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Most songs of Loudon Wainwright III are self-referential in one way or another, largely because they are autobiographical - songs about myself as a songwriter. One good example is a song titles "T.s.d.h.a.v." It Goes like this: This song don't have a video This song don't have a video This song don't have a video so you'll just have to listen focus on the audio the visual is missing. "How'm I gonna get it" is probably what you're thinking. Your ears ain't tuned for singing without watching lip synching. This song don't have a video you'll have to pay attention to how the melody might go and the lyrics I might mention. I know you need distraction or else you tend to fidget, when there's no cleavage footage, and not one single midget. (alright!) This song don't have a video This song don't have a video This song don't have a video use your imagination forget about the radio they won't play it on the station, they're not sure you can grasp it they don't give you much credit, if you can't see it, you can't hear so you'll never get it. This song don't have a video I know your ear I'm bending, it's taken seriously though they're ony just pretending. Don't forget to remember that that is all I'm saying, while watching people faking, thier singing and their playing (Let's Play it Hard!) This song don't have a video This song don't have a video This song don't have a video A self-referential song can be more complicated than just 'a-song-about-itself'. There are many more subtle and artistically and intellectually interesting and challenging ways of saying "what you're hearing now is a song I wrote". There's a rich literature about the phenomenon in literature, e.g. metafiction just as a metafictional text can explore its materiality (as print, as sound), music can be self-referential, or self-reflexive (meta-musical?) also at the level of ... music, and not just lyrics. John Cage was all about that. If music is made of sounds, then it is ABOUT sounds, ABOUT music, not something else that the sounds allude or refer to, etc. That's true self-referentiality. It would be interesting to look at various kinds of traditional, folk, blues, popular etc. music that playfully or seriously explore and exploit the fact that a song is made of sounds and words. I think Loudon Wainwright is a rare example of a songwriter who has that type of self-awareness. He's probably more accomplished as a lyricist, though his music also displays his awaraness that a tune is just a tune, a melody, a sequence of sounds, that it's made of rhythm, harmony, etc. I know of no other "popular" songwriter who's produces such a large body of autobiographical (and topical) songs that so consistently and intelligently flaunt their "meta-musicality". Jerzy Kutnik Professor of American Studies Maria Curie-Sklodowska University Lublin, Poland
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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