Talk:Loudon Wainwright III

Confused

Dad is referred to as II and S (club) Jr.

Mum is referred to as Kathy and Martha T. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 192.93.164.20 (talk) 12:59, 22 February 2007 (UTC).

The "II" for his father is definitely wrong. It seems largely to trace back to a jocular remakr one can find easily on the internet, but we have definite serious references that indicate that his father was "Jr.". Mangoe 17:34, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Edit

I've removed the description of Wainwright having an "unusual, high-pitched voice" as his voice is not noteably high pitched. Certainly not in the Bee Gees or The Darkness falsetto pitch, nor does his voice seem particularly unusual (Björk or Bob Dylan or Louis Armstrong could be argued to have unusual voices, but Loudon's is quite conventional really!) Shinji nishizono 20:30, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

I removed the reference to Kate McGarrigle being Loudon's spouse. She hasn't been that for thirty years or so. The fact that Kate and Loudon were married is covered in the Biography.David T Tokyo 08:04, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Free Music Links?

David, I don't think links to free music are unnecessary. Even if you're not a fan, you might want to listen to a song in order to know more. Maybe you should take out the photo, and put back the music, after all, the music is more important than the visual, no? Wikipedia is chronically underfunded as far as illustrations etc. are concerned. So, I restored the link. Best wishes, --Wpopp 10:57, 31 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Year of birth

an anonymous poster changed the year of birth from 1946 to 1947 ... I can find both on the Net. Anybody knows which is correct? - DavidWBrooks 00:29, 17 September 2005 (UTC)

Martha

This article states something about martha dedicating the song bloody mother fucking asshole to loudon. Somebody needs to put a reference link for that, because it sounds outrageous. And if it's true, i'm dieing to read why she did dedicate it! i'll check back in a week from this date to read the link or remove that sentance! peace wikipedians Jporcaro 03:32, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

forget it, i found a link that confirms what i was wondering: http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1460017,00.html

I don't know how to put it into the article though. can someone do that? Jporcaro 19:16, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

Done - DavidWBrooks 20:30, 15 January 2006 (UTC)

I (before I had a wikipedia account) made the change from BMFA being about Loudon, which has now been changed back. In her gigs before the album Martha Wainwright, when she was touring with the original BMFA EP she would jokingly introduce it as a song about her father. This got a lot of press, a lot of press she didn't necessarily intend and since talks about it in more detail at her gigs. In at least three of her gigs I've been to recently she has described it as a song that is more about her than her father. In interviews these days she generally mentions that the song was written in response to her father saying she was 'messing around' trying to be a song writer, but that rather than being directly about Loudon it was about fighting back towards the person or thing in your life that makes you doubt yourself. I'll link to a video interview in which she talks about the song, as most print interviews that involve Loudon tend to be by people who aren't familiar with his music and therefore get a lot of things wrong: http://www.faceculture.nl/martha/index.htm tacceber 14:56, 22 February 2006 (GMT)

Can we get a handle on his actual progeny?

The list of LW III's offspring seems to change constantly. Can we get definite references for all these people? Mangoe 17:36, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

No more kids without cites! Mangoe 13:08, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

Fansite template and BLP concern

Having read the article carefully and looked at the references, I don't see anything here that warrants the Fansite template. Based on the lack of citations, references used, style and the like, the other two templates are appropriate. Also, somebody who knows WP:BLP standards fairly thoroughly should review the personal facts and remove any that pose a potential problem. Allreet (talk) 01:26, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Given no response to the above, I'm removing the Fansite template. The article needs more info, not less, and some of what is here is trivial but hardly overly glowing. What is needed more than anything else is some decent research and writing to put together a better bio. IMHO, three templates aren't going to change that. Allreet (talk) 04:36, 2 September 2009 (UTC)

Photo

Unless LW has recently grown a beard, I'm fairly sure that the main photo dates from the early 70's. The one from 2006 should replace it. Any thoughts? David T Tokyo (talk) 08:21, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Done. Mangoe (talk) 12:15, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

Career section needs reorganization

The television and film material jumps all over the place, from 1970s U.S. television to late 1980s U.K., then onto film and back to 1975 for Saturday Night Live. Furthermore, the film appearances should include the years, the TV series Undeclared shouldn't be mixed in with the films, and the detail on Knocked Up should be part of the film discussion. I suggest:

• Open with a paragraph on "Dead Skunk" tagged by depth/number of albums and then the material on his influences (the Bob Dylan para at the end).
• Follow this with the TV appearances, including the Undeclared series.
• Move onto the film work, adding the years for each film in parentheses.
• Close out with detail on Knocked Up (allowing future editors to add on more recent developments).

These changes will require some relatively minor copyedits for flow, but the result will be more chronological and by subject. I'm perfectly willing to take this on, but anyone else who wants the first crack is welcome to do so. Thanks. Allreet (talk) 12:30, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Biography section faux pas

"[Loudon Wainwright] is a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant"

What other kind of descendants are there? Does the writer mean "in the male line"? In that case he should explain the change of name. Or does he mean without supervening adoptions? Then he should say so.

The use of the term "direct descendant" seems a wee bit breathless and hyper. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.63.171.24 (talk) 15:04, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

It's a quote from the source; however, I agree that we could do without the "direct". Mangoe (talk) 15:47, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

It's not a faux pas - indirect descendants also exist. For example, I could say I'm indirectly related to Florence Nightingale as she was my great great great uncle's niece. Thus, I'm not directly related to her, but the close familial connection makes me an indirect descendant.

On that basis, plus the fact that I believe we should always stick with the source if possible, I'm reverting the edit. David T Tokyo (talk) 17:41, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Liza Minnelli

• Wainwright went to elementary school with Liza Minnelli.

I just deleted this unsourced assertion from Attempted Mustache. I don't really think it belongs in this article either, and it'd need a source anyway, but someone might find it interesting.   Will Beback  talk  01:12, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

Is it worth mentioning...

... that he shares the exact same birthday as Freddie Mercury? 24.189.90.68 (talk) 04:24, 16 April 2010 (UTC)

No. Mangoe (talk) 10:28, 16 April 2010 (UTC)