‘he was in heaven before he died’

today the music world is mourning the loss of one of my favorite songwriters of all time, john prine. even though i was aware that he had been hospitalized nearly two weeks ago with this dreaded virus and that the outlook was not good, i was still stunned when word came down last night that he didn’t make it. i have heard it said a number of times in the last two weeks that there are two kinds of people: those that love john prine, and those that have never heard of him. all you need to do is type his name on your web browser today, and you will see how many people are in the ‘love’ group. the outpouring of emotions and tributes in the musical world today is amazing, and mr. redeyegin’s eyes have been welling up with moisture all day. you can see the amount of respect and admiration that the musicians have for not only his songs and career, but maybe more importantly, the man himself. one of my favorite mantras in life is to try and give more than you receive, and this was certainly true of john – at least until the last two weeks when it all came back to him.

i am not going to go into the details of the aspects of his career here, as you can go back to that web browser and finds dozens of articles spilling ink on his nearly 50 year career. i just want to share a few thoughts on him personally, and drop a few nuggets i read about him recently.

i cannot remember who turned me on to him, but i do know that my first album i bought was ‘ the missing years’, and my friend mike t. and i listened to it relentlessly all that summer of ’91. ‘great days’ came out in 1993, which was a compilation of his work up to that point, and i was hooked (if you fall into that category above of those who have never heard of john, that is a good place to start). i own nearly his whole catalog, and i can tell you that there really aren’t any bad prine songs. there actually aren’t very many mediocre ones. his writing style was unique. dylan considers him one of his favorite writers and once said ‘prine’s style is pure proustian existentialism, midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree’. if what he was trying to say was that his writings were simple and profound at the same time, then i agree. the first three songs he performed in front of a live audience were ‘sam stone’, ‘hello in there’, and ‘paradise’. most artists would be happy to have written those three masterpieces in their entire career, but john was just getting started. the redeyegin studio has numerous playlists built to suit my various moods, and i can tell you that much of his catalog dominates those playlists and get heavy play to this day.

the last song on his last album (2018’s ‘tree of forgiveness’) was titled ‘when i get to heaven’. he writes that when he gets there he’s ‘gonna have a cocktail, vodka and ginger ale’. well, i stopped at the liquor store on the way home. going out to the porch now with ‘great days’ on random play and two cocktails in hand. one for me, and one for john.