After a long day (first at work, then volunteer work) I am ready to do something for me, like write this music review. I hope you enjoy it as well.
Disc 1444 is…. Self-Titled
Artist: John Prine
Year of Release: 1971
What’s up with the Cover? Very early, very young John Prine. He must’ve been so broke back then he could only afford furniture made out of hay bales.
How I Came To Know It: My friend Casey put me on to John Prine, and the first song he played for me was “Sam Stone”. At that point I was hooked, and knew I had to check him out. I believe this was the first album I bought, mostly because it had that song and another one I’d also heard, “Angel From Montgomery.”
How It Stacks Up: I have six John Prine albums. I used to have seven but I parted ways with “The Missing Years”. Including all seven, I put his eponymous debut in at #3.
Ratings: 4 stars
This year John Prine’s eponymous debut celebrates its 50th year. It remains as poignant and perfect as the day it was released. This record is an old friend that you put on when you need something familiar and comforting, knowing that it won’t let you down.
Prine is one of folk music’s great songwriters. He’s so great that his art shines through a voice that – if we’re being honest – is a bit thin and limited. He gets better on later records, so it could just be the album’s tinny production doing him no favours. Whatever the case, Prine makes up for any limits with some artful phrasing and a willingness to completely lose himself in his characters.
There are a couple classics on this record that I prefer performed by other people, but its no slight to Prine. A young Bonnie Raitt singing “Angel From Montgomery” s a classic moment in seventies folk-country. More recently, Brandi Carlile pays tribute to the recently departed Prine singing “Hello in There” from her living room on the Stephen Colbert show. I challenge you to listen to that Brandi Carlile cover and not get misty-eyed. I’ve broken my minimalist tradition with links to both. You’re welcome.
Both singer-songwriters have plenty of their own material, but like so many who have followed John Prine, they are in awe of the songs he writes. Prine may not be the greatest vocalist but his songs have beautiful bones, ready to be dressed up and taken out among the stars whenever they’re needed.
But there are also songs on this record that I can’t imagine being from anyone other than John Prine. “Illegal Smile” starts the record off with a humorous exploration of one man’s effort to retreat from life’s harsh realities with what they called “grass” back in 1971. Or as he opines to the law:
“Ah, but fortunately I have the key to escape reality
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone
No, I'm just tryin' to have me some fun.”
Prine never spells out the source of said smile, which makes the joke that much more fun.
That is Prine at his most playful, but he can also be serious, exploring a tragic twist on the same theme with “Sam Stone.” It is the story of a war veteran home with deep wounds to both body and soul, who finds solace in a heroin habit that inexorably crushes the life out of him. The subtle changing rhyme scheme (the verses are ABBACCDD, the chorus AABBA) cause your brain to meander, evoking the title character’s drug-addled mind, and the repetition of the pattern as the addition progresses is like a slow circling to the song’s tragic and inevitable end.
Some of these songs feel a bit sing-songy, but that was Prine. Revelling in the silly side of life one minute and exploring the depths of a troubled soul in the next. His voice never had much range, but his stories more than made up for it.
John Prine left us too soon last year, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. His legacy was a catalogue of tunes granting insight into every facet of the human condition. To quote the oft-understated Prine: Pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain.”
Best tracks: Illegal Smile, Hello in There, Sam Stone, Pretty Good, Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore, Angel From Montgomery, Donald and Lydia
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