First day of college I show up at my dorm, and there’s Kelly, tall guy, AAU basketball player from Tennessee, a part of the country more foreign to me than my mother’s home town, London. It did not, however, take us long to figure out we were going to get along just fine. We roomed together all four years, and had a number of notable adventures, including that time with the bear just off the summit of Rocky Top, and another that involved alcohol, a skunk, and well, you know kids are damned stupid.
Kelly and I remain close to this day, and there are many things I can thank him for (definitely including sitting on the heads of the idiots who were provoking that damn skunk), but one of his first gifts to me was to play an album by some guy with a kind of rough voice but an unbelievable feel for a song. The album was Common Sense, and that guy was John Prine.
Prine is 66 years old today, and is as he has been for a long time a national treasure. He’s written more than his share, more than any one artist has a right to expect, of the great songs of the last three or four decades. His most famous — or at least the most covered — is probably “Angel from Montgomery.” But he’s been great on so many songs for so long. Can’t capture even a slice of that great river of art in just a couple of tunes, so if you’re already a Prine kind of person, raise a glass to John at 66, and pick out your own tunes to dance to tonight. If you’re not, consider this an invitation to poke around an amazing catalogue.
Anyway, here’s a couple to be going on with:
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Here’s one that has always knocked me out, and has some close-to-the-bone family resonance just now:
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Here’s a finalist for the most unbelievably powerful antiwar song written in the last half century:
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And lest it all seem gloom and misery, never forget that John Prine is a seriously funny man. The line in the title comes from his tune “Jesus, the Missing Years,” which is a hoot, and I remember certain college evenings framed by this one (“a bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down/and won…’ ;) but if you’ve got kids you know just how infectious this number can be, especially when the car ride stretches into its fourth hour…:
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Congratulations on managing one more ride around the sun, John.
Oh – and open thread.
walden
“blow up your TV
throw away your paper….”
BGinCHI
Jesus, Tom, thanks for this post. Man, I love John Prine.
The story of how Kris Kristofferson discovered him is a great one.
It may sound hyperbolic, but aside from Dylan there is no greater American songwriter since 1950. Sam Stone, Blue Umbrella, Angel from Mont., The Torch Singer, Clocks and Spoons, and so many others.
A great American songbook. And if you’ve never seen him live….oh mama.
MikeJ
Your flag decal won’t get you into heaven anymore
kindness
Angel From Montgomery. I prefer Bonnie Raitt’s version.
Deez
My Dad, when talking about John Prine in general and Sam Stone in particular would always say “He’s so good, he makes you want to slit your wrists.”
quannlace
“It was Christmas in prison, and the food was real good,
We had turkey and pistols, carved out of wood.’
BGinCHI
Raven is going to be pissed he is missing this thread.
quannlace
In sadder news, Alex Karras (Mongo) has died.
lamh35
So Romney’s been using a new addition to his stump speech on Libya. He recalls that him and Ann met the ex-Seal that was one of the victims in the Benghazi attack. First, I figured this is way too convenient, someone musta reminded Romney that they met an then figures hey let’s put that in the stump speech. Well then a friend of the slain ex-Seal told a local radio show that he remembered the tale of the Romney meeting in a different light as told to him by his slain friend. Here’s the link to that story: http://t.co/qurUZo23
Well now this, the mother of the Seal has spoken out:
“Mother of killed former SEAL mentioned by Romney says “I don’t trust Romney”
Tom Levenson
@quannlace: Damn.
Good guy.
“Candygram for Mongo!”
Ben Franklin
@BGinCHI:
It may sound hyperbolic, but aside from Dylan there is no greater American songwriter since 1950
Ry Cooder and Hoyt Axton come to mind.
artem1s
Hello in There always makes me think about my parents who met a 6 and pretty much never left each others side except for the 9 months my dad spent in Japan. Can’t imagine how my mom has gotten along without him the last 3 years.
My fav Prine song though has got to be Donald and Lydia. One of those reminders that everyone needs and wants to be loved.
dedc79
Also love Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore, which was a good antidote to the GWB/Rove years.
