This seems like an appropriate song for Earth Day in the age of Trump. Nearly every affliction Loudon Wainwright listed back in 1986 is still a problem today. He knows it, too. “I wrote it in the mid-80s when it seemed like everything was going to end. And so, it’s kind of a perennial, I suppose,” Wainwright joked in 2016.
Recorded in England, where he was living at the time, and produced by guitarist Richard Thompson, the tune was included on Wainwright’s album “More Love Songs.” The prominent bass part is by Thompson’s frequent collaborator in those days, Danny Thompson (no relation), formerly of Pentangle.
