John Prine Quotes

Broken hearts and dirty windows Make life difficult to see That's why last night and this morning Always look the same to me

Jesus was a good guy, he didn't need this shit.

if dreams were thunder and lightning was desire this old house would have burned down a long time ago

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County Down by the Green River where Paradise lay" "Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.

She smiled. “I love that old song about Muhlenberg County; John Denver did it, I think.” “Him and a dozen others. But John Prine wrote and sang the original. It’s one of our claims to fame.” She quietly began to sing under her breath, “Daddy…won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County…

Bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down... and won.

Oodles of light what a beautiful sight Both of God's eyes are shining tonight

If heartaches was commercials, we'd all be on TV.

Steady losing means you ain't using what you really think is right

And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile. It don't cost very much, but it lasts a long while. Won't you please tell the man I didn't kill anyone. No,I'm just tryin' to have me some fun.

Now Jesus don't like killin'/No matter what the reason's for.

A half an inch of water and you think you're going to drown, that's the way the world goes round

But before that there’d been summer days in the barn while he rebuilt the Mustang. There’d been John Prine on the radio, the sweet smell of hay baking in the heat, and afternoons filled with her lazy, pointless questions—a never-ending interrogation that was, at turns, tiresome, amusing, and erotic. There’d been her body, tattooed and icy white, with the bony knees and skinny thighs of a long-distance runner. There’d been her breath on his neck.

I come home from work this evening there was a note in the frying pan said Fix Your Own Supper Babe I Run Off With The Fuller Brush Man Well I sat down at the table screamed & hollered & cried I commenced to carring on 'till I almost lost my mind and I miss the way she used to Yell At Me the way she used to Cuss & Moan and if I ever go out and get married again I'll never leave my wife at home The Frying Pan Diamonds In The Rough John Prine

You're up one day and the next you're down, it's a half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown, that's the way that the world goes round

Angel From Montgomery" I am an old woman named after my mother My old man is another child that's grown old If dreams were lightning, thunder were desire This old house would have burnt down a long time ago Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery Make me a poster of an old rodeo Just give me one thing that I can hold on to To believe in this living is just a hard way to go When I was a young girl well, I had me a cowboy He weren't much to look at, just a free rambling man But that was a long time and no matter how I try The years just flow by like a broken down dam Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery Make me a poster of an old rodeo Just give me one thing that I can hold on to To believe in this living is just a hard way to go There's flies in the kitchen, I can hear 'em there buzzing And I ain't done nothing since I woke up today How the hell can a person go to work in the morning And come home in the evening and have nothing to say Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery Make me a poster of an old rodeo Just give me one thing that I can hold on to To believe in this living is just a hard way to go John Prine, John Prine (1971)

İsmi Jory Baker'dı ve daima tam vaktinde gelir, hiçbir provayı kaçırmaz ve seçmelerde tek bir hata bile yapmazdı. Göze çarpan bir yetenek, Angus Young veya Eddie Van Halen gibi iyi bir bir gitarist değildi, ama yeterince iyiydi. Barry'nin anlattığına göre Jory Baker bir zamanlar Saparx adında, çoğu kişinin o senenin en başarılı ismi olacağına inandığı bir grubun lideriydi. Creedence'ın ilk dönemlerine benzer bir tarzları vardı: sert sağlam gitar ve rock and roll. Şarkıların çoğunu Jory Baker yazıyor, kendisi seslendiriyordu. Sonra bir trafik kazası geçirmiş, kemikleri kırılmış ve hastanede tonla ilaç almıştı. Çıktığında "John Prine" adlı parçasında dediği gibi kafasında çelik bir plaka, sırtındaysa bir maymun vardı. Demerol'den eroine geçiş yapmıştı. Birkaç kez yakalanmıştı. Bir süre sonra metro istasyonlarında üç beş kuruş için gitar tıngırdatan bir müptela haline gelmişti. Ardından her nasılsa, on sekiz aylık bir dönemin ardından temizlenmeyi başarmış ve öyle kalmıştı. Kaybı büyüktü. Başarılı olması beklenen bir grup bir yana, herhangi bir grubun bile lideri değildi, ama provalara yine tam vaktinde geliyor ve hiçbir seçme sırasında hata yapmıyordu. Fazla konuşmuyordu, ama kolunun içindeki iğne izlerinin tümü yok olmuştu. Diğer tarafa ulaşmayı başardı, demişti Barry Grieg. Hepsi buydu. Bir zamanlar olunan kişiyle şu anki arasındaki geçiş döneminde neler olduğunu kimse bilemezdi. O hüzünlü yalnızlık cehennemini kimse analiz edemezdi. Değişimin haritası yoktu. Sadece... diğer tarafa ulaşılırdı. Ya da ulaşılamazdı.

He found himself thinking of something Barry Grieg had once said to him about a rhythm guitar player from L.A., a guy named Jory Baker who was always on time, never missed a practice session, or fucked up an audition. Not the kind of guitar player that caught your eye, no showboat like Angus Young or Eddie Van Halen, but competent. Once, Barry had said, Jory Baker had been the driving wheel of a group called Sparx, a group everybody seemed to think that year's Most Likely to Succeed. They had a sound something like early Creedence: hard solid guitar rock and roll. Jory Baker had done most of the writing and all of the vocals. Then a car accident, broken bones, lots of dope in the hospital. He had come out, as the John Prine song says, with a steel plate in his head and a monkey on his back. He progressed from Demerol to heroin. Got busted a couple of times. After a while he was just another street-druggie with fumble fingers, spare-changing down at the Greyhound station and hanging out on the strip. Then, somehow, over a period of eighteen months, he had gotten clean, and stayed clean. A lot of him was gone. He was no longer the driving wheel of any group, Most Likely to Succeed or otherwise, but he was always on time, never missed a practice session, or fucked up an audition. He didn't talk much, but the needle highway on his left arm had disappeared. And Barry Grieg had said: 'He's come out the other side.' That was all. No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just . . . come out the other side. Or you don't.

Kehoe rolled his eyes; the only time he tolerated folksiness was when it came from John Prine.

A heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter, you become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there wrapped up in a trap of your very own chain of sorrow. [from 'Bruised Orange']

He had come out, as the John Prine song says, with a steel plate in his head and a monkey on his back.