His last album, Grown Man , was a self-confessional effort about hitting the age of 50, while History , the album before that, was a family chronicle that made the listener feel positively voyeuristic. I'm an exhibitionist or a masochist. The rule of writing is to write about what you know, and I'm obsessed with myself. I get off on showing the warts. I am self-absorbed, but I'm so interesting to me anyway.
Some people find it irritating.
Yet there are at least two Loudon Wainwrights. If one is the unflinchingly naked autobiographical writer, the other is the comic, red-nosed performer who ever since the novelty song Dead Skunk in 1972 still his only hit single has enjoyed a reputation as one of the best humorous songwriters since the days of Tom Lehrer. You don't think, let's add some more irony here, when you're writing a song. The low humour I use is just part of my style. But Freud said the joke is a way of allowing the unconscious to talk safely about horrible things.