I woke up this morning thinking about all the things that happened yesterday. As the sun was coming up I was thinking back to the moment I was listening to Frank Zappa vintage vinyl on my turntable last night and noticed that my phone just exploded with news I had dreaded for days. John Prine… It was like a sadness just came over me and tears came back to my eyes. One wonders how do you become so connected to someone in life that they feel like the friend you hardly get to see. They become like a family member you love. How does a mailman from the midwest come into your life so early that he becomes part of the fabric of your life? I have no idea but that is what this artist has done to so many including me.
As I write this I am listening to John Prine on my studio monitors. John has always had a way to get to a listener with his story and his way of putting music behind the story. I will stop right here and say there is nothing I can add about John’s story that hasn’t already been written. I can only add a few of my thoughts from my several lucky decades of being on the planet with him and being in the same room with him many times.
The first time I saw John Prine a young local guy from Belmont, Mississippi, Mac McAnally opened for him while I was attending Mississippi State University. I can’t believe this was 1978 but I can tell you I showed that ticket stub to Mac in Key West several years back and he smiled.
I saw John the second time with some of my friends about 40 years ago. I knew of John Prine from listening to his music and his association with Steve Goodman. Steve Goodman was also a good friend of Jimmy Buffett as many know and I was into all this music back in the 1970’s. There was a bad recession going on in 1980 and we were all excited to be getting out of the neighborhood to go see a John Prine show at the local college auditorium…The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. As my old blog says we were not allowed to carry alcohol or cameras into the show. Well I needed several photos and I got them on my 35 mm Pentax. I also enjoyed the two beers that were stuffed into my socks and no one was harmed in the process. In fact John cemented his place in my album collection for a lifetime at 100% participation and gained a fan who followed him on every tour that came close enough for a road trip.
There are stories from all the shows I saw archived on this blog and on my old blog over on Google Blogspot at https://downsouthradiohour.blogspot.com/search?q=john+prine
I didn’t set any records on show attendance but I have been out there for a lot of years listening to everything Oh Boy Records would deliver and most of the time I was on the pre-sale list for music. Enough of that I am just thinking through what to even say about someone who was such a “real person” and incredible lyricist in music. I have met so many of his close friends and co-writers I always felt like I knew John pretty well. I was fortunate to meet John Prine once thanks to Jerene Sykes who is married to Keith Sykes who had opened a sold-out show for him one night. I will write another piece about that real soon. Now is not the time. I just wanted to take a moment to say a word about an American Americana Music treasure. I would have to say if anyone was ever the King of Americana I would say it was John Prine. If you never got to be in the room with him at a show, experience his laugh and smile you would know he was just a special human being. Go study his lyrics or maybe you already have them memorized. Like all great songwriters he had a different way of looking at things that most will never see until they hear one of his songs.
I am going to miss John Prine. I really am going to miss him…Thankfully we have his music and that will live on for generations. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite John Prine songs. Until next time, Ill see you…down the road.
“Lake Marie”
We were standing
Standing by peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Many years ago along the Illinois-Wisconsin Border
There was this Indian tribe
They found two babies in the woods
White babies
One of them was named Elizabeth
She was the fairer of the two
While the smaller and more fragile one was named Marie
Having never seen white girls before
And living on the two lakes known as the Twin Lakes
They named the larger and more beautiful Lake, Lake Elizabeth
And thus the smaller lake that was hidden from the highway
Became known forever as Lake Marie
Many years later I found myself talking to this girl
Who was standing there with her back turned to Lake Marie
The wind was blowing especially through her hair
There was four Italian sausages cooking on the outdoor grill
And Man, they was ssssssssizzlin’
Many years later we found ourselves in Canada
Trying to save our marriage and perhaps catch a few fish
Whatever seemed easier
That night she fell asleep in my arms
Humming the tune to ‘Louie Louie’
Aah baby, We gotta go now.
The dogs were barking as the cars were parking
The loan sharks were sharking the narcs were narcing
Practically everyone was there
In the parking lot by the forest preserve
The police had found two bodies
Nay, naked bodies
Their faces had been horribly disfigured by some sharp object
Saw it on the news
On the TV news
In a black and white video
You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?
Shadows, Shadows that’s exactly what it looks like
All the love we shared between her and me was slammed
Slammed up against the banks of Old Lake Marie, Marie
We were standing
Standing by peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Whoa Wah Oh Wha Oh
Standing by peaceful waters
Peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Peaceful waters
Standing by peaceful waters
Peaceful waters
Ahh baby, we gotta go now