{"id":806372,"date":"2020-04-14T13:17:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T19:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=983743"},"modified":"2020-04-14T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T19:17:33","slug":"elvis-costello-posts-lengthy-tribute-to-john-prine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/elvis-costello-posts-lengthy-tribute-to-john-prine\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvis Costello Posts Lengthy Tribute to John Prine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Elvis Costello<\/a> shared a lengthy and moving tribute<\/a> to John Prine<\/a> that expounded on his great admiration for the late singer-songwriter<\/a> and featured several memories of the time they spent together \u2014 on stage and off.<\/p>\n

Costello opened by discussing how Prine\u2019s music sparked a friendship between him and the playwright Alan Bleasdale and used that as a jumping-off point to recall how he discovered Prine\u2019s music in the first place \u2014 picking out a 45 rpm single of \u201cSam Stone\u201d and \u201cIllegal Smile\u201d from the bargain bin at a music store in Liverpool. Those songs, Costello said, \u201cshowed me everything that I would come to appreciate in John\u2019s writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued. \u201cOn the a-side [\u2018Sam Stone\u2019], 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 [\u2018Illegal Smile\u2019], was a good-humored celebration of forbidden pleasures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both songs appeared on Prine\u2019s self-titled debut album, which Costello praised effusively. \u201cThese were songs that no one else was writing, filled with details that only Prine\u2019s eye or ear caught; the arcane radio, the damaged and the destitute,\u201d Costello said. \u201cThe songs were filled with what sounded like sound advice from a friend in a crowded bar or a voice in the margins, but never one that was self-pitying or self-regarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Elsewhere in the piece, Costello ruminated on the similarities and differences between Prine and his other songwriting heroes, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan. He recalled the illuminating moment he saw Prine play live for the first time, as well as the shows they played together during the 2002 charity tour A Concert for a Landmine Free World and the interview he conducted with Prine for his old TV show, Spectacle<\/i> (\u201cPerhaps some future archivist may stumble upon the footage years from now and recognize it to be a chat between one of the great songwriters of the 20th and 21st Century, talking to a man in glasses with a clipboard,\u201d Costello cracked).<\/p>\n

In one of the most poignant passages, Costello wondered what kind of art Prine would\u2019ve made out of the current coronavirus crisis (Prine died from complications related to COVID-19). While Costello noted that many listeners are eager to hear songwriters \u201clampoon hucksterism\u201d or \u201cloudly sound the alarm,\u201d he said Prine would\u2019ve crafted far more intimate stories \u2014 \u201can exhausted nurse quarantined in her own attic away from her three frightened children or an ode to the fruit picker who puts the strawberry on our Sunday tart or the delivery driver or shelf filler who makes sure there is food to purchase for someone to put on the family table, because these seem like scenarios or portraits that might be found in his catalogue.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of his tribute, Costello spoke about joining Prine, his wife Fiona, the writer Tom Piazza and songwriter Joe Henry for dinner last September. \u201cIt was a delightful supper of laughter and stories, with songs cited and memories marked, closing only as the glass of a slowly smoldering vintage jukebox filled with smoke and John had to disconnect it and crack open a window, breaking the spell into a gentle goodnight. If that sounds like something John might have made up, then I guess I may have finally learned my lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Popular on Rolling Stone <\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elvis Costello shared a lengthy and moving tribute to John Prine that expounded on his great admiration for the late singer-songwriter and featured several memories of the time they spent together \u2014 on stage and off. Costello opened by discussing how Prine\u2019s music sparked a friendship between him and the playwright Alan Bleasdale and used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806372","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 04:31:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}