John Prine
John Prine
John Prineis an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a composer, recording artist, and live performer since the early 1970s...
song thinking color
I think the more the listener can contribute to the song, the better; the more they become part of the song, and they fill in the blanks. Rather than tell them everything, you save your details for things that exist. Like what color the ashtray is. How far away the doorway was. So when you're talking about intangible things like emotions, the listener can fill in the blanks and you just draw the foundation.
wheel
Sometimes a steering wheel is better than a guitar,
cowboy feeling freedom good hood noticed pigeon starts texas war
Have you ever noticed / When you're feeling really good / There's always a pigeon / That'll come shit on your hood / Or you're feeling your freedom / And the world's off your back / Some cowboy from Texas / Starts his own war in Iraq.
flag heaven
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore.
wrote
I wrote it just to get my father's attention,
bigger dressing gets money rooms
The dressing rooms are bigger and cleaner, and the money gets better.
jesus matter no-matter-what
Now Jesus don't like killin'/No matter what the reason's for.
oatmeal down-and staring
Bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down... and won.
religious jesus heaven
Now Jesus, he don't like killing, no matter what the reason is for, and your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore.
song writing typewriters
I edit as I go. Especially when I go to commit it to paper. I prefer a typewriter even to a computer. I don't like it. There's no noise on the computer. I like a typewriter because I am such a slow typist. I edit as I am committing it to paper. I like to see the words before me and I go, "Yeah, that's it." They appear before me and they fit. I don't usually take large parts out. If I get stuck early in a song, I take it as a sign that I might be writing the chorus and don't know it. Sometimes,you gotta step back a little bit and take a look at what you're doing.
song stuff next
I always knew Gordon Lightfoot was a really great songwriter, but his stuff even sounds better and better all the time. It's just so really good to me. It's just like that's what should be in a dictionary, you know, next to a really good contempory folk song, is a Gordon Lightfoot song.
song couple sleep
Some of the songs come so fully, it's like they are pre-packaged. There have been a couple that came in the middle of the night. And I thought, jeez, I'll never forget that. And went back to sleep, and it was gone. You'll hear something years later that another songwriter that you respect writes, and you go, jeez, I think that was the remnants of that song that got sent to me.
country car luck
I guess what I always found funny was the human condition. There is a certain comedy and pathos to trouble and accidents. Like, when a driver has parked his car crookedly and then wonders why he has the bad luck of being hit.
believe angel giving
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 LIVIN' IS JUST A HARD WAY TO GO.....