Let's talk John Prine

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 25 Feb 17 - 03:58 PM

I also like Andrew Calhoun's song, Goin' Down to see John Prine. Andrew is a friend of mine and has also expressed really liking Prine's writing. There was a period in his career where the song is accurate. Other musicians from the time can also attest. It's not a song some Prine fans would like. But you sometimes have to separate the artist and the art.

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 05:21 PM

There's a current thread about John Prine's last song and I write this for two reasons. One to share that here, and the second to remark on how quickly one gets sucked down that John-Prine-songs rabbit hole when you follow a link to any of his YouTube songs. And what a pleasure.

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 06:48 PM

Strangest song I've heard from him (I LIKE it, but after it's over, I have to ask "What!? Why? Huh?": Lake Marie The first time I heard it, it was from Aaron Lee Tasjan, and this was exactly where and when I heard it

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 06:56 PM

I should say that the ALT song came in a tribute concert for John Prine that started with John and Brandi Carlile singing Angel from Montgomery. John didn't mingle with folks, which I don't blame him for. He would've been mobbed. But there were numerous photos of him as high up on that ship as you can get, watching the various acts. I saw all of his three shows, and I only noticed maybe three repeats.

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Amergin
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 08:25 PM

Oh man, people talk about how going to a Dead show was an experience, and yeah it was....but damn going to an outdoor JP show, where hundreds of people are singing along to every song, there was always an electricity in the air, a sort of camaraderie amongst the audience, like we were all there to say mass at the altar of Prine. Say five Our Johns, and four Lake Maries and the sins of the day will float on the song, to the stars.

I saw him so many times, and he never grew stale. i got to meet him once at a meet and greet in Music Millenium in Portland. I got my picture taken and thanked him for all the music.

Above (back in '08 twelve years....my bloody god) I mentioned my favourite song was 6 O'Clock News. It is pure poetry in it's most minimalistic form. I found out a few years ago, that it was based on a boyhood friend he had growing up. The kid was in trouble a lot, and then the prosecutor (with the kid present) revealed he was the product of incest in juvenile court. The kid had no idea. It really made the refrain "Come on, baby, spend the night with me" make more sense int he context of the song, as well as more sinister.


it took a couple months...as lockdown and writer's block make for a shitty combination, but I wrote a poem....I posted a video of me reading it on the fb page, but here are the words:

Dear John

Dear John,
you don’t know me,
but your music does.

It saw me through first kisses and lasts,
it brought momentary electricity
with night love, and morning partings.

It has washed the sorrow from my cheeks,
pulled unwanted laughs from my lungs,
and folded me into the comfort of the song,
your voice whispering, that somehow:

        “Everything’ll be ok.”

The mourning tide waxes as I think
of you riding the City of New Orleans.
Across the table sits your old friend, Steve…
as you embark on an intergalactic reunion tour,
riding the steel rails from star to star.

Prine and Goodman-Together Again.

Nathan Tompkins © 2020

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 20 - 05:08 PM

https://wbbm780.radio.com/articles/john-prine-the-coolest-mail-carrier-ever

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- One summer in the late 1960s stands out for John McCrory, who grew up in the western suburbs. There was this friendly mail carrier who interacted with the neighborhood kids.

"He was just John the Mailman," McCrory, 59, recalled Wednesday. "He was friendly with everybody."

He remembers the mailman being relatively "clean-cut," at least for that hippie era of 1967 or '68 -- no mustache. Portsmouth Avenue in Westchester was toward the end of the mail carrier's route, so the leather pouches on his cart were not full.

"The little kids, because they were looking for a ride in his mailbag, would kind of herd around him whenever he was around," McCrory says. "Occasionally, if he had the room in his bags, he'd put one of the kids in the bag and roll us down the street.

"You could tell he enjoyed the interaction. To him it wasn't like some task. He was having fun with the kids."

It wasn't until several years later, maybe about two decades ago, that some of those kids deduced who John the Mailman was. McCrory thinks it was an article highlighting a civil servant from Maywood who went on to fame and acclaim as a singer-songwriter, breaking big in the early-1970s.

"We, at the time, had the same zipcode as Maywood," McCrory says.

The Crystal Lake resident says he wouldn't consider himself an afficionado of John Prine, the revered folk-country musician who passed away Tuesday at age 73 of COVID-19 complications. But whenever a Prine song came on, he would appreciate the tune and the man behind it.

"When it was on and I knew it was him I made it a point of not turning the dial," McCrory says.

There's also a nice photo of him back in the day.

Subject: RE: Let's talk John Prine
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 21 Aug 20 - 10:48 PM

26 January 2020 Fiona Whelan and John Prine at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California.

7 February 2020 Gävle Konserthus, Sweden (Joe Hill's town)
9 February 2020 Oslo Konserthus, Norway
13 February 2020 Cafe de la Danse, Paris

The rest of the tour would have to be cancelled but he really wanted to play his already sold-out first ever show in Paris. He did, and it was magic. We were not to know then that it would be his very last show.

But inbetween he played in the sheltered housing of St. Shanaghan House, Ardara, Ireland.

5 February 2020; On Monday evening we had the absolute pleasure to host 3 times Grammy award winning singer / song writer John Prine who sang for the residents and friends of St. Shanaghan House (we have a lot of friends). It was a fabulous evening topped by the presentation of a portrait of the great man by our fabulous local artist Stephen Bennett.