American folk songwriter dies of COVID-19 complications
As a person who was deeply involved in folk music, it's sad to see talented singer/songwriters whom I have watched perform live passing away.
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American folk songwriter dies of COVID-19 complications
Musician John Prine performs after accepting his PEN New England Song Lyrics of Literary Excellence Award during a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston, Massachusetts, US, Sept 19, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]
John Prine, an American legend folk songwriter, died of complications of COVID-19 on Tuesday, media reports said.
Prine was hospitalized at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the town of Nashville, Tennessee, on March 26 due to symptoms of COVID-19.
Born on Oct 10, 1946 in Maywood, Illinois, Prine had been in the music business for nearly 50 years.
Prine took up music as a hobby in the late 1960s. His debut album in 1971 was a critical hit, the first collection of his unique social commentary and protest songs.
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I remember him from when he looked like this:
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn
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
Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill
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
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man
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
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am
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 - - John Prine
Makes me wonder if anyone will float his ashes down the Green River. There was a folksinger in Toronto who had come from out West named Tannis Neiman who was a friend, and I visited often in the hospital regretfully watching her die in her 40s from lung cancer - she had been a chain smoker. She lived her later years in a home next to the Niagara River, and as her Executor I carried out her wishes in the presence of her friends and dumped her ashes in the Niagara River, bound to flow out to Lake Ontario, which is where our drinking water is from. In the eulogy I gave I said it's possible that we might at some time drink a molocule of Tannis, and carry some of her within us for the rest of our lives, but for sure, having listened to her sing, her spirit will always remain with us.
Tannis is my grandmother. If you see this please DM me
Wow!!! How amazing it is that you located me - replying by PM (personal message) now.
Ooops I meant PN (Private Note)
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Although I like folk music, I was always more into pop and r&b, and classic rock, so I didnt really follow many folk music artists. Never had a John Prine album. A few months ago I saw a tv news segment about him related to him getting a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys and it was an interesting story so I checked out a few of his songs on You Tube, and ended up kind of wishing I had been listening to his music all along.
By the way, even though Prine seems to have a rural sensibility, he was actually from an urban area, a suburb bordering Chicago (Maywood Il).
Most of his songs all sound similar musically, but his lyrics are very clever. Sort of like if Roger Miller had been a folkie.
WHEN I GET TO HEAVEN - John Prine
ITS A BIG OLD GOOFY WORLD
In my mind's eye I can still see him standing on stage at Toronto's Mariposa Folk Festival. His guitar, a Martin D-28, was the choice of many folk musicians, and ones from that era have become quite valuable. I had a vintage 1959 Martin D-28, as well as a vintage Gibson B-45 12 string, the same as Gordon Lightfoot's favourite guitar, both of which I gave to my son when I left for China.