Omnes Omnibus
@quannlace: Damn you! I was going to quote that.
Cris (without an H)
I do love that eponymous album. It’s a great listen all the way through, even though the songs all kind of sound the same.
One of Prine’s gifts is lyrics that tell a story by leaving half of it unsaid. My favorite example is “I was just a soldier on the way to Montreal.” There’s a whole box of context embedded in there, and he doesn’t need to tell us any of it.
MP
I saw John Prine with Old Crow Medicine Show opening for him last year at the Fox in Atlanta. Prine came out and played a few songs with them, and it was just a great, great show. As to favorite lyrics, there are a lot of them, but for me these are among the top:
“I hate graveyards and old pawn shops/
For they always bring me tears/
I can’t forgive the way they’ve robbed me/
Of my childhood souvenirs”
Origuy
Steve Goodman, another great songwriter, used to come to Champaign every year and do a show. One year he was there with Prine and Jethro Burns. Later, I saw Prine in Lake Tahoe, of all places, opening for k.d. lang.
Raven
@artem1s: Yep, I couldn’t listen to it for about 5 years after my dad died. Hello In There.
He was a gymnast at Proviso East, just up the road from where I was in Villa Park. In “Far From Me” he uses the phrase “Closing the light”. I know it is used elsewhere but that it Chicago Italian in my mind:
“Well, I leaned on my left leg in the parking lot dirt
And Cathy was closing the lights
A June bug flew from the warmth he once knew
And I wished for once I weren’t right”
Mnemosyne
Slightly OT, but Parade magazine actually had a really good article this Sunday about the dangers of not vaccinating your kids. Come to find out, it was written by Tom’s buddy (okay, Tom’s podcast interviewee) Seth Mnookin. Neat!
Raven
@Origuy: Ah, those were the days. Alseep at the Wheel at Ruby Gulch!
Downpuppy
He was at the BoA Pavillion in Southie a couple months back with Lucinda Williams as an opening act. (Lucinda was just going through the motions, which seemed appropriate since people were still showing up halfway through her set)
Amazing how much variety his trio could pull out of 3 string instruments. I was seriously pissed that they didn’t haul LW out to duet on Angel.
Raven
Lake Marie has some great Chicago references “sizzling Italian sausage” and “the forest preserve”! He seems like and ya’llternative dude but not really.
Flying Squirrel Girl
Awww I feel like I’m sitting in a room full of friends! I bought my dad tickets to see John Prine in 2007 in Austin, and he says it was the best show he’s ever seen. I really, really wanted to go, but I could only afford 2 tickets and I wanted him and his wife to go more.
Butch
The line in Angel from Montgomery about going to work in the morning, coming home in the evening, and having nothing to say hits me like a brick every time I hear it.
Raven
@Flying Squirrel Girl: Did they take fly swatters?
abo gato
We just saw him on the 24th here in SA. Every time he’s been in town we have managed to go. What a great show. He is just one of our all time favorite song writers.
Magic, just magic.
Got my tickets this morning to see Robert Earl Keen’s Christmas show here. (another great writer)
We always say, it wouldn’t be Christmas without REK.
Raven
@Butch: Speed of the sound of loneliness can do it too.
dexwood
The first time I saw Mr. Prine was in Austin, 1975. The most recent time was last November. Numerous shows in between.He was never better than he was in November. Such a richness to his voice,funny stories separating the songs.Louden Wainwright III opened for him and he was damn good too. Another fine storyteller. The show ended with Wainwright joining Prine to sing Paradise. Fantastic. Happy birthday, Mr. Prine.
Raven
I heard this right after my dad, the old salt, died
There’s a rainbow of babies
Draped over the graveyard
Where all the dead sailors
Wait for their brides
And the cold bitter snow
Has strangled each grassblade
Where the salt from their tears
Washed out with the tide
Raven
@dexwood: Have you picked up Souvenirs?
