John Prine

Prine, John

album cover

A Priceless First Peek at . . .

The Vietnam vet is home, and struggling. Money's running out. He doesn't exactly have employable skills. The mood of John Prine's "Sam Stone" is one of quiet and vague desperation, until Prine drops in a single line: "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes."

That's Prine: Blunt and casual and chilling all at once. His songs seem to be ambling along, radiating simplicity, and then wham, Prine shares a single telling detail, in this case a heroin habit, that gives his narrative urgency. Like an old-time raconteur, he's got a stealthy, well-honed sense of the dramatic. Unlike most songwriters who were commenting on the effects of war in 1971, the former mailman and army mechanic didn't align himself with any cause—as he recalled in an anthology, "all the other Vietnam songs were basic protest songs. . . . I don't remember any other songs that talked about the soldiers at all."

This record would be an essential bit of American songwriter lore just for "Sam Stone." But it also includes several pieces that are just as acutely observed—including the prayerlike "Angel from Montgomery," which is practically a standard, and the austere "Hello in There," which should be one. These and several other barbed commentaries established Prine as a songwriter's songwriter. Once you digest this chilling, carefully wrought gem, there are a bunch of equally pointed (and almost as great) Prine records waiting.

Genre: Folk, Rock
Released: 1971, Atlantic
Key Tracks: "Hello in There," "Sam Stone," "Angel from Montgomery."
Catalog Choice: The Missing Years; Great Days: The John Prine Anthology.
Next Stop: Willis Alan Ramsey: Willis Alan Ramsey
After That: Guy Clark: Old No. 1
Book Pages: 614–615