Rolling Stone Magazine (click) has a current article on John Prine that's worth reading.
-Joe-

---

The article says that Bob Dylan's favorite John Prine song is "Lake Marie." It tells a story that took place "Many years ago along the Illinois-Wisconsin Border."

Bob Dylan's favorite Prine song is "Lake Marie," in which three radically different storylines – an Indian legend, a troubled couple on a camping trip and a brutal murder – converge at Prine's childhood vacation spot. "Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism," Dylan said in 2009. "Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree."

Many years ago, when I was 12 years old, I rode my bicycle to the Illinois-Wisconsin Border and wondered at the big Oleo signs towering in the sky, but that's another story....

And years later, when I was in college, I would travel with friends from Milwaukee to Shakey's Pizza outside Kenosha near the Illinois-Wisconsin border, where it was legal to drink beer at age 18, but that's yet another story....

John Prine songs mean a lot to me, maybe because he comes from where I come from.


LAKE MARIE
(John Prine)

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
Aah baby, we gotta go now

Written by Prine • Copyright © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management US, LLC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzCjQwt2rgI