World dominating comedy force Judd Apatow loves Loudon Wainwright III.
Uber-dorks will remember this affection goes back a few years now: Apatow cast Wainwright as a divorced loser in his short-lived TV college dramedy “Undeclared.”
Anywho, when Apatow– who has a strong predilection for working with a familiar cast of character – was planning the music for the upcoming comedy blockbuster, “Knocked Up,” he sought Wainwright to do the entire score. According to Apatow’s liner notes, he had seen Wainwright perform, “Grey in L.A.,” and asked him to record a version without vocals. At the time, Wainwright was working on a solo album with Joe Henry (the musician only famous for being Madonna’s brother-in-law; and a long-time Wainwright devotee) and he rounded up a cast of characters, famed British folky Richard Thompson, renowned pedal steel player Greg Leisz, and Beach Boys Smile collaborator/session musician Van Dyke Parks to cut the score.
The resulting album, Strange Weirdos: Music from and Inspired by the Film Knocked Up, is more than your average soundtrack and acts as a two-for-one: it serves as a new Wainwright record and it acts as a sort-of soundtrack album.
The pre-existing songs that Apatow eventually used in “Knocked Up,” were all instrumental versions (aside from “Grey in L.A”. and “You Can’t Fail Me Now,” which bookend the film’s open and closing). Strange Weirdos, is those songs in their fully-realized vocal versions (got it? great; hence the “inspired by” tag). Additionally some songs are material that Wainwright had written before the film score that the director wanted to use (but didn’t), while others use thematic inspiration from the film.
There will be a quiz at the end of this post, ok?
Wainwright also re-cut “Lullaby,” a song from the 1973 album Attempted Mustache (which was also used for another comedy, Noah Baumbach‘s “The Squid and the Whale” in 2006; we also used some Wainwright in our If I Were Noah Baumbach Soundtrack playlist).
Incidentally, “Knocked-Up” features a hallucinogenic-induced driving scene set to Britney Spears’ “Toxic” (Apatow originally wanted the song for “40-Year-Old-Virgin,” but her people wouldn’t agree to it).
Download: Loudon Wainwright III – “Lullaby”
Download: Loudon Wainwright III – “Dilated To Meet You”
Download: Loudon Wainwright III – “Drinking Song”