I've been writing about growing old for some time, really from the beginning of my career. It's something I'm apparently hung up about and now that I am old, hopefully I speak about it with some authority. Loudon Wainwright III More Quotes by Loudon Wainwright III More Quotes From Loudon Wainwright III I wasn't in a lot of rock and roll bands. I was in jug bands and things when I was in school. Loudon Wainwright III rock-and-roll rocks school My feeling is that, and I've been writing about my family over the years, although it might make them feel uncomfortable, people generally like to be written about. If I've written a song about the family, they enjoy being mentioned in the songs. Nobody's confronted me and said 'don't write any songs about me. Loudon Wainwright III writing song years Why kill good people just to get a bad man? Loudon Wainwright III politics men people Who was that fatman buried in your place? Just another imitator, plastic surgeons did his face. Loudon Wainwright III plastic buried faces Doomsday is quite within our reach, if we will only stretch for it. Loudon Wainwright III doomsday future ifs When you have a song on the radio your career and your life changes maybe for the better and maybe for the not so good depending on how it's going that day. Loudon Wainwright III life-changing careers song I was a smoker for years. Occasionally I slip and have a cigarette. Remarkably, my voice has held up. I'm grateful, obviously. But I don't gargle with honey and ground-up bird eggs. I have no secrets. Loudon Wainwright III grateful eggs years In a way, the songs are written to be performed. I put them on records, but I'm always thinking about how an audience would react to it. I realized at age 7 that I wanted to be a performer, and I used to do that, and occasionally I'll get an acting job. I don't really make much of a living as an actor, but it's fun to do it when I get a job. Loudon Wainwright III song fun thinking If you're 28 and singing about being over the hill, you're pretending. When you're 67 and singing about it, you know what you're talking about. Loudon Wainwright III hills singing talking When a parent dies, the whole house of cards comes down. Loudon Wainwright III house-of-cards parent whole When you make a record, you listen to it literally hundreds of times. When it's done and you can't do anything else, I never listen to my records. Loudon Wainwright III records done Los Angeles, the sun shines a lot, and it's blue, and there's palm trees; it's a bit like Sydney, I guess, but the underbelly is a vicious, mean, cruel, awful place. Loudon Wainwright III shining blue mean As it turns out, three of my four kids are professional singers. And they're really interesting, good singers. Loudon Wainwright III three kids interesting I don't think of myself as a folk singer per se, but I really like blues and string-band music. When I started listening to records when I was a teenager, the folk boom was going on. Loudon Wainwright III teenager listening thinking I studied acting and there's certainly an element of performance. I think that the songs are in many ways written to be performed. I think about what it's going to be like to sing them on stage rather than what it's going to be like to have someone at home listening to them on a CD. I guess in that way there's a connection between my acting experience and the songwriting and the way the songs are written. Loudon Wainwright III home song thinking I had a hip replacement a couple of years ago. I have a song about that. And why wouldn't you? It strikes me that that was a huge event. It's kind of funny and horrible and interesting, so why wouldn't one write about that? Loudon Wainwright III couple writing song Family life is tough, I'll say that for it. But in my case, I've mined the family. In a sense, I've used it. I've used what happened - the different events, the births of children, birthdays. Connecting, not connecting. Regret, shame, guilt. I mean, they're all in the songs. And love, too, I hasten to add. Loudon Wainwright III family love life children When you start performing, you realize that you have to separate yourself from the pack. So I would never wear bell-bottoms, which everybody else was wearing. I had short hair - and to see a 21-year-old guy walk onstage without longish hair was, in itself, weird. Every entertainer needs a shtick. Loudon Wainwright III walk yourself you hair When you start your career, you have to figure out a way to separate yourself from the pack. So I went for a kind of preppy, psycho-killer look: I had short hair, grey flannel pants, and a button-down shirt. I think it worked, because nobody else was looking that way at that time. Loudon Wainwright III yourself look you time I know that people don't listen to music much in the way when they'll put on a CD, sit down, have a drink or go on a car journey. People pick and choose and just listen to tracks. But when I make a record, I try to think about it as a 50 minute musical journey, so the mood is very important, as is the sequence of the songs. Loudon Wainwright III car music journey people
