John Prine spent a large chunk of his early career trying to decide whether he was flattered or was being pigeonholed by critics who insisted that he was 'The Next Bob Dylan" (although to be honest, that's a label that critics heap on artists continually). In this case, the comparison was natural enough, for like Dylan, Prines' compositions are just as literate and so often times bittersweet. However there's a natural sense of humor in so much of Prines work that is missing from a majority of Dylans extensive catalogue.
In the end however, Prine distanced himself from the comparison and has become less the poet and more the down to earth, blue collar story teller. He's a sturdy, effortless guitar player whose fretwork fits naturally underneath his wink and smile lyrics and his songs seem as timeless as the artist himself.
Although John was born in Maywood, Illinois in 1946, he has always felt more connected to Muhlenberg County, Kentucky where his family moved from before his birth. His working class family had strong country roots that seemed to help form the personality of the young Prine while growing up in the Chicago-area neighborhood. John learned the guitar from his older brother and from his grandfather when he was 14 years old. His grandfather had played guitar with country artists Ike Everly and Merle Travis. It didn't take long for John to begin composing his own songs even as a teenager. Prine once said in an interview "I guess I started writing songs as soon as I learned a couple of chords" He credits a strong imagination with his songwriting. 'I was a real daydreamer in school and that kinda got me in trouble sometimes. As soon as the teacher would start talking, that was kinda my signal to go off into a daydream.'
While still in his teens, Prine spent his summers in Kentucky and contends that his classic 'Paradise' was written about his family's home town. In an interview with Time, Prine said 'Until I was 15 I didn't know that the word paradise meant anything other than the town in Kentucky where all my relatives came from.'
After graduating from high school in 1964, Prine, who had never really considered a career in music, took a job as a mail carrier in Chicago. He did a two year stint in the U.S. Army where he served as the head of the motor pool in Germany. During his off hours, he would entertain his barracks mates with his music.
Upon his discharge, Prine returned to Chicago and the post office. While making his rounds delivering the mail, he would compose songs in his head. In the late 60's, in an effort to break away from the daily grind of a letter carrier, Prine began to hang out in the Chicago clubs. His stage debut came at the Fifth Peg in Chicago. According to Prine, "There were all these amateurs that were getting up and they were terrible. So I started making some comments about it and the next thing I knew, somebody said 'Well, if you think you can do better, …' I said, 'I could'. He took the stage and sang 'Sam Stone', his tale of a drug addicted Vietnam vet, 'Paradise' and 'Hello In There' (a song about an aging couple). From there Prine began to perform regularly at The Earl Of Old Town and made enough money to quit the post office. While performing at The Earl Of Old Town, Prine struck up a friendship with folk singer Steve Goodman. It was the start of a chain of events that would rapidly launch his professional career.
During the summer of 1972, Goodman brought Kris Kristofferson, Paul Anka and Sammantha Eggar to hear Prine. Since it was closing time, Prine ended up giving the group a private concert. Kristofferson was so impressed that within 24 hours, he had Prine on a plane to New York City. According to Prine, "It was rough to take … Sitting in a folk bar in Chicago just because I didn't want to walk in the snow and deliver mail. And that was it. No sights or goals. Next thing I know, I am on a plane for New York City. I am in the Village and Kristofferson asked me to get up on stage (this was at the legendary Bitter End) and I sing three songs and the house comes down and Jerry Wexler from Atlantic Records asks me to sign his shoe …' (In those days, record producers would often get artists to sign anything if they stumbled upon them performing somewhere in an effort to stake their claim before another record company could find them and sign them).
By 1971, Prine had released his self-titled debut, John Prine, for Atlantic. The album was warmly received by critics. This album gave Prine the reputation as being the songwriter's songwriter. Bob Dylan received a copy of the album and was impressed enough to sing a duet with Prine at The Bitter End in 1972. Although Atlantic had hopes that Prine would become an overnight success, it didn't quite work out that way. Prine released four albums for Atlantic between 1971 and 1975(Diamonds In The Rough – 1972, Sweet Revenge – 1973, Common Sense – 1975 and Were Children Of Coincidence – 1976) but none of them made much progress on the charts for really no other reason than folk and country tinged acoustic music was simply not in much favor with the record buying public at the time. Although none were the commercial success that both Prine and his label were looking for, they spawned some Prine classics including, 'Souvenirs'', 'Sour Grapes', 'Please Don't Bury Me', 'Christmas In Prison' and 'Dear Abbey'. Prine was not disillusioned. He noted to an interviewer that 'There's a fine line between Billboard and Bellevue (referring to the psychiatric hospital in New York)'.
After switching over from Atlantic to Elektra / Asylum (all part of the Warner media conglomerate), Prine released Bruised Orange (produced by long time friend Steve Goodman) which was a showing hints of another side to Prine. A few of the tracks contained the raw elements of rock and roll although the majority of the tracks stayed in the folk-country arena. Prine finally had an album that briefly hit the charts. Time magazine went as far as to noting Bruised Orange as one of the ten best albums of 1978.
In 1979 Prine recorded a rock-a-billy tinged album at Sam Phillips Sun Studios in Memphis. The album, Pink Cadillac, seemed to falter on the popular momentum of Bruised Orange, although New York Times music critic Robert Palmer wrote that it 'courts the sort of greatness that's extremely rare in contemporary popular music'.
By 1980, Prine combined his earlier acoustic style with some elements of rock and country with the release of Storm Windows. Again applauded by the critics but not embraced by the record buying public, Storm Windows failed to make a major chart impact. At the time of the release of the record, Prine's contract with Elektra/ Asylum expired. After a short stint in Nashville writing songs for others (including 'Jackie O' for John Mellencamp), Prine decided to forgo signing with another label and instead formed his own label, Oh Boy Records. His first record released on his own label was 1984's Aimless Love, showed Prine returning to his earlier acoustic country sound.
In 1986, Prine released German Afternoons, which garnered Prine's first Grammy Nomination. Although it failed to win the Grammy, it is often considered to be one of Prines finest albums since the early part of his career. It was his last release of original, new material for quite a while. In 1988, Prine toured heavily in support of his release of his double live album John Prine Live. Prine told Nashville Scene that he wanted to make 'one really good record and then not make one for a while.' That next album was a nine month long, $100,000 mission with Howie Epstein (bassist for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers) producing. Released in 1991, The Missing Years, contained original recordings with several duets with artists Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and David Lindley. The record was well worth the wait. It sold 400,000 copies and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Prine returned to the studio in 1992 again with Epstein to record Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings. Although the record was completed in 1992, Prine chose not release it until 1995. Again, as is the nature of the music business, Prine launched into a lengthy tour in support of the disc. Since Lost Dogs, Prine has released a handful of discs including 1997's Live On Tour, 1999's In Spite Of Ourselves, 2005's Fair And Square and 2007's Standard Songs For Average People.
He has continued to write, record and tour over the last several years as well as being busy in his personal life. He married again for the second time in the mid-90's, fathered two children, dealt with treatment for squamous cell carcinoma and has appeared briefly in a few films. And yet he has never strayed far from his down home personality and his 'gee-shucks' approach to his career. When asked once if he could explain how he wrote his songs, he said 'I just tried to come up with some honest songs. What I was writing about was real plain stuff that I wasn't sure was going to be interesting to other people. But I guess it was.'
That's a rather interesting career path for a former mailman who really had no intention of becoming a musician.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
