https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/john-prine-obit-253684/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

This celebrity death hurts.

RIP.

Lake Marie is one of my favorites of his.

" When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am."


"But please don't bury me
Down in that cold, cold ground
I?d rather have 'em cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
The blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size, oh man!"

Right now he is smoking on a cigarette that's 9 miles long.

Yeah when I get to heaven, I'm gonna take that wristwatch off my arm
What are you gonna do with time after you've bought the farm?
And them I'm gonna go find my mom and dad, and good old brother Doug
Well I bet him and cousin Jackie are still cuttin' up a rug
I wanna see all my mama's sisters, 'cause that's where all the love starts
I miss 'em all like crazy, bless their little hearts
And I always will remember these words my daddy said
He said, "Buddy, when you're dead, you're a dead pecker-head"
I hope to prove him wrong, that is, when I get to heaven
'Cause I'm gonna have a cocktail: vodka and ginger ale
Yeah I'm gonna smoke a cigarette that's nine miles long
I'm gonna kiss that pretty girl on the tilt-a-whirl
Yeah this old man is goin' to town
Yeah this old man is goin' to town

The wife and I went to see Prine more than thirty years ago, before we were married. When we got to the bar there were three of us. He had his guitar, and eventually asked what we wanted to hear. After half a dozen or so of our favorites, a few more people came in. A guy with a guitar in a chair about eight feet from the bar and us in the same chairs sitting at his small bar table. Nobody else knew who he was. Hard to believe we were the only ones there to see John Prine. The rest of the people were there just to hang out at a bar and it seemed like John was too. There were never more than four other people within listening distance.

Glad we got to see/hear him live, but nothing is lost in the recordings. It didn't feel right singing along at the bar, but It seems unnatural to listen to Prine without singing along.