Raven
Too bad this isn’t better quality
Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe, Billy Bragg
Hello In There
catclub
@quannlace: The final candygram has arrived.
dexwood
Yes, Raven, I bought it a few years ago, but I haven’t listened to it recently. It ended up in my wife’s office and she “forgets” to bring it home.
raven
@dexwood: Ha! Mp3’s ain’t all bad.
Chinn Romney
The best thread ever in the history of this site. Yes, yes, yes!
I first heard of him through Hunter Thompson books. But it took years before I actually listened to any of his music. I had heard an assortment of covers of ‘Paradise’, which I loved, without knowing it was a Prine tune until it appeared in a movie and I happened to catch the closing credits. Finally I went out and started getting all the records.
‘The Missing Years’ got me through my divorce a few years back, best album for that this side of Dylan’s ‘Blood on the Tracks’. And it was only last year I finally saw him live in Northhampton MA. That kid he’s got on guitar is killer too.
On youtube there’s a clip of him doing ‘That’s the Way the World Goes Round’ in Juneua AK, that shows off his storytelling skills. Worth a peek, about him going on about mishearing some old Fats Domino lyrics as a kid.
BGinCHI
@Raven: That’s a monster lyric.
Sparrowgal
Don’t know if anyone here is into the ‘bad lip read’ overdub of silliness, but here’s one that I found on Sully’s site today (not linking to him though), which skewers all and sundry in the first Presidential Debate. I needed a good giggle, especially as I peer out of my window onto my neighbor’s newly-installed ‘Romney/Ryan’ sign.
Eye of the Sparrow – A bad lip read
jayboat
I hate graveyards and old pawn shops-
you know they always bring me tears.
I can’t forget they way they robbed me
of my childhood souvenirs.
miserybob
@Raven:
I think Lake Marie is one of his best. I love the way it bounces around in time and perspective, just brilliant. “Do you know what blood looks like in a black and white video? Shadows! SHADOWS!”
I saw him in Denver years ago with Iris Dement. Really one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Iris played for a solid hour, voice like a laser, beautiful stuff. John came on and played for at least another two hours.
It had been a lovely warm day, about 70 degrees, I wore shorts and a t-shirt… when we left the theatre, there was at least a foot of snow on the ground. Got to love that Denver weather!
Haydnseek
@Ben Franklin: Guy Clark’s not to shabby either. Just had to mention a criminally underrated artist while saying how much I love Prine. I didn’t know today was his birthday, so later I’ll listen to several hours of my faves, all on glorious vinyl of course. Thanks for letting us know.
Raven
@BGinCHI: Only matched by
But life had lost it’s fun
And there was nothing to be done
But to trade his house that he bought on the GI-bill
For what, a flag draped casket on a local heroes’ hill
Petorado
“Dear Abby”
This Prine song always puts a smile on my face, and the chorus ain’t a bad philosphy to live by either:
Bewildered, Bewildered…
You have no complaint
You are what your are and you ain’t what you ain’t
So listen up Buster, and listen up good
Stop wishing for bad luck and knocking on wood
artem1s
this one always struck me as one of those songs that was about way more than the simplicity of the lyrics…
The Accident
Then the neighbors came out and they gathered about Saying “Hey, who hit who anyway?”
And the police arrived at a quarter to five And pronounced all the victims okay
But they don’t know how lucky they are
They could have run into that tree
Got struck by a bolt of lightning
Or raped by a minority
Petorado
In Spite of Ourselves, also too.
divF
@Haydnseek:
Happy Birthday to John Prine. Though I prefer Raitt’s version of “Angel from Montgomery” (or her and John’s duet), there is no one else who can sing “Sam Stone” and bring tears to my eyes.
+1 on Guy Clark. Bill Kirchen is coming to the Freight and Salvage here in a couple of weeks. I’m going to try to get him to perform “Desperados Waiting for a Train”, which Bill used to perform regularly in the 70’s. Also some Moon Mullican.
satby
Old enough to have hung around the Earl Of Old Town to see John and Steve Goodman play a lot, and to occasionally have drinks with them and a couple of other “folkies”.
Good times.
John has always been one of the best. Thanks for reminding us all to wish him a happy birthday and to thank him for the wonderful memories.
