Loudon Wainwright III - Final Exam

Today a rare affordable Loudon Wainwright III LP was delivered by the postman. If you are not familure with LW III he arrived on the music scene in the late 1960s. He grabbed attention with his single, "Dead Skunk" (1972) and was praised by many including Rolling Stone Magazine who saw him as a new Bob Dylan type. On the surface you can certainly some simularity between the two. However very early into LW's career it became evident he simply did not have the star power of Mr. Dylan. This is not a slight on Mr. Wainwright. His unique brand of honest, humorous and often sobbering folk-rock music has thrilled many fans for the past 40 years.

I have been following Wainwright for several years and I have seen him perform twice now and look forward to seeing him once again later this month (September 2012). Finding vinyl Wainwright is very difficult. He struggled from one label to another for much of his career. The LP which arrived today was 1978's "Final Exam" which was on Arista Records. Wainwright released 2 LPs wi th Arista with this being the second. Both of these releases ("T-Shirt" being the other) are more polished then the majority of his efforts, before or sense. This is a result of Arista trying to mold Wainwright into a more typical folk-rock musician. The result on both of these LP's is fairly weak and Wainwright took a break from recording after "Final Exam" to re-focus on his music, regardless of what the record producers wanted.

That's not to say there is nothing worthwhile on "Final Exam". There is, including "Mr.Guilty", "Pretty Little Martha", "Two-Song Set" and "Watch Me Rock I'm Over Thirty".

Wainwright is without a doubt a required taste but he is well worth checking out if you want to explore some great folk-rock.

Below is "Pretty Little Martha" from "Final Exam". This is a song about Loudon's daughter, Martha Wainwright who is now a musician as well. His son mentioned in this song is "Rufus Wainwright" who is also a very successful musician in his own right.


Artist: Loudon Wainwright II
Album: Final Exam
Year: 1978