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When you are 22 and just out of the army like I was in 1971, finding John Prine was like finding someone who could see inside your soul. I don't know if I have ever experienced such sadness and such whimsy all in one hour of listening. I think he used his whole life in this album, from his army experience, his Kentucky roots, and even his mail carrier days in a poor suburb just outside Chicago's city limits. I wonder if on his route in Maywood, Il (he was my brother-in-law's mail man) he met not only Donald and Lydia, but maybe even some old folks who were just waiting for someone to say 'Hello In There'. This is an album you feel every bit as much as you listened to.
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My mother had been looking a particular song for my father. She mentioned it to me in a call prior to Father's Day this year. I told her to just give me a second and I found it on Amazon.com quickly and easily. She said that my father loves it and listens to it every time they get in the truck. Thanks...
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as timely today ,as it was in '71.This is a must listen for anyone with a heart and soul.It's the kind of music thats too good for radio,have a listen to what a real songwriter can do.
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In my mind, this was the ultimate John Prine. His best work. Before he got side tracked, before he got fame, before a whole bunch of stuff. Pure John Prine. It will make you smile, it will make you nod in recognition, it will tear at your heart. It is only topped by his most recent album. So start here.
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Illegal Smile, Hello In There, Sam Stone, Paradise, Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, Angel From Montgomery, Donald And Lydia. These are some of John Prine's greatest songs, and they're all included on his 1971 self-titled debut. This is definitely the place to start your John Prine collection if you want more than a compilation.
John Prine is a plain-spoken, and sometimes wry, American folk singer/songwriter. His songs are real-life, down-to-earth reflections that are intelligent, penetratingly insightful and genuine. A thoughtful working class troubadour, his songs can make you think, cry, laugh or seethe with anger.
In Hello In There, John sings of an elderly couple trying to come to terms with a world that no longer seems to need them.
We had an apartment in the city
Me and Loretta liked living there
Well, it'd been years since the kids had grown
A life of their own, left us alone
John and Linda live in Omaha
And Joe is somewhere on the road
We lost Davy in the Korean War
And I still don't know what for
...don't matter anymore
A lot of these songs are performed folk-style on an acoustic guitar, and others are quietly country-folk with a competent band.
John played the folk-music scene in Chicago after serving in the Army and working for the postal service. It was there that he was discovered by Kris Kristofferson, and hailed as "the next Bob Dylan". He is sort of a "workingman's Dylan", and has a personality that's somewhat more down home and accessible than Bob's.
In other songs on this album, Sam Stone tells the haunting story of a Vietnam veteran's drug addiction and overdose, Donald And Lydia is a low-rent tale of two wandering fantasies of love that go bump in the night, Illegal Smile is a pleasantly stoned escape from reality, and Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore is a war protest.
But Your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven anymore
They're 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
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