Loudon Wainwright III – I’d Rather Lead a Band
Thirty Tigers – 9 October 2020
Before I’d Rather Lead a Band I’d never thought of Loudon Wainwright III as a big band jazz singer. Yet there’s a certain logic to it. Over the course of several years, he’d been developing Surviving Twin, a one-man show partially based on columns written by his father for “Life Magazine.” One of the memories that helped to motivate this disc was Loudon recalls, “If you’re six or seven and you’re watching your parents all dressed up, it’s sexy. It was beautiful and powerful. It was the music they loved and their parents loved.”
Of course, Wainwright also had experience with period pieces having worked on songs for the soundtrack to HBO’s “Atlantic City.” Along with music supervisor Randall Poster, producer Stewart Lerman, and bandleader Vince Giordano, they exchanged an endless series of song choices before eventually whittling things down to the 14 that appear on I’d Rather Lead a Band. Wainwright found the experience liberating, “It was freeing, because I could shed my Loudon Wainwright III-ness. I will no doubt return to my foremost incarnation, but what a pleasure it was to settle back with this marvelous band and sing these songs.”
Focusing on the 1920s and 30s, the songs offer a little bit of everything, with Giordano and the Nighthawks making everything swing. How I Love You (I’m Tellin’ the Birds, Tellin’ the Bees) takes us back to the twenties, swinging like one of those old Louis Armstrong and the Hot Seven recordings, as Wainwright sings about his love and how he’s telling everyone in sight. Not much has changed in practically one hundred years, although the language may be a bit different these days.
Rogers and Hart’s Ship Without a Sail offers Loudon the chance to sing about unrequited love, one of his favourite subjects. Rather than over-singing it, he plays things straight to exquisite effect. The trumpet takes to the fore on Ain’t Misbehavin’ where he makes it clear that he’s saving his love for just one person. Who that person is becomes perfectly clear on the lascivious I’m Going to Give It to Mary with Love. While Loudon may be a “bashful boy,” the song leaves nothing to the imagination despite his protestations otherwise. It’s a perfect song for the legendary naughty boy of folk.
Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Mercer penned I Thought About You, and it’s been recorded by Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald among others, which is some pretty stiff competition, yet Loudon acquits himself admirably on the tale of trying to leave someone behind and ending up thinking about nothing else. Giordano and the Nighthawks give the song a late-forties feel that fits the material like a glove.
You Rascal You (I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead) feels like a song that was written specifically for him. He wrings out every ounce of emotion, while a Greek chorus repeats key phrases. When Loudon sings, “It ain’t no use to run/ I done bought me a Gatling gun,” you believe he’s going to use it with impunity.
That Loudon Wainwright III can sing the songs on I’d Rather Lead A Band with such style should come as no surprise. He’s been wringing emotion (and laughter) out of this own material for years. What this collection illustrates is his ability to find the emotional core at the heart of these songs and deliver it with style and grace like the true rascal he is.
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