Loudon Wainwright’s first LP: 1970 by Morrissey.
Only the best singing voices can become the very sound and image of geographical places. In Delaware when he was younger, Loudon Wainwright imagined his first ever LP, and unzipped it in 1970 to a narrowed public taste that left it chartless forever. On the sleeve he stood with no importance against a brick wall, in the way that classic art avoids fashion. He needed nothing but his solo acoustic and his impressive palette of words. Whoever else was offering musical dynamics in 1970 did not concern him. The voice was almost hayseed in its yearning, fully in the “now” of 1969/70, saying everything whilst looking nothing, and how ridiculous it is to be afraid:
In Delaware when I was younger
I would live the life obscene
in the Spring I had great hunger
I was Brando, I was Dean
blaspheming booted blue-jeaned baby boy
oh how I made them turn their heads
the townie brownie girls, they jumped for joy
and begged me bless them in their...