― Scott CE (Scott CE), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 17:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 17:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― Huk-L, Wednesday, 27 April 2005 17:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― rebecca s (rebecca S), Wednesday, 27 April 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 21 January 2006 06:21 (eighteen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Saturday, 21 January 2006 07:05 (eighteen years ago) link
― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 21 January 2006 07:52 (eighteen years ago) link
― Keith C (lync0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 15:22 (eighteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 21 January 2006 16:24 (eighteen years ago) link
― TRG (TRG), Saturday, 21 January 2006 16:34 (eighteen years ago) link
― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Saturday, 21 January 2006 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link
― Keith C (lync0), Saturday, 21 January 2006 17:49 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Sunday, 22 January 2006 04:27 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 4 February 2006 04:53 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Friday, 10 February 2006 05:10 (eighteen years ago) link
― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Friday, 10 February 2006 05:16 (eighteen years ago) link
― M@tt He1geson: Real Name, No Gimmicks (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 18:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 18:55 (seventeen years ago) link
I may get the '90s album produced by the Heartbreaker next.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link
I have a weird affection for Common Sense, too. Esp. "Saddle in the Rain."-- Huk-L (handsomishbo...), April 27th, 2005.
Lately is a word I seldom use (correctly).
― Huk-L (Huk-L), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 19:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Tuesday, 25 July 2006 21:23 (seventeen years ago) link
"The waitress yelled at me. So did the food."
― ramon fernandez (ramon fernandez), Thursday, 27 July 2006 11:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― clotpoll (Clotpoll), Sunday, 1 October 2006 20:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 2 October 2006 04:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― wolfwolfwolf (wolfwolfwolf), Monday, 2 October 2006 04:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 2 October 2006 12:37 (seventeen years ago) link
finally got The Missing Years. Not at the level of the s/t or Storm Windows, but the production glitz (John Mellencamp co-write) suits him.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 27 January 2008 20:42 (sixteen years ago) link
He also co-wrote Mellencamp's "Jackie O" on the great great great Uh Huh.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 28 January 2008 06:41 (sixteen years ago) link
So you went to a party with Jacqueline Onassis If you're so smart, girl, why don't you wear glasses So you can see what you're doin' to me
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Monday, 28 January 2008 06:43 (sixteen years ago) link
c
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 28 January 2008 11:40 (sixteen years ago) link
The one from a year or two back, Fair and Square? Outstanding. Has held up, gets deeper every time I've listened since the week it came out.
― J0hn D., Sunday, 8 June 2008 05:55 (fifteen years ago) link
so are any of the eighties albums worth owning in their entirety? I heard "Maureen, Maureen," liked it a lot.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 11 June 2008 12:33 (fifteen years ago) link
I think German Afternoons is worth owning. It's got one of his most fun songs - "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian". I like Aimless Love too, it's got a great singalong about a family falling to the bottom of a bottomless lake. Oh and that's the album with "Maureen, Maureen" on it.
― erasingclouds, Wednesday, 11 June 2008 14:56 (fifteen years ago) link
I've acquired more and more, Sweet Revenge the latest. "Blue Umbrella" and "A Good Time" are as funny and sharp as songwriting get.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 28 September 2008 14:11 (fifteen years ago) link
he's also prime Sunday morning music.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5174X5AJ9PL.jpg
Perfect record.
― ian, Sunday, 28 September 2008 16:18 (fifteen years ago) link
...but really sad at times.
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 28 September 2008 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link
I find a certain comfort in that, but my wife simply has to reject Prine when she's not in the right mood.
― QuantumNoise, Sunday, 28 September 2008 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Nobody's gonna say a bad word about the guy? Fine. Let me do it.
I can't do it.
He's too awesome. Nobody can do more with three chords and a two-note melody. The Missing Years and the Great Days comp plus the debut just about did it for me for a decade and a half, but lately I'm feeling the need to own 'em all in their entirety.
(Even "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" -- not my favorite of his songs, particularly as he misses an opportunity to use the best pun ever: "lack-o-nookie" as a Hawaiian word...)
