Rolling on…
listening to the little fellow
The great John Prine was a casualty of COVID-19, succumbing to it in April at the age of 73. He was one of my all-time favorite songwriters.
I still vividly remember the first time I heard Paradise, his song about the horrible effects of strip-mining. Growing up in an area where I had seen the devastation with my own eyes, it hit hard.
(An interesting article on strip-mining and the town of Paradise, Kentucky)
The coal company came with the world’s largest shovel
They tortured the timber and stripped all the land
They dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man
And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking
Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away
John Prine - Paradise
His best-known song is probably Angel from Montgomery, via Bonnie Raitt’s beautiful version of it. Here is a video of them performing it together:
Bonnie Raitt & John Prine - Angel from Montgomery
I’m listening to Crystal Viper:
One of my favorite bands! Heavy Metal band from Poland! Think this album sounds very much like early Running Wild!
Just rediscovered two satirical songs I nearly forgot they existed. Both from a german comedian/publicist/host of a late night show etc. This guy was responsible we had a little political conflict with Turkey’s Erdogan, because he wrote a poem about him. The result was that Angela Merkel apologized to Erdogan for the offense and later on she apologized to the german people for apologizing to Erdogan.
Parental advice : Explicit content
Parental advice : Explicit content at the end of the song (spoken by a little girl)
I got one more. For non german speaking people I highly recommend to turn on subtiltles, so you understand the intro which is about how the idea to the song came up.