Throwback Thursday – John Prine – “Paradise”
Posted on | October 15, 2009 | 1 Comment
1. John Prine is a master of making small slices of life profound. His music is relatively simple, but his approach to storytelling finds a way to extract great amounts of empathy for his characters. “Paradise”, from his debut self titled album is a classic example of how his endearing style has made him a legend. One of the first three songs he ever played (along with “Illegal Smile” and “Sam Stone”), this ode to a phantom town is seen through the eyes of a child, which makes it both a lament about the effects of progress and the loss of innocence.
2. He starts (and stays) bright and cheery, reminiscing about traveling to Western Kentucky, pointing to the way that children excitedly turn memories over and over in their mind like a rock tumbler until the “memories are worn”. When his narrator asks his dad to take him back to “Muhlenberg County, down by the Green River where Paradise lay”, his father replies that his son is “too late in asking”, saying that the town is gone due to the coal miners hauling it off. Prine shows a bit of childlike ignorance in the next verse, going back to a memory of shooting pop bottles in this place, where the “air smelled like snakes”. Shortly after, he recounts the coal company stripping the land of its resources, and marking it up as the “progress of man”. In this, Prine steps out from behind his child narrator to question the modern idea of progress, asking the question of whether losing these sorts of memories is truly a step forward. He asks that when he dies, his ashes and soul be transported back to that place, the closest he felt to heaven on earth.
3. Though Prine is better known for “Angel From Montgomery”, “Paradise” shows off what he does best, in a simple, homegrown style that maintains cheeriness despite its heavy subject matter. He lets the song musically take on the blissful ignorance of a child, while at the same time lyrically bearing the burden of the advent of industry. Hayes Carll recently expressed joy at being asked to sing this song with Prine at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, showing the effect the song still carries today (as well as the enduring stature of the songwriter). In a world of increasing complexity, Prine’s ability to provide social commentary in a simple, entertaining form has secured his lasting impact on a generation of songwriters.
Comments
One Response to “Throwback Thursday – John Prine – “Paradise””
Leave a Reply
October 15th, 2009 @ 3:38 pm
I’m sad to say that I only knew the Pat Green version of this song until today. I love the original!