Songfacts®:

• Martha Wainwright has discovered a lot about herself from her father's music. "The Hospital" claims her mother nearly had an abortion while pregnant with her. "Five Years Old" was written for her birthday party, which Loudon didn't attend. At 14 years old, she was in the audience when her father announced she was the subject of "I'd Rather Be Lonely."
  
  With lyrics like "I think I need some space/every day you're in my face/I'd rather be lonely," it was a shocking revelation. But dad does have some regrets, which he expresses in "Hitting You."
  
  He paints a vivid image of Martha sitting in the backseat of the car in her bathing suit, her suntanned skin turning crimson after he smacks her leg with all his might.
  
  "I would never forget that event, that incident... hauling off and whacking my kid. I mean, it's not something I would ever forget. There was an interesting song there," Wainwright told the A.V. Club.
  
  I said I was sorry and I tried to clean the slate
  but with that blow I'd sewn a seed
  and saw it was too late
  
  The seed grew into songs like "Bloody Mother F--king A--hole," which Martha later wrote about her father.