Satire’s Key Operative

If you stood in the lobby of the picturesque Lobero Theatre concert hall here last week listening to the alternating waves of applause and laughter inside, you would have had a hard time telling whether the audience was responding to a musician or a comedian.

That’s because the man on stage was Randy Newman, whose ability to combine the best of both forms is one reason he is among the treasures of modern pop music.

In a series of landmark albums over the last 30 years, Newman has entertained and provoked us by mixing music and satire in a pop vision that’s as original as Bob Dylan’s mix of rock energy and folk commentary, or Van Morrison’s fusion of Celtic mysticism and R&B; sensuality.

From the stinging satire of “Short People” to the civic bluster of “I Love L.A.,” Newman’s approach is so rich and distinctive that “Newmanesque” has become a common term for describing music that has both humor and a point of view.

But the most revealing thing about Newman’s two-hour concert at the Lobero (and his new album, due Tuesday) is that, at age 55, Newman appears increasingly comfortable using his own voice in his ballads, rather than speaking to us chiefly through the voice of the song’s characters, as he did for years.

Two of the most affecting songs in the show and in the new album are also the most tender and personal.

“I Miss You” is a love song to Newman’s first wife--a bit of an awkward situation, since he has remarried. “I Want Everyone to Like Me” is a disarmingly vulnerable tale about a man’s insecurities.

“In this album there is more autobiography than usual,” he said in an interview the day before the concert. “I started going there in [the 1988 album] ‘Land of Dreams.’ I wanted to see if I couldn’t get out of that box of always being another character. So I wrote ‘New Orleans Wins the War’ and ‘Four Eyes,’ which are basically true. I think I may go there more if I see things interesting about myself. I like to change things around.”

The highlights of the new album, titled “Bad Love,” stand alongside his best works--and the Lobero show was part of a brief tour designed to promote the collection. It’s his first formal studio package in 11 years (not counting “Faust,” the companion piece for his 1995 stage musical). The tour ends with a three-day engagement, starting tonight, at House of Blues.

And Newman certainly hasn’t abandoned his satire in the new work. “Bad Love” is filled with fresh gems that are thoroughly, well, Newmanesque.

Among the highlights: “The World’s Not Fair,” an open letter to Karl Marx that uses the image of ‘90s trophy wives to demonstrate to him that his social goals haven’t taken hold.

In the song, Newman describes some fat cats going to orientation night at a wealthy private school with wives who look like Gwyneth Paltrow.

Karl, you never have seen such a glorious sight

As these beautiful women arrayed for the night

Just like countesses, empresses, movie stars and queens

And they’d come there with men much like me

Froggish men, unpleasant to see

Were you to kiss one, Karl

Nary a prince would there be.

Newman began thinking about the song after attending a school orientation for his own two young children from his second marriage (he has three grown sons from his first).

“I’m at the orientation and I did notice that there are these tremendous blond women there with little guys who I could have beaten in a beauty contest,” he recalled. “I didn’t immediately go home and write the song, but it started there.”

Elsewhere in the album, Newman spoofs pop stars who continue to put out albums long after they have nothing to say (“I’m Dead”) and sings a perverse anthem to 16th century imperialism (“Great Nations of Europe”).

There are lots of humorous edges in the works of such folk-based writers as John Prine and Loudon Wainwright III. What makes Newman’s music so unique is that it is framed in a mainstream pop tradition.

Among his peers, only Paul Simon has shown as consistent an ability to merge words and music with such sophistication and range.

Newman’s feel for mainstream pop tradition comes quite naturally. Three of his uncles, headed by family patriarch Alfred Newman, were distinguished film composers and conductors, and several of his cousins have followed in their footsteps. Randy Newman alone has earned 12 Academy Award nominations for scores or songs for such various films as “The Natural,” ’Ragtime” and “Toy Story.”

He has also been active in the stage world. His musical “Faust” debuted in 1995 at the La Jolla Playhouse and it is being staged again next year at the Kennedy Center in Washington. South Coast Repertory will showcase some old and new Newman songs in the summer of 2000 in a revue-style production titled “The Education of Randy Newman.”

All that film and stage work has cut severely into Newman’s pop productivity.

“To have made 12 or so albums in 30 years is pathetic,” Newman said good-naturedly. “Elton John has made that many while I was sitting by the pool. . . . I would like to be able to mix it up a little more . . . maybe do a couple of movies a year and an album every year and a half or so.

“The good thing about film work is writing music for the orchestra and the money. The bad thing is it’s such a collaborative thing. So many people have an opinion about it. With records, I’ve been lucky. I didn’t even know A&R; departments at record labels could be intrusive . . . and tell artists what to do. I was completely protected from that at Warner Bros. by [former label President] Lenny Waronker.”

Given his long friendship with Waronker, it’s not surprising that Newman followed the executive from Warner Bros. to his new home at DreamWorks Records last year.

“My contract was up at Warner Bros.,” Newman said. “They actually made me an offer that was a little better than the DreamWorks offer. But I didn’t know anybody there [anymore]. When I called to resign, I couldn’t find anyone to resign to. I wanted to hand over my shield. I ended up resigning to a receptionist.”

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* Randy Newman plays tonight, Friday and Saturday at the House of Blues, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 9 p.m. $40. (323) 848-5100.