Album II

Loudon's early albums offer many delights but Album II may even pip his other early classics 'Loudon Wainwright III' and 'Attempted Moustache'. Here we see Loudo tampering with the folk format with original intriguing songs. Less self-referential than Loudon's other records (i feel anyway) it has it's share of classics, Motel Blues and Saw Your Name In The Paper look at fame in a touching light, lacking Loudon's usual acidic wit but making up for it in sweetness. Be Careful There's A Baby In The House and Me & My Friend The Cat are enigmatic puzzlers. There's humour too in Loudon's Suicide Song and Nice Jewish Girls. This record really does pose the question why is Loudon not a huge star? If you are viewing this out of curiosity from either Rufus or Martha's great recordings have no worries about buying this great record.

I first heard Motel Blues on the New Age of Atlantic sampler album in 1973 and went straight out and bought Album II. I was glad I did. It is a brilliant album. It was recorded before Dead Skunk became a hit and turned Loudon's career toward the humorous side. Most of the songs on this album are serious. Apart from Motel Blues, which knocked me for six when I heard it, Saw Your Name In The Paper is a cracker. It's about Liza Minelli, next door to whom Loudon Wainwright grew up. There are some incisive lines 'Take the money, take the love, take all the people give, the people all are dying but somehow you help them live. The people will destroy you, their love will turn to hate. But now you scratch at that itch that's grown so great.' The life of a star.

My favourite song on the album, though, is Me and My Friend The Cat. I think it's about meeting an old acquaintance whom you really don't want to talk to but end up reminiscing with and hating every moment: 'We talked about this, about that, we tallked together, the blubber was bit, it gagged in our throats, out foamed a fit.' All this spit out with a huge amount of vitriolic power and the guitar probably knocked out of tune by the end. Great stuff.

I recommend this album very highly. There is only one problem with it and that is that in these days of CDs lasting 60 minutes and more it is only about 32 minutes long. A few extras could have been thrown in, I reckon. Never mind. It's still worth it.

This is so much more varied in tone, texture and mood than Loudon`s rather dry, uncharacteristically unsmiling debut. The production is warmer, the songs sung in a more relaxed way. It`s a superb set of songs, far closer to how Loudon is live - and make no mistake, there`s no more entertaining performer in the world today.
Everyone who knows LW has heard Motel Blues at some point. He`s often sung it in concert, sometimes in a knockabout fashion, or perhaps as relatively straight as the original version here. Controversial in some quarters in its day (mostly, dare I say, with humourless feminists of both sexes) it`s a droll plea to a young woman to spend some time with the singer in his motel room while he`s on the road, cajoling her with lines like:

"Chronologically I know you`re young
but when you kissed me in the club you bit my tongue,
I`ll write a song for you and put it on my next LP.
Come up to my motel room, sleep with me"

Needing more persuasion, he resorts to more devious methods...

"There`s a bible in the drawer, don`t be afraid,
I`ll put up a sign to warn the clean-up maid.
There`s lots o` soap and lots o` towels,
never mind those desk-clerk scowls,
I`ll buy you breakfast, they`ll think you`re my wife"

Then the coup de grace:

"Come up to my motel room - save my life"

Those lines show all the qualities of LW`s songwriting skill - the playfulness, the literate mixed with the comic (not that they need be mutually exclusive), the bawdy giving way to something more personal, even touching, though LW`s tongue is rarely far from his cheek, cheek being something he`s never been short of.
All the songs on Album II are top-drawer, another highlight being the wittily written & sung Be Careful There`s A Baby In The House, a simple warning to those who would take the presence of a baby for granted, or underestimate said baby`s capacity to detect when you`re the one who`s full of the brown stuff. There are some temptingly quotable lines here too, but I`ll let you discover the words of this wonderful song for yourself. An uncomfortable song for `coochie-coo` young parents perhaps!
The ironically titled Samson And The Warden, with Loud on piano, is drily funny, a plea to a prison warden (I believe our hero was once briefly in gaol for - possession of cannabis, wasn`t it?) not to cut his long hair.

"...leave the moustache, at least"

The unusual Plane, Too is an inventory. Very few songwriters could, or would even think of trying to, get away with a song like this, which simply lists all the things he`s observed on a plane journey. Ah, but the last line brings the whole thing full circle, so to speak. A disarming, funny, oddly satisfying song.
I haven`t even mentioned Nice Jewish Girls, or the `suite` that rejoices in the title I Know I`m Unhappy, its mock-serious Suicide Song seguing into the delirious,
unsettling Glenville Reel.
Old Friend and Winter Song are rather lovely ballads, and Old Paint is an irresistible slice of trad country `n western, with harmonies courtesy of Loud`s young wife at the time, the late, much missed Kate McGarrigle, with a lovely harmonica backing by one Saul Broudy.
This is one of Loudon Wainwright`s most consistently enjoyable albums, though he was to relax even more on later records, exploring the minefield of relationships, sex, love and family life in all their gory detail.
Like his debut, this re-issue, in excellent sound, has new, fascinating sleevenotes.
Essential.