From the Publisher: In addition to covering the life, music, and philosophy of Randy Newman, an enigmatic and audacious American composer, this biography looks at why he has been so largely unacknowledged-and misunderstood-by listeners and fans alike. Delving into the reasons for Newman's peripheral status on the cultural landscape, this suggests that, at heart, he has always been a musical outsider, that he has even built his mainstream career on a brilliant disguise. Using the conventions of American pop as a devious strategy, Newman incorporates into his barbed and satirical work the role of the untrustworthy narrator. In his songs, he wickedly enacts character dramas in order to play a variety of dubious roles: a slave trader in "Sail Away," a stalker in "Suzanne," a born-again yuppie in "It's Money That I Love," and an American demagogue in "Political Science." This is an illuminating portrait of an American artist as a masked man, an artful dodger who remains an American music enigma.