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Fathers & Sons: Loudon and Rufus Wainwright

Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III, 53, was the folk-singing son of a famous Life magazine writer and came on the scene with several other "new Dylans" in the late Sixties. He married Canadian folk chanteuse Kate McGarrigle in 1971, and along with his 1973 hit, 'Dead Skunk', came Rufus, now twenty-six. Divorce followed in 1977, and Rufus was raised largely in Montreal by his mother and began doing musicals in prep school. Loudon passed Rufus' demo tape to noted arranger and composer Van Dyke Parks, who shepherded Rufus' quirky, piano-stoked debut to a warm reception. Songs like 'Beauty Mark' ("I may not be so manly/But I know you still love me," he sings to Kate) chronicle a gay young man's coming of age.

Total word count of piece: 846

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