Singer/songwriter John Prine died last night. I can’t really remember the first time I heard a John Prine song. I assume it was some time in my teens, but for at least fifty years, the answer to the question of when I last heard a John Prine song was likely today or, at most, yesterday. I am reminded of the old Wolf brand chili commercial and offer this take: Neighbor, how long has it been since you’ve been treated to a John Prine song? [Pregnant pause, and if Prine were saying it, he would clear his throat here.] Well, that’s too long.
Of course, his death will not lessen my listening experiences, will likely increase/enhance them, and he gave us a new album last year, so Prine and his music will remain mainstays in the jukebox that passes for my ears and head. Still, the promise of seeing him perform again is gone, and he will be sorely missed.
Roger Ebert, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, and countless others have written and attempted to describe Prine’s voice, his music, his appeal, so I won’t even try as I would fail, as would anyone, because his music was more a feeling than anything else. He didn’t appeal to everyone, but I doubt that bothered him a bit because he got to do what he loved doing, which was clear any time you saw him perform. That said, I am partial to an early comment by Kristofferson who is credited with “discovering” Prine. “No way somebody this young can be writing so heavy. We may have to break his thumbs.” Thankfully, his thumbs and that uniqueness remained in place for some fifty more years. And I think Ebert hit the nail on the head when he wrote this after seeing Prine for the first time in the 70s: “He sings rather quietly, and his guitar work is good, but he doesn’t show off. He starts slow, but after a song or two, event the drunks in the room begin to listen to his lyrics. And then he has you.”
Prine and his music had me for half a century, will continue to have me, and for that I am thankful.
“That’s the way that the world goes round, you’re up one day, the next you’re down. It’s a half an inch of water and you think you’re gonna drown. That’s the way that the world goes round.”
It occurs to me... 