Austin City Limits 2021 - The Best of John Prine Series 46 Episode 01 | FULL SERIES PBS

austin city limits presents the very best of legendary singer-songwriter john prime batman classic performances from over the past 40 me back to years down by the green river where paradise land i'm sorry my son but you're too lazy it's the peabody way john prime was an american songwriter known for his ability to tell stories through the lens of his gigantic imagination john's songs seemed like they'd been easy to write like they'd fallen out of it like magic praise through his dry humor and love for his kindness and generosity john had the courage to write plainly about the darkest aspects of the american experience the thing i admired most about john's songs was the way he could step so completely into someone else's life john had the gift and the curse of great empathy john brian's work taught me that you can be whoever you want to be as long as you get the details right and john always got the details right if the artist's job is to hold up a mirror to society john prine had the cleanest and the clearest mirror of anyone i've ever known sometimes it seemed he had a window and he would climb right through now here's the very best of john prine from austin city lemons sadly we lost john prine in 2020 here are 12 of his best performances beginning in 1978. [Music] i've been thinking lately about the people i meet the car wash on the corner and the hole in the street way my ankles hurt with shoes on my feet and i'm wondering if i'm going to sleep tomorrow father forgive us for what we must do use the gay of us we'll forgive you we'll forgive each other till we both turn blue then we'll whistle and go fishing in the heavens [Music] now i was in the army but i never dug a trench used to bust my knuckles on a monkey ranch i go to town give the girls a pinch but i don't think they ever even notice me father forgive us for what we must do you forgive us we'll forgive you we'll forgive each other till we both turn blue then we'll whistle and go fishing in a yellow [Music] fishing and whistling whistle and fish you have a thing that they put on your dish when we get through we'll make a big wish that we never have to do this again on my very first job i said thank you and please it made me scrub a parking lot down on my knees then i got fired from being scared of bees and they only give me 50 cents an hour father forgive us for lovely monster you forgive us we'll forgive you we'll forgive each other [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] we had an apartment in the city and me and loretta likes living there well it's been years since the kids have grown the life of their own left us alone john and linda living on my house enjoy somewhere on the road we lost davey in the crane road i still on the way forward it don't matter anymore [Music] you know that old trees just grow stronger and older rivers grow outer every day [Music] poor people just grow along for someone to say [Music] hello [Music] do [Music] we don't talk much more she sits in the stairs through the back door screams and all the news just repeats itself like some forgotten dream [Music] that we've both seen so they are going to call rudy we work together at the factory but what can i say [Music] nothing much to do you know that old trees just grow stronger and old rivers grow wilder every day [Music] oh people just grow lonesome waiting for someone to say [Music] hello [Music] do so if you're walking down the street sometime and spots on my hollow ancient ass please don't just pass them downstairs as if you didn't care say hello and thank you it's a song about a couple people that uh got along fine just by themselves but they became a couple and uh they developed like a third personality as a couple and nobody liked that third person and they didn't like to spend time with each other alone [Music] hey there she goes well i thought she'd never leave heaven [Music] you know show given me the creeps where you know when love that woman to the power of the hat we've all got javelin fever screwed up [Music] okay there she goes walking down the street i suppose the next fellow that she meets should have her head examined by x-ray machines so he can't see all them pictures that i've already seen just so he knows hey hey hey hey there she goes yeah there she really goes must be something somewhere that makes me want to hurt myself and say [Music] yeah we was a regular doctor jekyll but together we're where's mr and mrs hat oh what a rough rough ride hey there she goes or she's walking out on me with all her clothes look how fast she could be you know i've seen her on down at the courthouse i was sober as the judge would try to talk things over but the grudge wouldn't budget adios there she goes yeah there she goes [Music] there must be something somewhere that makes me want to hurt myself inside yeah we was a regular doctor jekylls but together we were the mr and mrs hat [Music] hey there she goes well i thought she'd never leave [Music] tap then it came to blows hey there she goes there she goes there she baby thank you [Music] not too long ago uh we played washington dc late this summer and uh we had an extra day to hang around and didn't have to do anything or be anywhere so we decided we'd uh take in uh just be a tourist for a day and just go around and see some of the things in the nation's capital my buddy albanetta had his video camera which he hasn't sat down since he got it you know how that goes too some people just can't get unattached from those things when they get them you know but we went around and went to lincoln memorial and went over a way where kennedy's buried and we went to the vietnam veterans memorial there the big black wall they got we looked up some friends that uh whose names were on the wall and if you never been there or seen anything about you look them up like in a phone book and and uh you go on over to where you're the section of the wall