YOU GOT GOLD: A CELEBRATION OF JOHN PRINE

(Check out HtN Editor Don R. Lewis’s You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine movie review, it’s rolling out across theaters now. Seen it? Join the conversation with HtN on our Letterboxd Page.)

For fans of the singer-songwriter genre, the last 5 years have been just brutal in terms of loss. A few weeks ago we lost the great Todd Snider and 2020 alone saw the loss of Jerry Jeff Walker, Billy Joe Shaver, Justin Townes Earle and John Prine as well. That’s….a lot and Prine’s death from frigging Covid struck perhaps hardest as he had beat cancer twice within the preceding years and continued to perform and record undaunted even though the cancer surgery and subsequent radiation therapy he had in 1997 damaged his vocal chords and caused him to kind of always hold his head down at an angle. Yet through all of that, he continued to smile and burn bright, inspiring new generations of songwriters and music fans alike and this is on full display in Michael John Warren’s documentary slash tribute concert, You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine.

As I was watching this film, it became a bit of a bummer that there has to to be a definitive documentary on Prine but as the concert footage rolled along, interspersed with memories from the concert performers on meeting or knowing Prine, I don’t really think there’s a better way to pay tribute to one of the greatest and most under-the-radar songwriters of all time than by letting the music speak for itself. That’s pretty much what Prine would have wanted, any fan knows.  While I do wish there were a little more of Prine himself both in interviews and stories throughout the film, it’s hard to be mad as we get some terrific live versions of Prine songs from longtime friends like Bonnie Raitt, Jason Isbell, Steve Earle and Lyle Lovett as well as newfound friends and lovers of his music like The War and Treaty, Brandi Carlile, Kacey Musgraves, Nathaniel Rateliff, Kurt Vile, I’m With Her and Tyler Childers. 

I also am not completely sure a comprehensive doc on his life is needed as his story is as simple as: after graduating high school, he joined the army, was stationed in West Germany (luckily avoiding Vietnam) before coming back to the states where he took a job as a mailman in Chicago. He had been playing guitar since his teens but considered it just a hobby but certainly the notion of being a mailman in Chicago (can you imagine?) made him feel there was certainly something better he could be doing with his life.

And doing something better he did as he had a career where he was very much the songwriters songwriter as well as pushing forward an interesting and signature guitar picking style. Plus, the songs. Oh man, so many good songs. Non-fans don’t realize he wrote and first sang the impeccable Angel From Montgomery on his first album, all the way back in 1971. The reason for the lack of Prine love for that one is probably because the song as written in first person, as if he were an old woman thus making it ripe for countless interpretations via female singers. Other simply crushing tunes include Sam Stone which details a GI coming home with a monkey on his back, Hello in There which details a life spent and the loneliness that ensues, at least for the characters in the song, and Lake Marie which, for my money is one of the greatest songs ever written and packs a secret, knowing gut punch that even still I can’t quite articulate.

He also had a wicked wit and sense of humor so evident in songs like Illegal Smile (about weed, dude), Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian (self explanatory) and another, often covered and beloved tune, In Spite of Ourselves which remains a surefire way to put a smile on your face any time, illegal or not. Don’t get me started on Knockin’ on Your Screen Door.

While the occasion for Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine, a 2022 tribute concert at Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium, is a bit of a sad one, seeing so many people happily remembering Prine and signing his songs washes away those blues and reminds us of the power of great music.

Abramorama Films; Michael John Warren; Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine

– Don R. Lewis (@ThatDonLewis)

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