CD Odyssey Disc 1169: John Prine

I was up until 1:30 in the morning last night reading and I am a bit knackered, so I was happy to have some relaxed music to walk home with.

Disc 1169 is… Aimless Love

Artist: John Prine

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? John Prine sits in a cheap chair in some portrait studio, leaning in with an earnest slightly resigned look that says, “If you think this is bad, you should see the shots we didn’t use!”  The big-ass ring and cigarette strain to make him look cool and fail badly. The moustache doesn’t even try.

How I Came To Know It: A couple years ago I was digging through John Prine’s back catalogue looking for hidden gems. This was one.

How It Stacks Up:  Having parting with “The Missing Years” a little over a year ago I now have five John Prine albums. “Aimless Love” does pretty well, coming in at #3.

Ratings: 3 stars

John Prine may not look cool on an album cover, but he seems like a grounded and genuinely nice person. On “Aimless Love” he backs this ‘friendly uncle’ vibe up with songs that are heartfelt, honest and kind.

You can do a lot worse than kindness, and while “Aimless Love” walks up to the line of hokey from time to time it is that core of kindness that lets you forgive Prine for his propensity for sentimentality.

By 1984 Prine had been around the block a few times, and “Aimless Love” is his 8^th studio album. He always felt comfortable in his music, and at this point he’s positively chill. And even though he had become a folk icon, he isn’t afraid to poke a little gentle fun at himself. The record begins with “Be My Friend Tonight” which is a song about trying to woo a woman, written from the perspective of a character who has preious little game. The song makes halfhearted suggestions of a backrub, but you can tell our hero is destined for a night on the couch.

Then on “Slow Boat to China” he shows that seen from a slightly different angle, the guy at the beginning trapped in the friend zone makes for quite a hopeless romantic when you give him a chance. Prine’s characters aren’t full of adventure, but they’re good guys and while neither song is musically very interesting, I found myself rooting for the characters they depicted.

“The Bottomless Lake” is Prine exploring whimsy, imagining a car that crashes into a lake so deep the passengers have time to eat some chicken and tell stories as the sink into its depths. The song is a bit silly, but in a good way. Also it has knee slaps, and what song isn’t made better with knee slaps? None, I say. They’re even credited in the liner notes. Congratulations to John Prine and Bobby Whitlock for your excellent…knee slaps. But I digress…

Even when John Prine is criticizing someone, he does it with empathy. On “People Puttin’ People Down” he calls out those people who can only feel better by belittling others:

“People without love

Sometimes build a fence around

The garden up above

That makes the whole world go ‘round

But all the people who don’t fit

Get the only fun they get

From people puttin’ people down.”

Prine doesn’t get angry at these people; he sees them as broken. It’s a warning not to be that way, and a reminder to pity those who are. Even on “Unwed Fathers” a single mother teaches her child not to hate a father for leaving.

Should we forgive these absentee dads for their absence? I’m inclined to say no – and the song is loaded with intergenerational poverty they create in their thoughtless decisions. But while Prine doesn’t pull punches, he also says these men “run like water through a mountain stream” ephemeral and distant, but more a force of restless nature than a deliberate scourge. Prine isn’t afraid to explore tragedy, but he invites you to walk a space in everyone’s shoes before you decide how you feel about the story as a whole.

In the spirit of all this kindness and forgiveness I shall declare John Prine’s vocals…average. He’ll never win a singing competition, but he knows how to write songs in his limited range and he sings with a down-home aww-shucks style that draws you in.

The album ends with “Only Love,” a stripped down song with just vocals, upright bass and an acoustic guitar John leaves you with a lullaby about…love. Love through loneliness, love through loss and heartache, and love through an uncertain future.

With his ridiculous moustache and schmaltzy obvious topics like love and forgiveness you might be tempted to dismiss a song like this as trite, but if you do you haven’t been listening to the album. Go back and play it again. John’s got something to tell you, and it’s important.

Best tracks: Aimless Love, The Bottomless Lake, People Puttin’ People Down, Unwed Fathers, Only Love