― staggerlee, Sunday, 28 September 2008 22:47 (fifteen years ago) link
love this guy
― i like to fart and i am crazy (gbx), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 05:06 (fifteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 30 June 2009 05:17 (fourteen years ago) link
(did anyone ever see daddy and them? is it terrible?)
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 30 June 2009 05:19 (fourteen years ago) link
better than bob dylan
THERE I SAID IT
― pies. (gbx), Sunday, 25 July 2010 05:15 (thirteen years ago) link
It may have been the Nanci Griffith duet version of "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" that finally made me notice him, but after seeing him with his great small band, and hearing various live albums and reissues from his independent label, I would pay whatever to see him play anywhere.
When I did see him, it was a high ticket price benefit for M.D. Anderson (where he underwent cancer treatment). I was in tears several times throughout the evening. "Sam Stone" in particular.
here's a version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tafy0RVXNOo&feature=related
― making posts (Zachary Taylor), Sunday, 25 July 2010 08:23 (thirteen years ago) link
^
― all i gotta do is akh nachivly (darraghmac), Sunday, 16 January 2011 07:37 (thirteen years ago) link
love John Prine so much. ..
actually had to *leave* his concert -- after TWO hours -- this last march because, if I didn't, I would miss the last train (John played a concert at the high school suburb where he grew up. Maywood. awesome show. John talked and talked and talked. but what great stories!! the GREATEST stories. basically, a history of the evolution of suburban Chicago. and i am not even talking about the songs, I am talking about his introductions and his stories and perspective on the whole weird history, and his rise to fame, and his relationship with Roger McGruinn ... geez, but yeah, at a certain point, after 2+ hours, I had to check out .. I needed to catch the last train back from Maywood into Chicago, else I'dve been stranded ... John Prine, I love you man
― Stormy Davis, Sunday, 16 January 2011 08:16 (thirteen years ago) link
this guy is really good at song titles"the oldest baby in the world""he was in heaven before he died""aw heck"etc.
also "hello in there" has got to be one of the most depressing songs
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 22 September 2011 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
i'm only listening to the s/t right now. i think maybe i should gradually make my way chronologically through his oeuvre, or at least the classic years.
so this local bar has had an annual John Prine singalong for years and years now, and I finally made it down for the first time in like a decade. this guy has so many hidden gems... "Talk Dirty In Hawaiian" and "Unwed Mothers" and "The Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness" all blew me away. I guess I need more than the perfunctory Prime Prine LP.
I have a vivid memory of watching some film in elementary school in the 70's and it was about how old people are people too and we should be nice to them, and the theme music was "Hello In There".
― sleeve, Thursday, 2 January 2014 19:00 (ten years ago) link
Iris DeMent wrote a lovely little piece about him for Rolling Stone.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/iris-dement-john-prine-in-spite-of-ourselves-981603/
They gave it a stupid title; it's not really about his songwriting at all.
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Friday, 10 April 2020 21:44 (four years ago) link
Livestream tribute this afternoon
https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/04/john-prine-livestream-tribute-angel-from-maywood/
― Brad C., Saturday, 11 April 2020 16:31 (four years ago) link
Just give me one extra season, so I can figure out the other four
― turn the jawhatthefuckever on (One Eye Open), Sunday, 12 April 2020 16:40 (four years ago) link
Nice Rolling Stone article about his life and the last couple years of his career. It mentions in passing that he'd recorded six songs for a new album and was working on a memoir. Goddamn coronavirus.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/john-prine-last-days-beautiful-life-tribute-family-friends-bonnie-raitt-981646/
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Monday, 13 April 2020 16:57 (four years ago) link
One horrifying thing the article mentions is that Prine actually developed symptoms before his wife did. Her test came back positive and his was inconclusive, so they were both quarantined at home but had to stay in separate parts of the house. She took him to the hospital (because he was exhausted and couldn't stay awake) on the first day she could leave quarantine. You have to wonder if things would have been different if he'd been admitted to the hospital early and monitored and treated before he got critical.
