Med föräldrapenning blir det inte så mycket skivor köpta, men jag måste slå ett slag för mitt senaste, sällsynta förvärv, John Prines nya 'Fair & Square'. Det är 10 år sedan han kom med en skiva med nya egenhändigt komponerade låtar, de skivor han släppt är samlingar, nyinspelningar och covers.
Den är värd all väntan tycker jag, även om det tar några lyssningar att fullt ut älska den. Men nu gör jag det. Den är en typisk Prineskiva, det blandas sväng med ballader, och alltid bra texter, och hans röst blir bara bättre och bättre, trots cancern.
Där finns en dos kärlekslåtar, till exempel den genialt banala ’She Is My Everything’;
She uses Eveready
batteries to keep
her electric appliances
goin’ steady.
She can do
fourteen things at once,
and then the phone ring
She is my everything
De karaktäristiska roliga låtarna á la Prine finns också. Som ‘I Hate It When That Happens To Me’;
Well I once knew
a man who
was going insane.
He let love chase him
right up a tree.
It took the police
and a fire truck
just to bring him back down.
I hate it when that happens to me.
Eller ‘Crazy As A Loon’, om en man som försöker göra karriär men misslyckas i tur och ordning med att bli filmstjärna, countrystjärna, affärsman, innan han slutligen ger upp och inser att till och med världen gör honom galen. Roligast är ’Other Side of Town’, om en man som lärt sig förflytta sig med hjälp av tankekraft, speciellt, såsom Prine introducerar låten, när frugan gnatar lite för mycket;
My body’s in this room with you, just catching hell
But my soul is drinking beer down the road a spell
You might think I’m listening to your grocery list
But I’m leaning on a jukebox, and I’m about half…way there.
A clown puts his make up on upside down
So he wears a smile even when he wears a frown
You might think I’m here when you put me down
But actually I’m on the other side of town
Det finns också ett par politiska kommentarer, tydligast i ‘Some Humans Ain’t Human’;
Have you ever noticed
when you’re feeling really good,
there’s always a pigeon
that’ll come shit on your hood.
Or you’re feeling your freedom
and the world’s off your back,
som cowboy from Texas
starts his own world in Iraq.
I en intervju berättar Prine om hur han hörde en fantastisk låt av Merle Haggard, ’If I Could Only Fly’, som han genast ville veta vem som skrivit. Det visade sig vara en Blaze Foley (samma Blaze som Townes van Zandts ’Blaze’s Blues’ handlar om, och Lucinda Williams ’Drunken Angel’). Till slut fick han tag på en piratinspelning med Blaze Fooley, och därifrån kommer ’Clay Pigeon’ på nya skivan. I intervjun säger Prine att ’When I heard ’Clay Pigeons’ I thought, Man that sounds like me’, och jag förstår honom för låten har starka drag av hans egen ’People Putting People Down.
Det finns förövrigt en Dylanhistoria i intervjun;
Before Prine began his weekends-only tour in early April, he streaked up to Chicago (where he was a folk fixture in the 1960s) from Nashville to catch the final night of the Bob Dylan-Merle Haggard shows at the Auditorium Theatre. Prine of course, was one of the first "next Bob Dylans" during the mid-1970s.
"I played some shows in the '80s with Merle, and I never saw him so comfortable," Prine said. "I've seen him every time he comes to the Ryman [in Nashville]. He's usually going through the motions at the Ryman, but he was so engaged in Chicago. His band sounded good, too. Bob was as weird as ever. I can't wait to hear Bob do one song, let alone 10 I would enjoy. And if I don't enjoy all of them, he's still so much better than most of the people I'm looking to be satisfied for a couple of songs."
During his Chicago run, Haggard nailed the Blaze Foley ballad "If I Could Only Fly," which he recorded on his 2000 album of the same name. When Prine first heard Haggard's "If I Could Only Fly," he was also enthralled by the tune, which Haggard sang at Tammy Wynette's memorial service.
"I had to find out who wrote that song," Prine said. "When I really love a song, I always want to hear the songwriter's version of it. When I found out it was Blaze Foley, I really wanted to hear it. I had heard stories about this guy. Lucinda [Williams] wrote 'Drunken Angel' about Blaze. Townes [Van Zandt] had a song ['Blaze's Blues'] he wrote about him."
Foley, born Michael David Fuller, died in February 1989 at the age of 40, when he was stabbed to death trying to stop a bar fight. Prine began researching Foley, and in the process, received a bootleg tape from a friend in Austin, Texas. Foley sang a scruffy version of "If I Could Only Fly," followed by "Clay Pigeons." "When I heard 'Clay Pigeons,' I thought, 'Man, that sounds like me,' " Prine said. "I couldn't get the song out of my head. And when I can't get a song out of my head, I have to learn it."
Prine learned the song, taught it to his band, and they started playing "Clay Pigeons" during sound check. It sounded so good, Prine included it on "Fair & Square."
Som Prine känner för Dylan känner jag för Prine. Hellre en bra Prine än tio halvbra av vem-som-helst.
Det enda lilla orosmolnet är att skivan ibland låter så mycket Prine att det närmar sig ’Souvenirs’, skivan där han spelade in nya versioner av sina gamla låtar, men att han i det här fallet tagit återanvändandet och nostalgin ett steg längre och skrivit nya låtar som låter som hans gamla.
Men ett köp rekommenderas, och så får vi hålla tummarna för ett riktigt sverigebesök, Landminekonserten var en magnifik aptitretare, visst?
