Customer Reviews

John Prine

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I'll admit that I was drawn to John Prine on the strength of one line from the song Sam Stone. There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes. That got me. Prine has a wonderful gift for injecting humor into intensely uncomfortable and painful situations. Prine has a lot of great albums and songs, but this debut is, in my opinion, the best that he has or will ever do. John possessed a maturity and insight well beyond his years on this one. Kris Kristofferson wrote the liner notes, praising Prine greatly(and deservedly so). Songs like Illegal Smile, Hello In There, Pretty Good, Quiet Man, Donald & Lydia and Six O' Clock News earned Prine a place in the songwriters hall of fame with the likes of Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Guy Clark, Steve Earle & Bob Mould. Prine wrote everything on this one himself & the lyrics are included with the cd. If you're into brilliant singer-songwriters, then I do believe you're looking in the right place. Even better news...he certainly kept up the great work on the follow-up to this one(Diamonds In The Rough). Prine has been off and on over the years, but his first two or three years were almost flawless. There is almost no way to live up to a debut like this, but Prine has periodically pulled it off. Prine's voice is accessible & blends well with the country/folk/blues music. This is a must have. If you are only going to own one John Prine cd...then add this to your cart right now!

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.

Here is how brilliant John Prine is. Bette Midler covered Hello in There" and it still comes off well!!! I remember seeing this album in a stack of vinyl when there was only vinyl. It was the era where flag decals were given with copies of Reader's Digest. I remember hearing the song "Flag Decal" and thinking how awesome it wass that I understood the song. Last year I bought the tape of John Prine for my car. I hadn't heard it in twenty five years...but it seems as relevant today as it was twenty five years ago. Songs laced with pathos, sardonic humor, and most importantly.,heartbeats of the human condition, John Prine is a treasure still, managing to be both a time capsule, a record of the time is was written in and a current event lesson. I listen to alot of music and am not a John Prine head, nor am I a John Prine groupie. I have this album, and this one only...but it is an exceptional one. I say hooray to all kinds of music, but let's give folkies like John Prine his due. Here is one fabulous songwriter that deserves a listen

John Prine's debut album is an essential for any true fan and an excellent starting point for any newcomers to Prine's work. Although all of Prine's albums contain great songs, this album has arguably the best collection of music on any single Prine album. John Prine has an incredible ability to create characters and situations in his songs which seem as real and familiar as your next-door neighbor. His insightful and enigmatic lyrics are comparable to Bob Dylan, and his free and comfortable singing style appeals to fans of folk, country, and blues. This album is a must-have- but then again, aren't all of Prine's albums?

This has to rank up with the all-time great singer-songwriter albums like Harry Nilsson's HARRY, SWEET BABY JAMES, and Tom Wait's CLOSING TIME. Buy this now and you'll not only be getting Prine's debut album, but his first greatest hits release as well.

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.

It is easy to see why John Prine became a cult favorite in the 70's. Certainly his wink to the High Life "Illegal Smile" was popular, but this group of songs also exemplified the zeitgeist of anti-authoritarian social consciousness. Listening to them now, many have an almost iconic feel. Hello In There, Sam Stone, Paradise, Donald and Lydia, sound like we've always known them. I saw Prine in concert last fall right before the election, and he sang Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore. He introduced the song by saying that he had retired it. He even had it stuffed and hung on his wall. But lately he had been getting requests for it. Yes, President Bush had been asking for it and he was going to give it to him. This comment shows the humor that humanizes and softens much of Prine's social commentary and keeps him from being shrill. The other trait of his that is demonstrated so well in this CD is Prine's compassion. The song Angel From Montgomery is an accepted classic. But this song, sung from an old woman's perspective, was written by a young man. And he got it right. I was introduced to Prine by a lady friend back in the 90's who loved the line "How the Hell can a person go to work in the morning and come home in the evening and have NOTHING to say?" She thought that accurately reflected her own taciturn husband. After seeing Prine in concert I decided to go back and purchase a lot of his earlier work. Like him, I started with this one. If you like his work, so should you.

