Dead Skunk

"Dead Skunk"
Single by Loudon Wainwright III
from the album Album III
B-side	"Needless to Say"
Released	November 1972
Recorded	1972
Genre	Folk
Length	3:04
Label	Columbia
Writer(s)	Loudon Wainwright III
Producer	Thomas Jefferson Kaye

"Dead Skunk" is a 1973 novelty song by Loudon Wainwright III.

The song is musically a simple folk song based on acoustic guitar, but accompanied by drums and strings. The lyrics, which literally interpreted describe a dead skunk in the middle of a busy road and the smell it produces for pedestrians, have often been seen as an attack on then-president Richard Nixon. Wainwright himself has never confirmed or denied this claim, but has said the song was an accident written in fifteen minutes.

Although the single was released in November 1972, it was not until well into 1973 that it caught on with radio stations, and its number sixteen peak on the Billboard Hot 100 chart was not reached until May 1973. It was the only record to chart for Wainwright.^[1]

Covers

The song is frequently covered by Free Wild.

References

1. ^ Dead Skunk Songfacts.