Australian singles charts:
Dead Skunk entered the Kent charts on 5 March 1973 and peaked at #12. It was #72 on the Top 100 of 1973.
Album:
The song is on Album III which entered the Kent album charts on 19 March 1973 and peaked at #62.
Songwriter:
Loudon Wainwright III
Producer:
Thomas Jefferson Kaye
Record label of Australian release:
CBS
Songfacts:
Dead Skunk was inspired by a flattened little stinker on a New York state road.
When the record was released, there were a number of alternative interpretations of the meaning of this song’s lyrics ranging from man’s destruction of nature to an allegory about president Nixon. When asked about these differing readings by the London Times, 26 July 2008, Wainwright replied with open palms: “Well, OK. But for me, it was just about a dead skunk lying there on the highway.”
Read more: www.songfacts.com/facts/loudon-wainwright-iii/dead-skunk
Loudon Wainwright III is the father of musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright and Lucy Wainwright Roche.
Lyrics:
Crossing the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn′t see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are
Click for full lyrics
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