LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III : ALBUM III

  1. Dead Skunk
  2. Red Guitar
  3. East Indian Princess
  4. Muse Blues
  5. Hometeam Crowd
  6. B Side
  7. Needless To Say
  8. Smokey Joe's Cafe
  9. New Paint
  10. Trilogy (Circa 1967)
  11. Drinking Song
  12. say That You Love Me

Label : Edsel Records

Release Year : 1972

Length : 32:19

Review (Wikipedia) : Album III, as its title indicates, is the third full album from Loudon Wainwright III. It was originally released in 1972 on Columbia Records. Album III would spawn Loudon Wainwright's most popular hit single, "Dead Skunk", making this his commercial 'breakthrough' album. "Dead Skunk" was, however one of the many 'novelty songs' sprinkled throughout Wainwright's career, and rather pigeonholed him as a latter-day Tom Lehrer, to the extent that he appeared in three episodes of M*A*S*H*. Although Wainwright has maintained an ironic, sometimes sepulchral sense of humor, Dead Skunk, despite its commercial success, has dogged him ever since, as he comments on 1985's album I'm Alright, "Were you embarressed about 'Dead Skunk'"? Nevertheless, Album III launched Wainwright into a mid-1970s commercial heyday, even if his serious side was ignored in favor of his clownish one. This is also the first of his albums to feature a full backing band (on many tracks). Wainwright mostly eschewed a rocking sound for a stripped down acoustic one from the early 1980s onwards.

Review (AllMusic) : Wainwright's directly autobiographical songs are both brutally honest and extremely funny. Usually he plays alone, but here he gets a full folk/rock backup, which brings out the pop implications of his music. His fluke hit "Dead Skunk" is here, and so is "Red Guitar," about the destruction of one.