where your friend's name is or your relative or whatever and uh uh it's a real shiny black marble wall you stand there looking at your friend's name you see your reflection in the wall so it's sort of a fitting memorial i think if you ever get a chance to go see it i suggest you do this is sam stone [Music] sam stone came home to his wife and family after serving him the conflict overseas and the time that he'd served has shattered all his nerves and left a little shrapnel in his name but the morphine eased the pain and the grass grew around his brain and gave him all the confidence he'd lay with a purple heart and a monkey on his back [Music] there's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes and jesus christ that for nothing i suppose [Music] little pitchers have big ears don't stop to count the years sweet songs never last too long on broken radios sam stone's welcome home didn't last too long he went to work when he'd spent his last day when sammy took to stealing when he got that empty feeling for a hundred dollar habit without overtame [Music] and the goal wrote this veins like a thousand we wrote trains and he's this man in the house that he chose [Music] while the kids ran around one of people's clothes [Music] there's a hole in that is on where all the money goes [Music] and jesus christ died for nothing i suppose little pictures have big ears don't stop to count the years sweet songs never last too long broken radios [Music] sam stone was alone when he popped his last balloon [Music] climbing walls while sitting in a chair well he played his last request while the room smelled just like this with an overdose hovering in the air but laughing lost it's fun and there was nothing to be done betrayed his that he fall on the gi bill before flag drip casket on local heroes here there's a hole in that is where all the money goes [Music] in jesus christ that's another thing i suppose little have big ears don't stop to count the years sweet songs never last too long on broken radios [Music] [Applause] here's a big chance to sing on tv here if you know the words this song if you don't know the words of this song and just uh if the camera comes by just act like start moving your mouth we'll we'll fill in later on you know or just make up your own words that's what i had to do when i woke up this morning things were looking bad seemed like total silence i was the only friend i had a bowl of oatmeal tried to stare me down and won and it was 12 o'clock before i realized i was having no fun but fortunately i have the key to escape reality and you may see me tonight with an illegal smell it don't cost very much but it lasted a long while won't you please tell the man i didn't kill anyone no i'm just trying to have me something that's right you just passed up the place where you're supposed to stay here we're gonna bring it around again though this guy can remember the words dude last time i checked my bankroll it was getting thin sometimes it seems like the bottle is the only place i've been i chased a rainbow down a one-way street dead in and all my friends turned out to be insurance salesmen ah but fortunately i have the key to escape reality and you may see me tonight with an illegal smell it don't cost very much but it lasted a long while won't you please tell the man i didn't kill anyone [Music] well i sat down in my closet with all my overalls trying to get away from all the years inside my walls i dreamed the police heard everything i thought what then oh well i went to court and the judge's name was oh man i but fortunately i have the key to escape reality and you may see tonight [Music] my sister he's a man [Music] thank you [Music] this daddy wants to take me back to muhlenberg county when i was a child my family were traveling down to western kentucky but where my parents were born and there's a backwoods old town that's often remembered so many times and then my memories are warm and daddy won't you take me back to muhlenberg down by the green river where paradise play well i'm sorry my son but you're too late and asking mr but sometimes we travel right down the green river to the abandoned prison down by eagle hill where they asked me like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols but empty pop bottles was all we would kill and daddy won't you take me back [Music] away then the cool company came with the world's largest shovel where they tortured the timber and it stripped all the land and it dug for the cold till the land was forsaken and then they wrote it all down as a progressive man and daddy won't you take me back camp down by the green river where paradise lake but i'm a sorry my son but you're cute you [Music] know when a dallas masters float down the green river and let my soul down up to the rochester dance i'll be halfway to heaven with paradise waiting just five miles away from [Music] missed a few vibes [Music] away thank you god bless you appreciate it thank you i got the idea for this song i'm guessing somebody was telling me how to party once a couple of years back i don't know how we got around to this conversation but somebody started telling me that there was all these missing years in the life of jesus he was missing from the time he was 12 until he he was 30. and i said you mean uh like nobody knew where he was and he said nobody so that kind of like stuck in the back of my mind you know about nobody one of the most influential and controversial figures in the history of mankind nobody knows where he was for 18 years i snuck away on a fishing trip once with this waitress for a couple of days and by the time we got back to nashville everybody knew where we were [Applause] jesus the missing years [Music] it was raining it was cold west bethlehem was no place for a 12 year old so he packed his bag and he headed out to find out what the world's about he went to france he went to spain he found love he found pain he found stores so he started to shop but