John Prine's self-titled debut album appeared in 1971 when he was about 24 years old. The songs within it would be great coming from a 30 or 40-year old with significant life experience. Their depth, compassion and understanding are simply amazing coming from such a young person.

That said, the album opens with two counterculture songs, starting with the somewhat silly "Illegal Smile", which laments the balance between the "evil" of marijuana use and the penalties imposed by society. It's a great singalong song, and ends with the wonderful nonsense rhyme "well done, hot dog bun, my sister.....is a nun!" Next comes "Spanish Pipe Dream" in which Prine encourages us to "blow up your TV" and "move to the country", advice that's probably more relevant today than in 1970.

"Hello In There" is an immeasurably sad and poignant song about the lives of older people--again, it's hard to believe that a 24-year old could have such insight. Later Prine revisits the theme from a country perspective with "Angel from Montgomery", a song that's been covered countless times--Bonnie Raitt and Prine do a great duet on his "John Prine Live" album.

Two anti-war songs come soon after, the rollicking "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You into Heaven Anymore" and the anguished "Sam Stone", one of the few Prine songs that ever got any mainstream radio airplay--strange given its graphic chorus "there's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes; Jesus Christ died for nothin', I suppose."

"Donald and Lydia" is another achingly poignant song, this time about a young couple separated by his life as a private at Fort Polk. Prine gives us another look at Army life with "Oh Heck"--a love song written by a soldier --the title comes from one of Prine's army buddies looking at the lyrics (which includes "the cannibals can catch me and fry me in a pan, long as I got my woman") and exclaiming "oh heck!"

In "Far From Me", the love affair is close range, but falling apart, "ain't it funny how an old broken bottle looks just like a diamong ring." In "Quiet Man", the love affair is over and Prine waxes elliptical in the beautiful chorus--"oodles of light/what a beautiful sight/both of God's eyes are shining tonight/rays and beams of incredible dreams/I am the quiet man."

Family turmoil is the theme of "Six O'Clock News"--again, it's hard to see how a 24-year old could have such insight. "Paradise" is autobiographical, I think, as Prine, who was raised in Illinois, visits his father's homeland in Kentucky only to see that "Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away." I've sung this song at open mike nights more times than I can remember.

Hands down the funniest song on the CD is "Pretty Good", which runs the gamut from used car salesmen to sex with aliens to "the saviours' feast" featuring Allah and Buddha. Has anyone written a funnier line than "up in the sky an Arabian rabbi fed Quaker oats to a priest"? "Flashback Blues" finishes the set, an OK song, but in my mind not the equal of all the songs preceding.

Prine's vocals are steady throughout and the arrangements all work, but the signature feature of "John Prine" and of much of his work over 35 years is the quality of his songs, a feature that made and has kept me a big Prine fan.

I heard "Hello in There" years ago and marveled at what an incredibly sad song it was. But I never heard this album until a windy day I was out walking and the college radio station played the entire album. Afterwards, I thought "Donald and Lydia" was the saddest song on the album. But I was also transfixed by the "American grotesque" element, of small town people living small town lives but also being heroically American about it.

Nowadays, this music would be called alt-country or something, but back then it was folk and it is now more like Americana, nearly legendary. Few people listen to tis music, perhaps, but it is something easy to appreciate and it will change the way you think about things.

This album is full of great songs, it's an all-time classic. I want to focus on one in particular, though. Prine said recently that he brought it out of a 25-year retirement at the special request of the President -- "not a formal request, but he's sure asking for it." The song, of course, is "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore," originally written about the Vietnam War.

The song features a guy so patriotic that he covers his windshield with flag decals, runs into a tree and dies. However, the "man at the pearly gates" says: "But your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore, it's already overcrowded from your dirty little war. Now Jesus don't like killin', no matter what the reason's for, and your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore!"

One of the best things about the song is that it's not Dylanesque folk, it's not psychedelic, it's country, complete with pedal steel guitar. It goes well with that great observation that "patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels" and TR's thundering defense of dissent, saying that blind support of the President is the worst form of treason (that's Teddie Roosevelt, the Republican president).