to be followed by a live treatment.

But for all his behind-the-scenes work, the question many of Newman’s fans have been asking is, “Where is the new Randy Newman album?”

“All my life, it’s either been bad work habits or bad career planning,” he said. “To some extent, my fans complain about it, and I feel badly about my career as a whole in that I haven’t made more than 10 records over the same period of time where Elton John has made like 25. I’ve got five kids, but that’s no excuse. There are other people who could have done the scores, but I feel like the unique thing that I’ve done in my career is my albums. They’re different than other people’s work.

“My songwriting is definitely what’s unique about me, you know? Everything I do sounds like I wrote it, even the stuff I did for Disney, who are careful about having someone as odd as I am working for them. But I feel like I haven’t written a Randy Newman song in so long with all these different assignments that I don’t even know what one would be now anyway. I’ve been too busy to even think about it.”

Though Newman hasn’t written off the idea of doing another album, he says that the changing tides of popular taste will also make it difficult for him to duplicate past successes. In fact, it is difficult to imagine a man of Newman’s years having another hit on MTV, as the network has become age discriminatory in the past few years.

“This has always been a young person’s business,” he said. “I spoke to Billy Joel the other day. He wanted to use the music for ‘The Natural’ to open his shows, not that he had to have my permission. He said, ‘This might be my last at bat because I’m getting older--but I’m still not as old as you!’ He had to call me to tell me that. But it’s true, everyone is younger than me. I just turned 50 two days ago. It was an ambiguously happy birthday.

“It’s tougher for, say, a James Taylor to get on MTV than it is for some young kid just starting out, irrespective of how good James Taylor’s work may be.”

But does all this mean that Newman has abandoned the prospect of recording any more albums?

“No, not at all,” he said. “ ‘Faust’ ” is my album. There are other people singing on it, but it’s completely evident that I wrote all the songs. If I ever get the feeling that I’ve said all that I have to say--which is entirely possible at some point, but not yet--then I’ll quit.”

* Randy Newman appears at 8 p.m. Saturday at Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive at Bridge Road in Irvine. Tickets are $26 and $30. (714) 854-4646.