John Prine this extraordinarily gifted songwriter was the envy of all
about 4 years in The guardian
Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen were in thrall to Prine’s imagination – his yarns between numbers could be as good as the songs themselves
• John Prine dies aged 73 due to Covid-19 complications
As John Prine often pointed out, he missed the height of the 1960s. Drafted into the US army, but fortunate enough to escape a tour of duty in Vietnam, he spent the Summer of Love stationed in Germany. Prine arrived back in the US at the end of 1967, just as rock music began to leave psychedelic experiments behind and head earthbound again, which suited him just fine.
He was born in 1946 and learned to write songs during the early 60s folk revival by imitating the Carter Family. Eighteen months after he returned to civilian life in Chicago, he saw Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash performing together on the latter’s TV show. “I thought the music I was playing and writing, it’d fit straight in-between the two of ’em,” he recalled in 2019. “I thought, ‘That’s exactly where I want to be.’” Continue reading...
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