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Prine’s ‘Angel From Montgomery’ has been covered by many artists, including Carly Simon, John Denver, Steve Goodman, the funk group Cameo, Tanya Tucker, Dave Matthews Band, Maren Morris, Old Crow Medicine Show, and many others. The best-known version belongs to blues maven Bonnie Raitt.
In 1998, George Strait released this one as the first single from his album ‘One Step at a Time’. It was George’s 34th Number One single.
How about another Number One tune? Co-written by John Prine and Roger Cook, this song was the 14th Number One Billboard Country song for singer-songwriter Don Williams, in 1983.
Next is Miranda Lambert’s cover of Prine’s song from ‘Bruised Orange’, ‘That’s the Way the World Goes Round’, done in 2009. Lambert doesn’t stay in the folk/Americana lane at all. She says:
I was really nervous to record it the way we did, because I respect John Prine beyond belief. But to me, if you’re going to cut somebody’s song, don’t do it just like they did it. Put your own twist on and make it your yours. We cut it “crazy”—a little bit Miranda, a little bit country, a little bit punk. That song was the most fun I’ve ever had recording. It sounds like we were having a party when we cut it, and believe me we were.
And one more. Steve Goodman and John Prine were good friends, who sang and wrote songs in the Chicago folk music scene. According to Wikipedia, Prine requested to be uncredited on the song as he thought it was a “goofy, novelty song” and didn’t want to “offend the country music community”. However, many others in the music business insist that Prine went uncredited, so that his friend would get all of the royalty money for the song. That seems more like the John Prine character. This was the first Top Ten hit for David Allen Coe in 1975. The Perfect Country and Western Song.
Oh. There’s a PS to this DAC classic. Did you know? The Steve Goodman third verse and John Prine third verse are very different.
[spoken] That’s a lot to get into one song. We left out all the good stuff. Dallas, dope, divorce, dead dogs, trains prison Christmas, mothers, farms, and trucks. Mothers, prison, trucks, trains, farms, Christmas, and dead dogs are essential, you can’t have a good country song without them things. And with all due respect this song needs mothers, prison, trucks, trains, farms, Christmas and dead dogs and is that it? Whatever it is – it’s also 4 minutes long already (they’re going ‘when’s he gonna end, when’s he gonna end in the booth back there’) So I’ll just tack this verse on the end here-
Ever since the dog died and mama went to prison
Ain’t nothin’ round this old farm that’s been the same[Spoken] You know when mom broke out last Christmas
She drove the getaway laundry truck into a train
And there you have it. Five hit songs by the late John Prine, that you might not have known were John Prine songs. If these songs encourage you to find out more about Prine’s musical legacy, then my work is done.
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