Liner Notes: On Parents & Children, Exes & Excess, Death & Decay, & a Few of My Other Favourite Things - Tapa dura

"Liner Notes is, unsurprisingly, as good as its author's songs, with moments of sharp humor alternating with real-life pain, and vivid reflections on love, death, and the whole damn thing. Loudon Wainwright is a true original: not like anyone else, just as he set out to be." --Salman Rushdie

"I expected a memoir that reflected all I know to be true about Loudon: a raconteur with an acerbic, sometimes mordant wit, unapologetic even when full of regret, funny and acutely, sometimes horrifyingly, honest. I got that and more. He is unafraid and clear-eyed about the events of his life--and utterly engaging." --Rosanne Cash

"This book is as candid, moving, and hilarious as Loudon Wainwright's music." --Judd Apatow

"Loudon Wainwright writes without pulling punches about his life. In other writers, this confessional style can instantly repel, but Loudon succeeds by being scrupulously honest about everything, including himself. This is a moving, funny, and observant memoir--everything we would expect from one of the great musical talents of our time." --Richard Thompson

"Fans of the self-lacerating, painfully funny Wainwright III will find the memoir they want here... [and] will delight in how much more they can learn about a songwriter who has already revealed so much in his material. A very funny and candid memoir." --Kirkus Reviews

"Liner Notes is, unsurprisingly, as good as its author's songs, with moments of sharp humour alternating with real-life pain, and vivid reflections on love, death, and the whole damn thing. Loudon Wainwright is a true original: not like anyone else, just as he set out to be." Salman Rushdie "An excellent book. 8/10." Uncut Magazine With a career spanning more than four decades, Loudon Wainwright III has established himself as one of the most enduring singer-songwriters who emerged from the late sixties. There is probably no singer songwriter who has so blatantly inserted himself into his songs, about parents, grandparents, children, siblings, and wives. As he puts it in "So Many Songs": It's taken so long to finally see / My songs about you are all about me. The songs can be laugh out loud funny, but they also can cut to the bone. In his memoir, Wainwright continues to emphasize the personal: he details the family history his lyrics have referenced and the fractured relationships in the Wainwright family throughout generations: the alcoholism, the infidelities, the competitiveness -- as well as the closeness, the successes, and the joy. Wainwright reflects on the experiences that have influenced his songwriting, including boarding school, the music business, swimming, macrobiotics, sex, incarceration, and something he calls Sir Walter Raleigh Syndrome. LINER NOTES is very much about being a son -- a status that dominates many of Wainwright's songs. But it is also about being a parent, a brother, and a grandfather. Wainwright's song lyrics are represented throughout the book, amplifying his prose and showing the connections between the songs and real life. He also includes excerpts and selections from his father's brilliant LIFE magazine columns - and, in so doing, re-establishes him as a major essayist of his era. A funny and insightful meditation on family, inspiration, and art, LINER NOTES will thrill fans, readers, and anyone who appreciates the intersection of music and life.