Although many critics and musicians believe that Randy Newman is the ranking satirist and the major talent among living American songwriters, he has received most attention for his score for Milos Forman's Ragtime, which earned an Academy Award nomination, and for a funny song about a lunatic who hates "Short People." Trouble in Paradise, Newman's most recent LP, includes "I Love L.A.," a bouncy send-up of his home town, and a disturbing, edgy vision of Cape Town, South Africa, as well as a cluster of societal woes and personal miseries. Although a recluse at heart, Newman, who comes from a family of musicians, met with David Sheff in Beverly Hills. "I asked him about his much-reported eye problem, which causes him to see double," reports Sheff. "He shrugged it off. 'It's no big deal,' he said. 'I can see fine.' To prove it, he focused on me and said. 'I know which one is you.' He pointed toward the window."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: What is the trouble in paradise?

Randy Newman: You know, places like L.A., Miami, Cape Town are supposed to be, and probably used to be, like Bora-Bora or some other paradise. But things went wrong. But I do love L.A. It's not the most beautiful place in the world, but I love the weather and everybody I know well lives here. I admit that the song is a little ambiguous; the streets I picked are not the most beautiful, and I took a few shots here and there--like the bum--but, basically, I do love L.A. I love the Beach Boys. Like I said in the song, "Rollin' down the Imperial Highway/With a big nasty redhead at my side...." That wouldn't be bad.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Do you like to be in the center of the music business? Do you take meetings at the Polo Lounge?

Randy Newman: I've been to a meeting there, but I didn't get into how awful it was that I was doing it. I didn't give a shit where I was. Except a lot of nice-looking women were there in hats. Black hats. I like that. I may go back there.

Otherwise, I don't pay attention to the music business. I don't read the magazines or look at the charts. If I were in the magazines occasionally, I might. When Short People was a hit, I subscribed. But, really, I'm not interested in that at all.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: On Trouble in Paradise, the list of background singers is pretty impressive: Linda Ronstadt, Wendy Waldman, Paul Simon, Jennifer Warnes, Don Henley, Bob Seger, Rickie Lee Jones, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie. Why did they agree to sing on your record? Did they need the money?

Randy Newman: A lot of them like me, I suppose. I don't exactly know why, but they like what I do. I think. You should check. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they did it as charity.

Linda and Jennifer have done my songs. Other people called Lenny [Waronker] and Russ [Titelman--Newman's producer] and asked if I needed background things. I can't do backgrounds. I sound like a bunch of sheep. I didn't know some of those people. I like Seger's stuff, but I didn't know he liked mine. Henley called; we're friends. I sort of knew Simon. I knew Rickie Lee. And they were great to work with. They all have real enthusiasm for music in general. They worked really long hours, to where I would get embarrassed and say, "Don't you have to go to a fitting or something?"

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Because of your song, a lot of people think you really do hate short people. Does it bother you when people misinterpret you?

Randy Newman: Sometimes, though it may be my own fault--the execution. I remember in high school, you analyzed poetry and some of the hippie teachers would say, "That's fine, that's fine--however you see it is fine," but that isn't fine with me. I set out to do something, and that's what I want people to get. Sometimes I don't care. A song comes--boom! Sometimes there is a lot of work with your head: "Is this funny? Or is it merely vulgar? If it's merely vulgar, why do it?"

Q 5

PLAYBOY: Your sound track for Ragtime was nominated for an Academy Award. How did that project come to be?

Randy Newman: After turning down many movies, I agreed to do that one because I knew it had great music potential.

I had read the book. Some of it I did in advance of the shooting, like when you see musicians playing in the movie--they actually had to be playing something--but the rest was done afterward. In some ways, it was easier than writing my own songs, because I didn't have to pull something right out of the air, but in other respects it was harder, because I was dealing with someone else's ideas and writing for an orchestra--which I really liked. It's a real art to match and enhance what is going on up there. You try to help tell the story. You make the romance mean a little more. If the guy is looking happy driving his car, you try to make happy music--a real difficult job for me.

I'm not used to having to deal with other people when I work. I do what I want to do. But film is a director's medium. Music is about 14th in importance. If the director wants to take a piece of music and cut it down or move it from here to there, he does it. So I wasn't entirely overjoyed with the experience, but I did all right, I thought. And I was rather proud of the job I did. In the time of the movie, there were fewer chords than they know now, so I like it.