Brad
More cross country road trip billboard fun this time from Pennsylvania.
“Evolution is a fairy tale for adults”
Haydnseek
@divF: Oh man, that sounds great. While we’re on the subject, I can’t leave out Kris Kristofferson. Played his “best of ” LP last night. Glad I did.
cintibud
Prine, Lucinda, Guy, REK, folks have great taste around here.
Gotta put a word in for Townes Van Zandt – he can stand tall in this company too.
Haydnseek
@cintibud: Van Zandt! (massive facepalm) It’s tough to stop when we all remind each other of great songwriters. I’m sure John Prine would have a lot of fun with this thread. Please allow me one more. He just might be my all-time favorite. Richard Thompson, anyone?
divF
@Haydnseek:
Before I go back to work, let me add Shel Silverstein.
Meryl Streep singing his “I’m Checkin’ Out” at the end of “Postcards from the Edge”
Beatrice
I am a Prine fan from way back in the day. Hard to choose, but “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” may be my single favorite of his many great songs.
eemom
I adore John Prine.
And yet I spent the last two hours in that dumbass Finel’s concern troll fest instead of here. Something is deeply wrong with me.
Beatrice
Yes to Richard Thompson! Warren Zevon. John Hiatt. Steve Earle. Matthew Ryan!
Haydnseek
@Beatrice: Was lucky enough to see Zevon at the Whisky in Hollywood when he was in his prime. Steve Earle! (another massive face palm) how could I forget? John Hiatt is a national treasure. Not familiar with Matthew Ryan, thanks for the tip! Thank you everyone. I was having a rather shitty day. I feel better now. I’m off to take care of some mundane business but have great music to look forward to when I return. Best to all.
Beatrice
@Haydnseek: You’re welcome. Matthew Ryan may be the greatest songwriter nobody’s every heard of. His first, “May Day,” is in my all time top album list. Since our tastes seem to align I’m sure you’ll like it.
j
John Prine & Steve Goodman set out to write “the perfect country song” (meaning, the worst piece of drivel they could piece together. It was such a joke John told Steve he didn’t want any part of the credit.
Here’s Prine explaining some of how it came about./
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ap-GLcEixs
burnspbesq
@BGinCHI:
Rodney Crowell. John Hiatt. Paul Simon. randy Newman. David Hidalgo. Townes Van Zandt. Steve Earle.
nanute
Tom,
Anyone that can rhyme with Quasimodo… The Sins of Memphisto:
http://youtu.be/2LEa5oQAuXA
j
And here’s Bonnie Koloc’s version of Angel. She was part of that whole 70’s Earl of Olde Town / Quiet Knight / Somebody Else’s Troubles / Holstein’s Chicago folk circuit along with Goodman and Prine and others like Michael Smith and Tom Rush.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMjvTX_QPsA
matryoshka
I never read music threads because music is so personal and largely a subjective experience and taste, but this one. . .well, a loooooong time ago I when I was about 12 I heard John Denver sing “Angel from Montgomery” and it blew me to bits. When I was not a lot older (22), I married a guy who was a huge John Prine fan and we sat around in our flannel shirts and wool socks in a drafty little studio apartment listening to John Prine while we studied; we always had to look for the kleenex when “Hello in There” came scratching along on the turntable. Also, too: Hoyt Axton, Warren Zevon. Some of the best.
Raven: I live now where you lived back in the day : )
Kelly Roney
Tom, thanks for the shout-out – not to mention the promotion to AAU. We both have my sister to thank for John Prine.
Appreciate your sticking to the memories of legal hijinks… Even if illegal smiles are getting steadily less illegal here in Massachusetts now that I’m not interested…
Memries! I was just last night telling a young political staffer about cases of Piels beer for less than $5 and the awful jug wines we choked down in Weld. Were you the purveyor of Old Crow? Kids indeed. Didn’t get to Owen Gingerich’s deeply tacky carpet. Remember that German tourist who picked us up when we were hitching from Truckee to Carnelian Bay? He had to zip his pants when he opened his door. We got in anyway. We coulda taken him, easy, if he got unpleasant. We [got] bombed in New Haven – 22-7, Yalies! Or, on a serious note, the water run on Mt. Sterling.