It's all so depressing and infuriating. If even a beloved, world-famous 73-year-old man with part of his lung missing is left to tough out COVID-19 at home alone until things get so bad he can't breathe, what hope does anyone else have of getting prompt treatment?
― The fillyjonk who believed in pandemics (Lily Dale), Monday, 13 April 2020 17:43 (four years ago) link
dang i would have loved a prine memoir
― na (NA), Monday, 13 April 2020 17:47 (four years ago) link
Extraordinary spoken word essay from Prine’s wife played on BBC Radio 4, ‘Today’ Programme just now.
― Jeff W, Thursday, 14 May 2020 08:05 (three years ago) link
John Prine tribute show streaming tomorrow on youtube at 7:30 eastern time.
― Lily Dale, Thursday, 11 June 2020 03:55 (three years ago) link
His last song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L21Tc_DtL6M
― Greetings from CHAZbury Park (Lily Dale), Tuesday, 16 June 2020 06:23 (three years ago) link
ACL is rerunning his last proper appearance on the show from '18 this week, and it'll be up on their site for a few weeks presumably before hitting the vault.
― blue whales on ambient (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 2 May 2021 04:51 (two years ago) link
Yeah, just now saw the end of that: he and band are very strong on "Lake Marie."
― dow, Sunday, 2 May 2021 04:56 (two years ago) link
Sssizzlin’, even.
― Cow_Art, Sunday, 2 May 2021 05:20 (two years ago) link
pic.twitter.com/hXsKwArDLF— SNL Hosts Introducing the Musical Guest (@snlhostsintro) October 13, 2021
KAREN BLACK!
Also didn't know Prine did SNL.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 October 2021 02:32 (two years ago) link
I went out to eat with friends tonight. One friend just bought a lake house in Wisconsin. I asked him where it was, and he said, oh, Twin Lakes. John Prine once wrote a song about it, called "Lake Marie." That's cool, I said.
Later tonight I take him to go see a concert. We get there early enough to catch the end of the opening act, and what song should the opener close their set with but ... "Lake Marie"! I mean, what are the fucking odds? So many coincidences. My friend had to have bought that lake house, we had to have gone out to dinner, he had to have mentioned the Prine song, we had to have gone to that concert, we had to have gotten there early enough to see the opening act, and then the opening act had to have played the specific John Prine song we had been talking about earlier. Super weird.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 13 May 2023 04:52 (eleven months ago) link
It's a great song, easily the highlight of that Prine album, but I don't think it's well-known unless you're a real Prine fan - like I've NEVER heard it in any form unless I personally put it on - so yeah, crazy coincidence!
― birdistheword, Saturday, 13 May 2023 05:12 (eleven months ago) link
Wow, trippy! I just looked up the Twin Lakes and discovered that Lake Marie is actually Lake Mary.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 May 2023 05:23 (eleven months ago) link
Which just makes the song even more awesome imo. I love all the little things that don't hang together - the song starts with a story that's both aprocryphal and impossible, most of the song doesn't even take place at Lake Marie, and now it turns out Lake Marie doesn't even exist.
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 May 2023 06:02 (eleven months ago) link
I tried to write an essay about Lake Marie once and failed, but here is a paragraph from somewhere toward the end:
This is not a linear narrative, or really a narrative at all. It’s more about the impossibility of making a single story out of the strange constellation of events and memories and song lyrics and half-forgotten stories that make up the defining moments of our lives. Things crash into each other that don’t really belong together; other people’s troubles intersect with our own, and once these things are in our lives, we can never disentangle them. Lake Marie and its apocryphal history, the shadowy, mutilated images on the TV screen, even the lyrics of “Louie Louie” are now inextricably linked, all part of that final irreversible moment when the narrator realizes his marriage can’t be saved. “All the love we shared, between her and me, was slammed, SLAMMED up against the banks of old Lake Marie. MARIE!” We have one last chorus, one last lament for those long-ago peaceful waters, and then – “Oh, baby. We gotta go now.”
