The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #10633   Message #3905200
Posted By: Jim Dixon
12-Feb-18 - 01:34 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/ADD: John Prine songs
Subject: Lyr Add: ALL THE BEST (John Prine)
This was mentioned in a thread about divorce, so I looked it up:

ALL THE BEST
As recorded by John Prine on "The Missing Years" (1991)

I wish you love— and happiness.
I guess I wish— you all the best.
I wish you don't— do like I do,
And never fall in love with someone like you;
'Cause if you feel— just like I did,
You'd prob'ly walk around the block like a little kid.
But kids don't know;— they can only guess
How hard it is— to wish you happiness.

I guess that love— is like a Christmas card:
You decorate a tree;— you throw it in the yard.
It decays and dies— and the snowmen melt.
Well, I once knew love;— I knew how love felt.
Yeah, I knew love;— love knew me.
When I walked,— love walked with me,
And I got no hate— and I got no pride.
Well, I got— so much love that I cannot hide.
Yeah, I got— so much love that I cannot hide.

Say you drive a Chevy;— say you drive a Ford.
You say you drive around the town till you just get bored,
And then you change your mind— for somethin' else to do,
And your heart gets bored with your mind and it changes you.
Well, it's a doggone shame,— and it's an awful mess.
I wish you love;— I wish you happiness.
I wish you love;— I wish you happiness.
I guess I wish— you all the best.

[A live recording by John Prine also appears on "A John Prine Christmas" (2009). A cover by My Morning Jacket appears on "Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine" (various artists, 2010).

[Prine explains, in the intro on the Christmas album: "I got kind of an unusual Christmas present a couple of years back. I got a divorce for Christmas. So I really didn't know what to do, so I went out and bought myself an electric train because I never had one before. And me and this friend of mine, we nailed it to the dining-room table— just 'cause we could."]