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"Dear Abby", a spoof on the popular advice column and arguably the album's most popular track, was attempted in the studio to no one's satisfaction. In the ''Great Days: The John Prine Anthology'' liner notes Prine recalls, "The studio version of that was cut with a band, and it was real stiff and humorless. We cut it once, live, and that was it. That was the power of the song, in the way people would turn their heads the minute I'd get to the first verse, the first chords. That was the reason we used the live version." The album's title track reflects Prine's frustration with the ups and downs of critical favor, with the John Prine Shrine website quoting him admitting, "I'd quit my job at the post office, I had this album out that got incredible reviews, and then this second one where the critics started to hit me. I think it got under my skin." The final verse of the song quotes a line from [[Hunter S. Thompson]]'s ''Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail''. |
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"Dear Abby", a spoof on the popular advice column and arguably the album's most popular track, was attempted in the studio to no one's satisfaction. In the ''Great Days: The John Prine Anthology'' liner notes Prine recalls, "The studio version of that was cut with a band, and it was real stiff and humorless. We cut it once, live, and that was it. That was the power of the song, in the way people would turn their heads the minute I'd get to the first verse, the first chords. That was the reason we used the live version." The album's title track reflects Prine's frustration with the ups and downs of critical favor, with the John Prine Shrine website quoting him admitting, "I'd quit my job at the post office, I had this album out that got incredible reviews, and then this second one where the critics started to hit me. I think it got under my skin." The final verse of the song quotes a line from [[Hunter S. Thompson]]'s ''Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail''. |
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"Christmas In Prison" offers a unique perspective on the holiday, where ''the search light in the big yard turns 'round with the gun |
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"Christmas In Prison" offers a unique perspective on the holiday, where "the search light in the big yard turns 'round with the gun |
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and spotlights the snowflakes like the dust in the sun''. Prine recalls in the liner notes to ''John Prine Live'' that the somber "Blue Umbrella" was about a girl who "broke my heart at fifteen and I couldn't forgive her, so I wrote a song about it at twenty-two." As on his previous LP, ''Diamonds in the Rough'', Prine closes the album with a cover song, this time an up-tempo take the traditional prison, logging, and railroad work song "Nine Pound Hammer". |
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and spotlights the snowflakes like the dust in the sun." Prine recalls in the liner notes to ''John Prine Live'' that the somber "Blue Umbrella" was about a girl who "broke my heart at fifteen and I couldn't forgive her, so I wrote a song about it at twenty-two." As on his previous LP, ''Diamonds in the Rough'', Prine closes the album with a cover song, this time an up-tempo take the traditional prison, logging, and railroad work song "Nine Pound Hammer". |