I suspect our fun times aren’t finished yet, tempered maybe, but I’m much too hard-headed to stop now. Which is why, against my better judgement, I just took a couple of ibuprofen in preparation for hoops tonight. Better judgement and basketball at age 54? They don’t belong in the same sentence.
How about some AMC hut hiking next summer? Or whatever. Lassen is still on my list. I don’t have much free time between now and Nov. 7, by which time I hope I will have played my part in helping my friend Carolyn Dykema vanquish an odious teabagger, not to mention tons of #DemDoors for Elizabeth Warren. But in November, I’ll have lots of free time, hopefully not absorbed by musing about a follow-the-temperate-zone emigration to Canada. For now, I’m listening to “Sweet Revenge” and hoping to prevail without fail…
Anna in PDX
I wanted to thank you for posting these. I love him very much though three out of these four posted make me cry. My partner Chris loves him even more than I do so I was glad to be able to send him a link to this post.
Hob
I saw Prine play in 2006, and he introduced “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Any More” thusly:
“This next song was a special request from the President of the United States. It wasn’t a formal request, but… he’s been asking for it.”
BGinCHI
@burnspbesq: They’re on the list, but beneath Prine, for me. And I like all of them.
Hob
As long as we’re posting favorite songs that make us cry – he’s got dozens of them, but somehow the one that always gets me is an obscure one from Sweet Revenge, “A Good Time“. I can’t think of another love song that conveys happiness and fear and cynicism and openness all together like that.
Schlemizel
The wife & I are threatening to sing “In Spite Of Ourselves” at our 50th wedding anniversary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8
I luvs me some John Prine
Scott Supak
@Downpuppy:
I saw Prine in Albany with Lucinda a few weeks ago. He was awesome.
“We lost Davy in the Korean war
I still don’t know what for
don’t matter anymore.”
Hunter S. Thompson’s favorite Prine lyric, from Sweet Revenge:
“The white meat is on the run
and the dark meat is far too done
and the milkman left me a note yesterday
get out of this town by noon
you’re coming on way too soon
and besides that
we never liked you any way.”
So, Tom, thanks for this. I’m a huge balloon juice fan, and a bigger Prine fan.
peorgietirebiter
” feelings are strange, especially when they come true
and I had a feeling that you’d be leaving soon…”
Last time I saw him perform was at a Steve Goodman memorial. I think it was in Huntington Beach but it was a long time ago when I was still living in L.A. Happy Birthday to one the giants in my book.
Alphonse de la Guerre Victorieuse Pour La Liberte et La France
Did anybody else hear the review today on Fresh Air of Iris DeMent’s new album?
Sounds to me like it might well be far and away her best work ever. I’ve often had trouble with Iris’ voice, if listening to more than 2 – 3 songs in row, because it can be rather grating.
But, in the case of the new album, there’s a much more attractively balanced mixing, and the melodies and lyrics are life-time achievement stuff, as well as just freaking great.
Summer
@Haydnseek: Richard Thompson for me too! This thread has been such a fun read.
way2blue
Thanks. I saw John Prine once. A couple years ago. My daughter had just taken the MCATs and wanted to celebrate by seeing a ballet in the city. No ballets to be had. But Kris Kristofferson was playing with Merle Haggard at a nearby winery. John Prine and Joan Baez showed up to sit in… Quite memorable evening. Happy Birthday, John.
kingfisher
Hi, new commenter here. I love this site and read it as much as I can. Thanks for the John Prine. I also have to ask a question about a tag I saw somewhere on Balloon Juice – Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack…. I have NEVER heard of anyone who had ever even heard of this book, let alone read it. I ordered it from Scholastic when I was in about the 5th or 6th grade…a very long time ago, indeed. Anyway…if you are the Dinky fan, please come forward. The book, not so great. The TITLE drew me in. Thanks again to you posters and commenters. Always informative and even, dare I say it, inspiring.