The first tasks on John Prine’s list the minute he got to heaven: “There’s no cancer in heaven”
A lot of the time, when people become songwriters, they usually pick a lane. For instance, Bruce Springsteen decided he wanted to open people’s eyes to the world around them.
Bob Dylan was a big influence in this regard, as Springsteen heard his music and realised that different parts of the world were suddenly being explained to him in a way that he had never heard before. He wanted to do the same thing, as he wrote about emotion, nostalgia, society and politics, and in doing so captured the emotion of a nation and boiled it down into a singular piece of music.
Springsteen picked a lane and has reaped the rewards as a result. The same can be said for a lot of songwriters, as people opt to make music that inspires, enrages, moves, or makes people laugh. The point is that when we think of great songwriters, they tend to tick one of these specific boxes; it’s very rare that they can successfully establish themselves as a writer who does more than one of them.
If someone writes music which is aggressive, it’s rare that they also write music which brings tears to people’s eyes. Similarly, if an artist writes something funny, it’s rare that they’ll also create something political, which is why John Prine was such a legendary artist. He had no limits as far as musical themes were concerned, and he was able to put together songs that pulled on the heartstrings but equally made people laugh. He ticked more than one box and released a huge catalogue of great music in the process.
When he sadly passed away in 2020, Elvis Costello spoke about the range of emotion he packs into his music and how much it has always inspired him. He said: “My own introduction was via an Atlantic Records single plucked out of a discount bin of 45rpm records on the counter of Rushworth and Dreaper in Liverpool.”
Costello spoke about the two songs on that record and how they reflected the greatest creative assets of Prine. “It was a copy of ‘Sam Stone’ backed by ‘Illegal Smile’, which in two short songs showed me everything that I would come to appreciate in John’s writing,” he said.
Adding, “On the A-side, a song of incredible empathy, an unflinching account of an addicted veteran and the impact of his torment on his family, all written with the authority of a man who had served in the army, while the B-side was a good-humoured celebration of forbidden pleasures.”
Perhaps the greatest example of Prine’s ability to use both humour and emotion is in his track ‘When I Get To Heaven’. The song was written after multiple rounds of treatment after Prine found out he had cancer in his neck and lungs. While his treatment was successful, he had to give up a lot of things, and the song was about those little luxuries which are at the top of his list of things to do when he eventually goes through those big pearly gates.
He wrote: “I’m gonna have a cocktail, vodka and ginger ale / I’m gonna smoke a cigarette that’s nine miles long.” When discussing the track, Prine said, “I wrote that song because I figure there’s no cancer in heaven. So when I get up there, I’m going to have a cocktail and a cigarette that’s nine miles long. That’s my idea of what heaven is like.”
The song was both emotional and humourous, as the lyrics were filled with jokes, but he also had family members and friends come into the studio to record some words and play the kazoo to ensure the song was both a celebration of life as well as a ridicule of this new way of living, which resulted from having to make adjustments to it. Dave Cobb, the producer, said the two of them turned the whole studio into a party, and one of the greatest celebrations of life ever committed to music.
“He came up to me and said, ‘You know what this song needs?’ ‘What, John?’ ‘Kazoos’!” recalled Cobb, “Oh boy. You can hear everybody having fun when they’re singing along and all playing those kazoos. You can’t help but laugh.”
