I have always felt a debt of gratitude to Randy Newman, showing me that the \u201cI\u201d in a song does not have to be the songwriter, naked beneath a single light. The \u201cI\u201d can be a disguise. It can be a coward, a racist, a man polishing his own innocence while the evidence piles up behind him. Warts and all, and sometimes warts are the entire point. Randy Newman enlarged my understanding of what a song could say and who is permitted to say it. He trusted the listener to notice the gap between character and author, between the words sung and the possible darker meaning behind them. Irony may wave both arms and set off a flare, yet a few people walk away believing Randy Newman really just hates short people. That’s the risk of writing characters that are allowed to be wrong. Some confuse depiction with endorsement. The misunderstanding does not diminish the art. In a way, it proves how necessary the art remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"