| Within the year to come, Loudon Wainwright III would enjoy
his brief moment of fame with the single "Dead Skunk." Reaching
the number 16 position on the Billboard chart and appearing on his third
album, the musical approach to the tune differed a lot from his first two
LP releases. Album 1 and Album 2 didn't feature a band -- they simply presented
the artist with his guitar (and occasionally on piano). Thus, compared to
his later albums, the songs on Album 2 appear less melodic. Naturally, the
listener is directed to what matters most: Wainwright's imaginative and
often funny lyrics. Combined with the unique manner in which he delivers
them -- part regretful, part nearly hysterical -- his views are essential
to his performance. For all it matters, he's not that good a singer, but
whenever he tries to reach a higher note, it makes the implications of his
songs more tragicomic. Every once in a while he's rediscovered for this
specific talent and his fan base expands a little further. From the lyrics
on this record, it is clearly noticeable that Wainwright grew up, if only
a little. His then-wife, Kate McGarrigle, had given birth to their son Rufus;
hence, Wainwright offers an insightful account of fatherhood in "Be
Careful There's a Baby in the House" and, in all honesty, gets away
with a line like "For the coochie coochie coo is a lot of pooh pooh."
Elsewhere, there's "Samson and the Warden," the famous story
of the singer ending up in an Oklahoma jail (for smoking pot), pleading
hysterically with the merciless warden not to cut off his hair and beard.
Also worth mentioning is the trademark Wainwright suicide trilogy, which
could be comprehended as a sort of pre-study to 1986's sublime "I'm
Alright." For instance, compare the former "When you get the
blues and you wanna shoot yourself in the head/It's alright, it's alright/Go
ahead" to the latter "So I went to the bathroom, to the medicine
chest/There was razor blades and sleeping pills and all the rest/But I
was in control baby, I was so relaxed/I found myself my dental floss,
my favorite kind: unwaxed!" The undeniable highlight is, of course,
"Motel Blues." Covered by the likes of cult band Big Star and
Dutch band Daryll-Ann, it's a song about the more depressing aspects of
touring. The content of the lyrics will have you crying on the bed, especially
at the point where Wainwright tries to convince a girl to spend the night
with him in exchange for a song about her on his next LP. Good old Loudon
was once threatened with having his genitals removed by a hostile female
DJ, while he sang it during a women's liberation program on the radio!
All the more reason to get to know the singer or at least this song better.
(Quint Kik, All Music
Guide)
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