Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is an American songwriter, folk singer, humorist, and actor.

Biography

He is best known to the general public for a 1972 novelty song hit "Dead Skunk (in the Middle of the Road)", and for playing "the Singing Surgeon" on three episodes of the American television show M*A*S*H in 1975, but his musical reputation is much deeper. Using a witty, self-mocking style and unusual, high-pitched voice, Wainwright has made a number of albums, two of which were nominated for Grammy awards. He also appeared in the movie The Aviator and the Neil Simon picture "The Slugger's Wife".

Related Topics:
M*A*S*H - Grammy - The Aviator - Neil Simon

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Wainwright has claimed that, like many of his contemporaries, he was inspired musically by seeing Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1962. He was one of many young folksingers tagged as the "new Dylan" in the early 1970s.

Related Topics:
Bob Dylan - Newport Folk Festival

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His father, Loudon S. Wainwright, Jr., was a well-known writer and editor for Life magazine, while his mother, Martha T. Wainwright, was a noted yoga teacher. Wainwright grew up in Bedford, New York, a wealthy town in Westchester County and is a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant. Amongst his sisters is Sloan Wainwright, also a singer.

Related Topics:
Loudon S. Wainwright, Jr. - Life magazine - Martha T. Wainwright - Yoga - Bedford - New York - Westchester County - Peter Stuyvesant - Sloan Wainwright

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Wainwright's son Rufus Wainwright and daughter Martha Wainwright by his onetime marriage to Canadian singer/songwriter Kate McGarrigle, are both singer/songwriters as well. Rufus was the subject of two of Loudon's more famous songs, the breastfeeding ode "Rufus is a Tit Man" and the retrospective "A Father and A Son", while Martha entered the world to "Pretty Little Martha", turned five to the post-divorce child-rearing anthem "Five Years Old" and entered her teenage years with the brutally clinical "Hitting You". (Rufus, in turn, has covered Loudon's "One Man Guy" and wrote "Dinner at Eight" about a dispute, while Martha has covered Loudon's "Pretty Good Day" and jokes that her song "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" is about her father.)

Related Topics:
Rufus Wainwright - Martha Wainwright - Canadian - Kate McGarrigle

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Loudon also has a daughter, Lucy Roche, by the singer Suzzy Roche, about whom other less biting songs have been written.

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