Burt Bacharach has been a Las Vegas fixture as the rare composer who found a way to present his pop classics live. But fans might be surprised by the provocative themes of his new album, "At This Time."

At age 77, Burt Bacharach got fired from a job. And he's proud of it.

Almost as proud as he is of the new album that cost him a lucrative corporate date.

The composer better-known for songs written 40 years ago has just released an ambitious and aggressive new disc called "At This Time." It's a contemporary-sounding song cycle -- including drum loops by Dr. Dre -- thematically linked with hard questions about the state of the world and the war in Iraq.

"Here's a guy who never made waves in his life. Wrote love songs ... through Vietnam or whatever. Never marched in a protest. Now it's all changed," Bacharach said by phone recently to promote this weekend's shows at The Orleans.

One track, so catchy you can almost hear Karen Carpenter instead of Elvis Costello as the guest vocalist, asks, "Who are these people that keep telling us lies, and how did these people get control of our lives?" Later, the song observes, "Looks like the liars may inherit the earth, even pretending to pray and getting away with it."

Even before the album was released last week, a Los Angeles Times piece resulted in the cancellation of "a rich, lucrative date for rich people," Bacharach says, declining to name the corporation. "All they did was read the article and fire me."

The composer, who co-existed in almost a parallel universe to Bob Dylan, was surprised by his reaction to that. "Wow, that's really interesting. What a feeling that is," he recalls. "A sense of empowerment -- that you can write music and suddenly get fired? I'm not angry. I'm very proud of it. That's a case of artistic expression."

Bacharach does make a point of noting his musical ensemble will perform a few of the new tracks live this weekend, but "I'll never say anything (political) onstage. I'll say it with my music."

Many of the album cuts flow more like instrumental music paced by "vocal interjections, observations, interruptions," as the composer calls them, than rigid verse-chorus pop structures.

And Bacharach's first-ever foray as a lyricist gives the work an added autobiographical resonance. "There was a song I remember, said 'What the world needs now...' " he sings in a fractured voice on the opening cut, "Please Explain."

The next song, "Where Did It Go?" has him talk-singing, "Now I have a boy who's 12 and a girl who's 9 and a son in college and I worry all the time."

Writing lyrics came "almost like it was automatic," he says of the album mostly created in the past year and a half.

The composer says he had concerns with the Nixon administration, but "just didn't get involved" during his years of crafting hits for the likes of Dionne Warwick and the Carpenters. "I was very upset by (Vietnam), but not upset enough to march."

More recently, he says he supported the invasion of Iraq after former secretary of state Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in early 2003. "But things have fallen so badly apart, and it keeps getting worse all the time."

"I just have a lot of trouble when people aren't truthful, whether it's an agent or a girlfriend or someone who might be governing our country," he adds. "Arrogant would be a very good word" to describe the Bush administration.

The composer may be too old too march, but not to work with younger collaborators. There's an obvious Bacharach influence on guest singer Rufus Wainwright and smooth-jazz trumpet star Chris Botti. But the hip-hop credits might raise eyebrows.

It was Dr. Dre who originally gave Bacharach drum loops in hopes of generating something for his own solo album about three years ago, the composer explains. "I took (his drum loops) home and played with them and got some different ideas. ... But Dre was nowhere near ready to start his album."

By the time the album was done, Eminem sideman Denaun Porter and Prinz Board from the Black Eyed Peas had contributed rhythmic loops as well. "I'm very proud of that heritage," Bacharach says of his '60s-era legacy, "but I'm not content to sit still in anything."

Since he first visited Las Vegas as Marlene Dietrich's musical director in 1957, Bacharach is the rare composer who maintained a performing career. That is "something very gratifying to me," he says.

"I used to think, 'What an ego boost it is (to get) a standing ovation.' It's not about that anymore. It's what makes me feel, to be able to give something to hopefully make some people feel good. And I think the purpose of this album is to make people feel something.

"I don't want to do just another pop song right now. I'll see where life takes me after this."