Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright

Subject: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: GUEST,Taliesn
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 05:28 AM

Well ,contining this series of plumbing the depths here for whom is doing artist worth honorable mention yet never mentioned, I have to enter the copious works of wordsmith mastery and attendent musical composition by Loudon Wainwright the III.

I mention this in the spirit of this being the 21st century and all it would be a shame for the advent of an artist's passing before someone else "notices" their work and continues to pass it on as living works. There soooo much more to loudon wainwright than the usual mention of " Oh yeah , that "Dead skunk in the middle of the road" - fella right ?

That's like saying Ricky lee Jones is just about "Chuck E's in Love".

Doing some pre-dawn work on my 'puter whilst listening again to Lady Joni's "Sisotobrell Lane" knowing I would just melt away would I ever hear this song performed live by anyone whom bothers to give it a try.

However the next song "The Dawntreader" and even *hope* to hear someone else perform it is as daunting as the song is sublimely haunting . A song that definitely comes under the heading of one of those I've never tired of hearing.

It's one of those songs I'd even be happy of as a choice played at my funeral. That and Jon anderson's "Wonderous Stories". Always wondered what that would sound like accompanied on a guitar...a *12 string* ofcourse... but that's possibly another thread.

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 09:56 AM

Well....Johnny Cash did Wainwright's "The Man Who Couldn't Cry."
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 04 Sep 02 - 11:21 AM

"Covering" surely means what happens in the music industry. What ordinary people do is sing songs other people have made up and recorded. Most of the time I have no idea who wrote or recorded songs like that, because I don't tend to buy records except off the side of the stage after a performance I like.

Loudon Wainright is a great one though, and I'm sure quite a few of his songs have a good chance of making it into the session repertoire, in addition to Dead Skunk.

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 05:47 AM

I recorded Loudon's "I Know I'm Unhappy" and "Suicide Song" (in a 3-part medley with Malvina Reynolds' "The Moment") on my first studio album back in 1976, and his "How Old Are You?" in '88.....
Have been known to also sing "Wine With Dinner"....

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: GUEST,Kees
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 06:05 AM

Check the Yahoo discussion group about Loudon Wainwright.

There was an obscure album of a at that time rather well-known m.o.r-group covering an unlikely lot of Wainwright on an album in the early 1970s - an unsuccesfully trial to get a new style and image. I don't get there name right now. It was a message about 1 or 2 years ago on the list.

And of course the McGarrigle cover of Schooldays.

Recent messages told about European translations of his songs (Guido Belcanto from Belgium did some nice covers).

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 08:38 AM

Addition: I just checked the Loudon Group at Yahoo.com, the group that covered a LW3 cover album is Brooklin Bridge. Read message #609 with the story behind it.

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: Candyman(inactive)
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 09:57 AM

And of course the McGarrigle cover of Schooldays.

I think it's a mistake to refer to that recording as a "cover," it's really a *collaboration* between Loudon and Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Chaim Tannenbaum and Rufus & Martha Wainwright (the children of Loudon and Kate).

On the other hand, Kate & Anna McGarrigle did record Loudon's "Swimming Song" on their first album, recorded while Kate was still married to Loudon.

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 12:36 PM

I've been playing IWIWAL for a few years now... not so much lately after I handed it off to a chum of mine and he started doing it...

I've covered a couple of others, but I'm too undercaffinated to think of them right now...

:-)

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 09 Aug 03 - 11:05 PM

I've also recorded Loudon's "TSDHAV (This Song Don't Have a Video)"..... had to change the 'country' feel though...my recorded & live version incorporates a West African brass riff & "Short People" quote......

Subject: RE: Anybody covering Loudon Wainwright
From: GUEST,FWIW, I've been doing these forever...
Date: 31 Aug 10 - 11:06 AM

Dead Skunk
Muse Blues
Reciprocity
4 is a Magic Number
On The Rocks
Rufus Is A Tit Man
Nice Jewish Girls
Suicide Song
Whatever Happened to us
The Man who Couldn't Cry
Down Drinking at the Bar
The Drinking Song
Wine With Dinner
Dilated To Meet you
The Swimming Song
Unrequited to the Nth Degree
The Hardy Boys at the Y
I Wish I was a Lesbian