Final Exam (album)

Final Exam is a 1978 album by Loudon Wainwright III. It was re-released on Telarc in 2006 at the time of his European tour as a double-disk album, coupled with his 1976 album T Shirt.

Final Exam
Studio album by
Loudon Wainwright III
Released1978
StudioMZH Studios, New York City
GenreFolk
LabelArista
ProducerJohn Lissauer
Loudon Wainwright III chronology
T Shirt
(1976)		 Final Exam
(1978)		 A Live One
(1979)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic link
Christgau's Record GuideB+[1]

The backing band were Slow Train; consisting of John Crowder, Richard Crooks, Ron Getman, Glen Mitchell and Stephen Tubin.

At this point in his career, Wainwright was including a lot of electric and rockier songs. After poor reviews of T-Shirt and Final Exam the latter became his last studio album for five years. He emerged, reborn as an acoustic writer backed by acoustic folk/rock musicians. He disowned Final Exam in an Australian radio interview in the early 1990s, but changed his mind and embraced it (and T-Shirt) according to the liner notes to the 2006 release.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Loudon Wainwright III

  1. "Final Exam"
  2. "Mr. Guilty"
  3. "Penpal Blues"
  4. "Golfin' Blues"
  5. "The Heckler"
  6. "Natural Disaster"
  7. "Fear with Flying"
  8. "Heaven and Mud"
  9. "Two-song Set"
  10. "Pretty Little Martha"
  11. "Watch Me Rock, I'm Over Thirty"

Personnel
  • Loudon Wainwright III - guitar, vocals
  • Arlen Roth - slide guitar
  • John Hall - guitar
  • Eric Weissberg - banjo
  • Errol "Crusher" Bennett - percussion
  • Kenny Kosek - violin
  • Richard Crooks - drums, percussion
  • John Crowder - bass, vocals
  • Ron Getman - steel guitar, guitar, vocals
  • John Lissauer - clarinet
  • Hugh McCracken - guitar
  • Glen Mitchell - keyboards, vocals
  • Larry Packer - violin
  • Stephen Tubin - keyboards
  • The Roches - backing vocals
Technical
  • Harvey Hoffman - recording and mixing engineer
  • Peter Cunningham - cover photography

Release history
  • LP: Arista AB4173 (U.S.)
  • LP: Arista SPART1042 (UK)
  • LP: Poopik Productions AB4173 (Europe)

References
  1. Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: W". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 21, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.



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