Customer Reviews

John Prine

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this LP when it was first released, and I've heard a heck of lot of John Prine tracks in the past 33 years. I still think this is his most successful album overall. His voice here is young and full of raw vigor, and his songs mix humor and tragedy in a balanced fashion. In recent years John has moved closer to traditional country material, and he does it well. This one, however, is the folk/protest/social commentary record that pretty much capped the '60's for me. If you like John's later work but have not heard this, you are missing some of his finest writing and singing.

My great musical regret is that I somehow missed this album growing up in the 1970s. It might have changed my life. Prine can be witty, moving, or irreverent, and never patronizing. Some of the most intelligent music I've ever heard, and his understated delivery will have you tapping your toes. A true gem and original.

Unfortunately, gone are the days when record companies would sign up an artist that didn't fit into any current categories. Like some guy that wrote songs while walking his postal route. If there are songwriters like John out there now we will never get a chance to hear them. Back in the early 70s so much of the buzz about an obscure artist came from word of mouth promotion. I remember hearing a band playing "Sam Stone" and it stopped me in my tracks. I had to know where that song came from. I bought the lp the next day and became a lifelong fan. And this album is timeless. John can have you laughing in one verse and crying like a baby in the next. He's simply one of the best lyricists I've ever heard.

To the idiot who lumped John Denver into the same category as Prine and Dylan: man, what are you thinking? Are you listening to the music? Just cuz Denver covered a Prine song doesn't even put him on the same plateau. Listen to Rocky Mountain High, then take a listen to "Six O'Clock News" and tell me Denver is the same caliber....

I didn't like this album when I first heard it. It sounded country to me and I had never cared for country music. But a friend played it a lot and it finally started to sink in. It's not about the sound, it's about the lyrics. Every song on this album is no less than brilliant and all were written by John Prine by the time he was twenty. I've listened to it more times than I can count and heard it in my head more often than that and it still amazes me, makes me smile and brings tears to my eyes.

I was and am a big fan of Kris Kristoferson and it was he who discovered John Prine. His liner notes were a big part of what really made me pay attention to John's lyrics.

I got to see him live in the cafeteria of Long Beach State University in California in 1971. Literally in the cafeteria. He sat on a cafeteria chair about 4 or 5 feet from me and a number of other fans. It was a wonderful experience.

If you haven't heard it before, get it by all means and play it through headphones late at night. If you listen to any song on it and think it less than superb, listen to it again. It only means you missed something.

John Prine never has sold as many records as his fellow folk-rockers John Denver and Bob Dylan(both singers I admire) have. However, after listening to Prine's self-titled '71 release, I think he's right up there with those two artists.

My favorite songs on here are the humorous ones. "Spanish Pipe Dream"(called "Blow Up Your TV" when John Denver recorded it) is John P.'s funny account of a barroom conversation between a soldier on his way to where he's stationed and the topless dancer he meets up with. "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" pokes fun at our patriotic obsessions--and might be more timely in the wake of the attacks on our country on September 11, 2001(and the resulting flag-waving we engaged in). "Illegal Smile" is a bouncy tune about trying to laugh when everything around you is going wrong. "Pretty Good" and "Quiet Man" are blues-rock at its finest.

John Prine is at his best, though, when he gets serious. "Hello In There", which was covered by Joan Baez and Bette Midler, is John P.'s classic melancholy ballad about an older couple whose loved ones live far away and who are dealing with the resulting loneliness("Old people just grow lonesome waiting for someone to say/Hello in there/Hello"). In the song "Sam Stone", Sam is an injured, drug-addicted war veteran whose addiction eventually kills him. "Far From Me" deals with the pain of a relationship gone bad. Prine's environmental anthem, "Paradise"(which, by the way, was also done by John Denver), is more lively than the other songs I previously mentioned. Still, it's a serious song. "Paradise" is about the coal-mining company building its mine in Paradise, Kentucky, near the Green River. John P. is a native Kentuckian, so he tells the story from his own experience. The chorus tells what happens when natural beauty is sacrificed to those who merely want to make money off the land("Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County/Down by the Green River, where Paradise lay/Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in askin'/Mr. Peabody's coal train just hauled it away"). Preservation of natural beauty is an issue that's just as big now as it was in '71, when John wrote "Paradise".

This record may seem dated to some people, since it was released over 30 years ago. John Prine, however, continues to make records, and the songs on "John Prine" talk about issues(war and peace, protecting our resources, substance abuse) that have always been important to a lot of people. John P. also has a great sense of humor. Check out this classic album from an artist who I think is one of the most underrated folk-rockers around.

this is surely one of the most heart felt albums ever written complemented by tight orchestration that ensures no song is out of date. albeit a period piece, a must have for any folk music lover. as i don't know many people who don't already have this i suggest picking it up as it has always been listed at a reasonable price. can't possibly see how anyone would regret it. if you don't know too much about john prine get your hands on this one and change you mind (and your freinds) about who is the best folk writer/singer/performer ever.

Better than Red Headed Stranger (end of story)

Earlier this week, a well known art collector from Toronto purchased a masters art work, "Massacare of the Innocents"by the Flemish artist Ruebens for a reported 75 million dollars making it the most [costly] painting to be auctioned off. It's truly amazing what becomes treasured and valued as it ages but if I were a betting man, I'd wager that John Prines songs will be worth a fortune some day.
I can easily hold him in the company of modern day poets like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Lennon/McCartney. This gentleman has a way with taking any subject and creating a heartfelt song that will tell the story. John's songs have something for everyone and expose your emotions. I can get so wrapped up in singing along, that I can feel the tears well up in my eyes, the hurt in my heart and even the laughter in my soul. Few songwriters have made this impact on a personal level with each individual.
John Prine takes you from one story to another and leaves you with different feelings each time. Humorous outings like Ïllegal Smile", "Spanish Pipedream", and "Your Flag Decal won't get You intö Heaven Anymore" are enough to lift you from the anguish of "Sam Stone" and the lonliness of "Hello in There". This is a small piece of John Prines work but it's destined to be a classic. If I had the chance, I'd invest in Johns songs because one day, they will be considered masters

I used to sing, "There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes" to my own kids and anyone who would listen, when the mood struck. This album was like a shockwave to people like me, the anti-war, idealists who thought that they'd already grasped the essence of life, and these songs, and this voice made the whole thing even more certain. Prine and the late Steve Goodman were first heard in Chicago, a city I frequented during my Wisconsin college years. His songs were the poems of a country rebel,with unpreposessing wisdom- I can't find one thing about them that isn't just as perfectly suited this many years later. "Your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more." The irony of that, is just too perfect for comfort. I saw him a few times in later years, when he opened for Nanci Griffith, when I thought it should've been the other way around. He was just as irreverent and kind of shy, wisecracker, with that almost unbearable, sensitivity broken with a relief of inspired wit. Some of the songs have been remade, like "Hello In There." Every time I hear it I can't help but think that it won't be long when that could be me, he's singing about. I asked my college age son when I saw that John Prine was giving a concert at his school, what he thought about him, and he said, he liked "Angel From Montgomery," ironically, one of the few I couldn't sing all the words to. But that son enlisted, the war on whatever the hell it is, and here's one hardline old leftie with a broken heart. Anyone who buys this album can grasp the late 60's that were actually the 70's when Bill Clinton was opposing the war and other's went and died. Lyndon Johnson's tapes revealed that he knew it was a lost cause, and yet, we and the older members of the anti-war movement, could only get comfort through the music and the sense of belonging. "That Illegal Smile," is what we've been trying to drug test our kids for my own son, is "Far From Me." Peace.