Just give me one thing that I can hold on to. To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.
There have been fewer truer words written in our time. In these pandemic days, so many are just looking for a glimmer of hope in this perpetual onslought of dread.
It'll get no easier. The man who penned those words just walked into the pandemic and died.
John Prine was one of our greatest American poets. In a half century career, he left behind dozens of classic American novels in three verses and a chorus. He could bring hoots of joy and tears of sorrow in single stanza.
He was Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie all rolled up in a happy enchilada.
In modern American songwriting John Prine had no peers. Not a single one. Some fool once called him the next Bob Dylan. There have been dozens of next Bob Dylans, from Neil Young to Bruce Springsteen to Tyler Childers.
There has never been a next John Prine.
One could say there are two types of people in this country--those who get John Prine and everybody else. Unfortunately, those who don't are in charge these days.
But my money is always on the ones who do. They're not trying to ride their flag decals to heaven.
Prine was an all around 90 percenter. He knew more about religion, relationships, and human dignity than 90% of the preachers, psychologists and politicians out there today.
And if you didn't want to hear that, he could just sing dirty in Hawaiian. It's a big old goofy world and Prine knew that better than anything.
And for that reason, I will not mourn. Hearing John Prine is a blessing from the divine, proof of a loving spirit. When he sang about heaven, which was often, you felt like you could be there too. And he never sang about hell.
Maybe because that's the way the world goes round. It's a half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown.Or you're running off a cliff with a smile on your face.
If more people picked up on what Prine was putting down, things would be better. Especially now, when this world is in the grip of the thing that took him away.
What America needs today is a Prinedemic. There, I said it.
More people need to expose themselves to a force stronger than fear and doubt. If we were listening to more John Prine in our isolation and less of anything else, we might remember what being a human in the real world is and leave our scripted reality tv existence behind.
Prine reminds us that we all may be different but we're all in this together. That's the thing a lot of preachers and politicians forgot. But you don't have to. Expose yourself to a prinedemic and you might just heal yourself.
Remember that old trees just grow stronger. John Prine is a mighty oak whose shade can always bring comfort. And right now he's kissing that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl.