My Top Ten John Prine Songs

Yeah, it's been a pretty bad fortnight for music industry deaths - as CC commented earlier in the week, it's starting to look like 2016 all over again. First Kenny Rogers, then Bill Withers... and I hadn't even finished my Adam Schlesinger obit when I heard the news about John Prine.

I've only really got into John Prine in a big way in the last couple of years. I was a fan of In Spite Of Ourselves and the duets album it came from, and I had a pretty cheap compilation of some of his biggest hits, from which Christmas In Prison became a festive favourite, but it's only recently that I began digging deeper into his back catalogue. His recent "comeback" album, The Tree Of Forgiveness, was my favourite record of 2018, and I was hoping we might hear more like that in the future. I guess we'll have to wait and see if there are any posthumous gems still to be released, but in the meantime the track below tells us not to be too sad at John's passing... I'm sure he'll be having a hell of a time in the afterlife.



Here's Bill Murray on how John Prine helped him beat his depression.

And here's ten of my favourite John Prine tracks. I don't claim to have heard them all. I'm still working my way through his back catalogue, but already there were plenty I had to leave out to get this list down to ten.

Why do I like John Prine so much? I guess it's his wit, and his wisdom. With that in mind, I'll pretty much let his words do the talking on this tribute...


10. Some Humans Ain't Human

Have you ever noticed

When you're feeling really good

There's always a pigeon

That'll come shit on your hood

Or you're feeling your freedom

And the world's off your back

Some cowboy from Texas

Starts his own war in Iraq

Some humans ain't human

Some people ain't kind

They lie through their teeth

With their head up their behind

You open up their hearts

And here's what you'll find...

Some humans ain't human

Some people ain't kind

9. Jesus, The Missing Years

He went to France. He went to Spain

He found love. He found pain.

He found stores so he started to shop

But he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop

Kids in trouble with the cops

From Israel didn't have no home

So he cut his hair and moved to Rome

8. Spanish Pipedream

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper

Go to the country, build you a home

Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches

Try an' find Jesus on your own

7. Pretty Good

Pretty good, not bad, I can't complain

Cause actually everything is just about the same

6. We Are The Lonely

I was saving this one for my Top Ten Lonely Hearts Column songs...

SWF with a PhD

Seeks TLC at the AT&T

GWM, nice and trim

Seeks S E X at the G Y M

Ugly man treats girls like dirt

Wants buttons sewn upon his shirt

DUI at the B A R

Seeks M A N with C A R

5. Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone)

Don't be stuck up in Alaska

When you should be in Nebraska

On a Thursday when it's Egg & Daughter Nite

When the farmers come to town

And they spread them eggs around

And they drop their daughters down at the roller rink

Well you're prob'ly standin' there

With your slicked-back, Brylcreem hair

Your Lucky's and your daddy's fine-tooth comb

If they knew what you were thinkin'

They'd run you out of Lincoln

Just blame it on that ole' crazy bone

4. Hello In There

More appropriate than ever given the current climate...

Ya' know that old trees just grow stronger

And old rivers grow wilder ev'ry day

Old people just grow lonesome

Waiting for someone to say, "Hello in there, hello"

3. Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

Probably the first John Prine song I ever loved, thanks to the 90s cover by Alabama 3. The original is not as funky, but it is sweeter in its own way.

So what in the world's come over you

And what in heaven's name have you done

You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness

You're out there running just to be on the run

2. In Spite Of Ourselves (with Iris DeMent)

She don't like her eggs all runny

She thinks crossin' her legs is funny

She looks down her nose at money

She gets it on like the Easter Bunny

She's my baby, I'm her honey

I'm never gonna let her go

He ain't got laid in a month of Sundays

Caught him once and he was sniffin' my undies

He ain't too sharp but he gets things done

Drinks his beer like it's oxygen

He's my baby, I'm his honey

I'm never gonna let him go

1. Lake Marie

I don't know why Lake Marie is my favourite. It's not one of the obvious ones, but it was the first track I thought of when I heard of John's passing. It's funny, but also dark and sad... and it just goes off in weird directions as the story unwinds, and it feels very real because of it.

It also reminds me of my favourite poem, The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry. There's a lot to love in this song...

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

Rest in peace, John. Enjoy that vodka and ginger ale...