More Love Songs from Loudon Wainwright Quiz

Answer: California

The theme of this song is all the terrible things that are happening on the planet Earth. Disease, war, crime etc. It could have been written today but the album was released in the mid-1980s.

Even climate change gets a reference as the following lyric, which also provides the answer, reveals.
"It's hot in December and cold in July
When it rains it pours out of a poisonous sky
In California the body counts keep getting higher
It's evil out there, man that state is always on fire"

Answer: Full

The plot of this story is that the singer (male) has successfully chatted up a female, they have gone back to another woman's house and then we get to the situation described.

"We went to see a friend of your and watch me on TV
Sheer coincidence you said, synchronicity
A full moon on a Friday night, the thirteenth of July
A man and two women in a room and on the screen the guy"

Sadly, for the gentleman in the song, it doesn't work out.

Answer: Love

A song about the break-up of a marriage, directed at the children to explain the situation. From its opening lines:
"Your mother and I are living apart. I know that seems stupid, but we weren't very smart."

To the lyric from which the question is taken:
"Your folks fell in love, love's a very deep hole"

The song follows this theme of trying to explain that relationship break up is just part of life.

Answer: Check

The storyline here is about a man who is embarrassed at dining alone in a restaurant. Why he is alone isn't explained. But he seems to be embarrassed about it.

"Well, you can put me at the table, in the corner in the back
Unless you got one in a telephone booth"

As such he has the desire to get out as quickly as possible after he has eaten.

"Don't say I was here at all
What would all my loved-one's think?
I'll take the check, no sweet, no coffee
No after dinner drink"

Answer: That woman

To summarise the song, it consists of a list of many things he can refuse, to use the opening lines as an example;

"You can say no to the beggar in the street
And to the zealot with the blissed-out smile
No to the dog and the parakeet, no to the crying child"

Lots of things that can be refused but the one exception is:
"But you can't say no, no, no to that woman
You can't say no, no, no to that woman"

Answer: Arithmetic

A song about the strain of being a performer on tour, far from home. Presumably it was written in part based on Loudon's own experiences.

Back to the question, in the second half of the song we have the stanza:
"While the sound man's falling fast asleep
The light man's been up for days
The club owner and arithmetic
Have long since parted ways"

The conclusion to the song is as cynical as befits such a theme; "At least you've been a has-been
And not just a never-was".

Answer: Grateful Dead

An absorbing tale of an evening taking drugs, in particular LSD. At one point one of the party claims that "water cures cancer". The song does end with a warning against taking LSD, "Think twice before dropping acid. Hold out for mushrooms instead!".

Back to the question, the sixth verse starts with:
"We went over to Mary's apartment
To listen to the Grateful Dead"

As for the other answers, according to Wikipedia, Loudon was inspired by Bob Dylan. This is entirely probable, so many young musicians of the 1960s were influenced by Dylan. Loudon's first wife was Kate McGarrigle, a Canadian who performed with her sister Anne.
Richard Thompson is a well-known singer-songwriter, founder member of Fairport Convention who also plays guitar on this album as well as being its producer.

Answer: Full of armadillos

A change of subject matter here from Mr Wainwright, instead of relationships breaking up or a mid-life crisis, we have a vampire who has left his homeland.

The lyrics relevant to the question are clear that it is the armadillos that are the problem. The relevant extract is:

"I was born in Transylvania but now I've got a flat in London town
That drafty castle full of armadillos used to really get me down."

I am aware of at least one online lyric site that has a different wording, but I am sticking to the version that is printed in the CD booklet.

Answer: London

A song about leaving one's home country. Either based on personal experience or possibly the musings of a Walter Mitty like character.

The answer can be found by looking at the lyrics which show the other options.
Firstly we have a couplet:
"Living in a garret in Paris, a House-Boat in Amsterdam
Smoking a beard, growing a pipe"
Followed by the line
"Like Gauguin I'm gonna go to Tahiti, wait and see"

Answer: Fish

Another song which relates to a parted couple. In this situation the singer is in Europe whilst his partner is in America. Remembering that this is pre-internet and mobile phones communication across the time zones is problematic.

Lines such as;
"A few days I called you up. I'm afraid I woke you up too." and
"This is expensive I probably should write. But letters take so long and postcards are just trite."
These set the scene for the overseas call.

The last stanza talks about the call;
"The fish in the ocean will gather around
That telephone cable, they will fathom the sound."