Here Come the Choppers

Loudon Wainwright III | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 19, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sovereign Artists
• ASIN: B0007Z9R7U
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,912 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Folk's most engaging open wound, Loudon Wainwright III, returns with a dozen new tunes that range from the acerbic to the affecting to the profound. "My Biggest Fan," the album opener, skewers every well-meaning slob who fights his way backstage to prove his merit. "No Sure Way" takes a subway ride into an elegiac past. And "Hank and Fred" walks a circuitous path to link the great Hank Williams with Mr. Rogers. But as usual, Wainwright best burrows into the brain with songs of 3 a.m., head-holding pain, e.g., "Had to Be Her," in which he declares that "love is a lesion." Things get darker from there, believe it or not, and shrinks have labels for what most of these songs evoke. Wainwright, deftly and notably backed here by Bill Frisell on electric guitar and Greg Leisz on lap and pedal steel guitar, never bores, and he never disappoints. But buyer beware: The Prozac nation had best keep its distance. -–Alanna Nash

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A continuing saga that is Loudon, April 29, 2005

By 

Bt "Cat." (Parts unknown) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Here Come the Choppers (Audio CD)

This guy's brilliant. Some people think he's a very bitter dude, but these are the folks that just don't get this guy. He sings songs that represent all of us; it isn't always about just him. He's never been afraid to let us know how he feels, and it's made for some interesting listening over the years; this one's no exception. And yes, Loudon's sense of humour is as sharp as ever. This disc showcases a fuller sound than his last couple, and I think it works very nicely here. We need more raw musicians like this today. People with guts that put it out on the line for us to hear.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars KILLER !, June 22, 2005

By 

Thelma F Blitz (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Here Come the Choppers (Audio CD)

'Here Come the Choppers" is the 21st wheel rolled out by my favorite wheelmaker ( the literal meaning of "Wainwright") and the reason for the endurance of this artist is quite simply his indefatigable brilliance.
In a Country and Western vein, Country and Eastern Loudon has guitar great Bill Frisell and others decorate his 12 latest compositions to give a pleasant, laid back feel to words and thoughts which, upon closer listening can be quite disturbing.
The title track "Here Comes the Choppers" brings Baghdad back home to LA where the entire commercial culture , namely Rite Aid, K-Mart, Whole Foods, Sabines, Staples, Office Depot , More Better Meaty Meat Burgers, and even the tramp who lives in a dream out of a Ralph's shopping cart (yeah, like he's shopping too) are about to be wiped out by an enemy attack. "Attention shoppers. Get out of the stores. Here come the choppers." Intense guitar fuzz and reverb create the sound of choppers and the paranoia to perfection. Enemy Inspectors find "instruments of torture" (the fitness equipment !) in the Meridian Health club so it must be blown to smithereens. Hysterically funny idea. Is this what we used to call an anti-war song? It's a lot more than that-- a giant send up of American "culture."
The album opens with a dig at obsessed fandom in the form of "My Biggest Fan" , a 400 pound misfit who follows him around and knows every detail about his personal life and his career.
"No Sure Way" finds Loudon on 9/11 in the subway, bypassing the World Trade Center stations and letting him out in Chinatown, shaken and confused.
In "Had to be Her" we learn that "Love is a lesson" and "Love is a Lesion." "Hank and Fred" is an elegy for Fred Rodgers taking place in Montgomery, Alabama where Loudon also visits Hank Williams grave. "Half Fist" tells us of grandfather Loudon Waiwright I, his proclivity to violence which grandson fears he may have inherited as he contemplates is own half fist, same he sees in a photo of grand dad. Grandma is portrayed in a sprightly song called "Nanny," "she didn't bake or knit, she didn't give a sh*t..." she smoked, drank and took Loudon in when he was busted for pot in the sixties. Cool.
"God's Country" is a send up of the religious right containing such quotable lines as, "Man made rules but they don't matter; man-made laws have no real power."
"Make Your Mother Mad" and "When You Leave" are two songs about the tragedy of a broken family which include people we all know like Kate McGarrigle, Rufus and Martha
Wainwright. The first, a father -daughter romance, spirited and humorous, the second, pained and painful. He left to "save his skin" but finds the skin grows slack "when those you've left don't want you back."
"Here Comes the Choppers" sounds so nice thanks to the excellent musical arrangements but is no background music .
Listen to it with full attention on a personal CD player you will be amazed at what you find.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant song-writing, spellbinding presentation, December 5, 2005

By 

G. Moore "Listener" (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Here Come the Choppers (Audio CD)

This cd rewards careful listening, each song a rich, concisely-told story. Country economy at its best. Prodded by a previous review belittling the insights in the 9/11 song No Sure Way, I'll just mention a few of the obvious ones: the odd feeling of surviving when others have died, the disturbing nearness of such suffering ("hell's not far below"), and the feeling of being out of place where such violent things happen. This cd is rich in songwriting. The acoustic playing is gorgeous. No peripheral connection between Hank Williams and Fred Rogers, as argued earlier, in the song Hank and Fred. Just to point to the most important: a life's suffering (Williams) ameliorated by the encouragement and presence of such a positive influence as Fred Rogers ("One New Years Day, Hank slipped away, slumped over in the back. I hope he had his cardigan, on in that cadillac.") Finally, where has there ever been such a cogent, gentle description of the near-death experience of extended tv watching? ("Everyone is dying to be on tv") Here "To Be on TV" can have the double connotation of being "on" a drug. This is great country/folk/blues/whatever song writing, and this cd is full of great songs.