My all time favorite Loudon Wainwright III song:

Dead skunk by Loudon Wainwright III on Album III in 1973

Crossing the highway late last night,
He should have looked left and he should have looked right,
He didn't see the station wagon, car,
The skunk got squashed and there you are!

refrain:
You got your
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Stinking to high heaven!

Take a whiff on me that ain't no rose!
Roll up your window and hold your nose,
You don't have to look and you don't have to see,
Because you can feel it in your olfactory,

refrain

Yeah you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog,
On a moonlight night you got your dead toad frog
Got your dead rabbit and your dead raccoon,
The blood and the guts they're gonna make you swoon!
You got your dead skunk, in the middle,
Dead skunk in the middle of the road.
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Stinking to high heaven.
C'mon stink!

You got it,
It's dead, it's in the middle,
Dead skunk in the middle!
Dead skunk in the middle of the road,
Stinking to high heaven!
All over the road, technicolor man!
Oh, you got pollution.
It's dead, it's in the middle,
And it's stinking to high, high heaven!

Loudon Wainwright III deserves his moment in the sun !! He is a songwriter of note.

KT reader Drew W. had difficulty posting a comment, so he sent it to me directly, and I'm posting it for him. Thanks for the details, Drew.

I love the song "Daughter," too. And I love Loudon Wainwright III. But Loudon didn't write "Daughter." He recorded it for the compilation album Golden Slumbers: A Father's Love," which showcased songs by dads for their kids as a benefit for Golden Dads Project and the National Fatherhood Initiative, whatever those are. (The song also appears on the recently-released "Knocked Up" compilation Strange Weirdos.) Loudon has been cited as one of the best writers of songs about parents, so it makes sense that he'd be on a fatherhood collection.

However . . . "Daughter" was written by Peter Blegvad, a singer-songwriter who used to play with the avant-rock combo Henry Cow in the '70s and the Golden Palominos in the '80s. The 1995 album that "Daughter" comes from, Just Woke Up, is a pretty conventional pop album in contrast to his more "out there" work. (He's also a successful cartoonist, curiously enough.)

I'd reviewed Just Woke Up for Billboard at around the same time that my daughter was born, and so that song had a lovely resonance for me. When my little girl was two, I made a montage of home-movie video clips of her first two years as a birthday gift for my then-wife, whose birthday comes at around the same time. The soundtrack was Peter Blegvad's "Daughter." Needless to say, the song still chokes me up a bit when I hear it. And a dozen years later, I've never been able to get it out of my head either. (My ex thought that its descending chord changes are the same as those of Pachelbel's Canon, but I think they're a little different.)

Coincidentally, when my poor daughter was dealing with my wife and my split-up, I sat down with my daughter and we listened to Loudon Wainwright's beautiful, thoughtful "Your Mother And I," which portrays a father talking to his kids about divorcing their mother.

I've known Loudon for a long time (dated him a bit) and I also worked with his dad, Loudon Wainwright at Life magazine

I am not sure it comes across in his songs, which are often acerbicm but in person, Loudon is very kind and very paternal. One of the kindest people I have ever met.

One of my favorite songs ever is "School Days." His whole first album is wonderful. The BBC Sessions is also great. And his kids are great.