― Lily Dale, Saturday, 13 May 2023 06:12 (eleven months ago) link
It’s more about the impossibility of making a single story out of the strange constellation of events and memories and song lyrics and half-forgotten stories that make up the defining moments of our lives.
otm!
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 13 May 2023 09:37 (eleven months ago) link
It's an amazing song. The Live On Tour version is far and away my favorite; sometimes I'll listen to it 3 or 4 times in a row. I heard it first and was blown away, never could appreciate the fussier album take.
― Cow_Art, Saturday, 13 May 2023 14:23 (eleven months ago) link
wow this is an amazing song!
reminds me a bit of dylan's brownsville girl
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 15 May 2023 08:28 (eleven months ago) link
You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?
Stadows
― Cow_Art, Monday, 15 May 2023 10:45 (eleven months ago) link
had never heard this song before (!). thank you. after it finished, spotify served up the neko case version of “buckets of rain”, unsettlingly.
― Tracer Hand, Monday, 15 May 2023 11:49 (eleven months ago) link
Agree about Brownsville Girl; I've always sort of connected the two in my mind.
― Lily Dale, Monday, 15 May 2023 13:57 (eleven months ago) link
"Something about you, I can't quite, put my finger ON!" sung triumphantly, several years after being bummed out by fragmented remainz of "Visions of Johanna" (which sucked for him, was cool for us, but good to see him finally get it in that moment of Planet Waves.)
― dow, Monday, 15 May 2023 18:53 (eleven months ago) link
I mean, what are the fucking odds? So many coincidences.
Has anyone heard any of his son Tommy's debut album? Me neither, until last night. He was playing at the venue attached to my workplace and I popped back there to check it out for a few minutes. As I walked in, he had just started a song and it was very clearly about his dad. He's touring with just one other guy, one electric and one acoustic guitar. I stayed and listened to the whole thing, cried silently throughout because tomorrow I go to my hometown for my own dad's funeral. It was like the song unlocked my feelings to the point where i could feel them. I identified with so many of the lyrics, but mostly the line "by the way people say I look just like you" because it's the thing I am most dreading hearing over and over and over again at the service.
As I left out the back, I saw him and told him about this unusual coincidence (I am leaving some stuff out about my own parentage but IYKYK) and thanked him for helping me find my feelings. He was super kind and I encourage anyone to listen to this song bc in addition to giving me an emotionally moving coincidence, it's a really great song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9E2HoploEk
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Sunday, 9 July 2023 18:38 (nine months ago) link
Wow. Thanks so much for all of that, LL.
What Isbell wrote about xpost John and Amanda reminds me of that late duets album where most of the guests took off and left him, showboating like mad, though he sounded like dgaf/what he told the doctor who cautioned him that treatment might affect his singing ability, oh noes. Shires was the one who stuck around and drew him out, for witty musical conversation.
Also, I finally heard Broken Hearts and Dirty Windows: The Songs of John Prine (Vol.2), from 2021, hope Vol. 1 is as satisfying. A reviewer said having Raitt do Angel From Montgomery here was way too obvious a choice, but, you know--
http://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l0DuAqH3h6tbJjEscckSojWUe5aZ-vvYo
― dow, Sunday, 9 July 2023 21:12 (nine months ago) link
A friend sent this from Proviso East HS in Maywood, IL
https://i.imgur.com/L0BctvG.jpg
― Indexed, Thursday, 11 January 2024 16:07 (three months ago) link
awwwww <3
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Thursday, 11 January 2024 16:07 (three months ago) link
<3
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 11 January 2024 19:04 (three months ago) link
This week's Austin City Limits episode:
The ninth annual Austin City Limits Hall of Fame honors late singer/songwriter John Prine. Actor Ethan Hawke inducts the beloved icon joined by performers Tyler Childers, Allison Russell, Nathaniel Rateliff, Valerie June, Kurt Vile and Tommy Prine.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 11 January 2024 19:09 (three months ago) link