he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop kid's in trouble with the cops from israel didn't have no home so he cut his hair and he moved to rome it was there he met his irish bride and they rented a flat on the lower east side of rome italy that is music publishers book binders bible belters money changers spoon benders and lots of pretty italian chicks [Music] charlie bought some popcorn billy bought a car someone almost bought the farm but they didn't go that far and things shut down at midnight at least round here they do because we all reside down the block inside 23s could do wine was flowing so were beers so jesus found his missing years he went to a dance and said this don't move me so i hacked up his pants and he went to a movie [Music] on his 13th birthday he saw rebel without a cause he went straight on home and invented santa claus who gave him a gift and he responded in kind he gave the gift of love and went out of his mind you see uh him and the wife wasn't getting along so he took out his guitar and he wrote a song called the dove of love fell off the perch but he couldn't get divorced from the catholic church [Music] at least not back then and yeah jesus was a good guy he didn't need this so he took a pill with a bag of peanuts and a coca-cola and he swallowed it he discovered the beatles he recorded with the stones once he even opened up a three-way package in southern california for old george [Music] and jones bought some popcorn and billy bought a car someone almost bought the farm but they didn't go that far and things shut down at midnight at least round here they do cause we all reside down the block inside 23's could do [Music] the years went by like sweet little days with babies crying pork chops and beaujolais when he woke up he was 17. the world was angry the world was mean well the man down the street and the kid on the stoop all agreed to life stink whole world smell like poop baby poop that is the worst kind [Music] so he grew his hair long and threw away his comb headed back to jerusalem to find mom and dad and home but when he got there the cupboard was bare except for an old black man with a fishing rod he said what are you going to be when you grow up jesus said god oh my god what have i got myself into i'm a human corkscrew all my wine is blood they're gonna kill me mama they don't like me bud so jesus went to heaven he went there awful quick calling people killed him and he wasn't even sick so come and gather around me my contemporary peers and i'll tell you all the story of jesus the missing years [Music] charlie bought some popcorn and billy bought a car someone almost bought the farm but they didn't go that far and things shut down at midnight at least found here they do cause we all reside down the block inside 23 skadoo [Music] we all reside down the block inside 23's could do [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] everything is cool everything's okay why just before last christmas my baby went away across the sea to an island while the bridges brightly burn so far away from my land the valley of the unconcerned i was walking down the road man just looking at my shoes when god sent me an angel just to chase away my blues i saw a hundred thousand black birds just flying through the sky they seemed to form a teardrop from a black-haired angel's eye those tears fell all around me and they washed my sins away now everything is cool everything's okay [Music] everything is cool everything's okay why just before last christmas my baby went away and i found it real surprising for myself to hear me say that everything is cool everything's okay everything is cool everything's okay i was just before last christmas my baby went away thank you [Applause] [Music] a young man from a small town with a very large imagination lay alone in his room with his radio on but looking for another station oh an aesthetic but from a mouthpiece gave away to the sound below james dean went out to hollywood put his picture in a picture show james dean went out to hollywood put his picture in a picture show and it's old daddy get off of your knees mama why'd you have to go your darling [Music] [Music] montgomery clipped at night oh an aesthetic from the mouthpiece gave away to the sound below james dean went out to hollywood put his picture in a picture [Music] a picture [Applause] [Music] sitting on a reservation with a big black hole in the belly of his soul waiting on an explanation a while a white man sits on his fat can and takes pictures of the navajo and every time he clicks there's kodak picks he steals a little bit of soul every time he clicks his codec picks he steals a little bit [Music] [Music] a picture here we go [Music] a young man from a small town with a very large imagination one of the great treasures i know won't you welcome john prime [Music] [Applause] [Music] so i am an old woman named after my mother my old man is another [Music] this old house would have burned down a long time ago make me an angel that flies me a poster i'm an old rodeo [Music] just give me one thing i can hold on [Music] is just a hard way to go when i was a young girl [Music] but i had been a cowboy it wasn't much to look at just a free rams in land but that was a long time and no matter how i tried the years just flow [Music] [Applause] [Music] hold on to believe in this living is just [Music] so [Music] there's flies in the kitchen i can hear them they're buzzing and i end up nothing since i woke up today how the hell can a person go to work in the morning and come home in the evening and have nothing to say make me an angel [Music] make me a poster [Music] to believe in this living is [Music] [Music] [Applause] this song here is called the summer's end [Applause] [Music] summer's end around the bend just flat the swimming suits are on the land just dry i'll meet you there for a conversation i hope i didn't ruin your whole vacation well you never know how far from home you're feeling until you watch the shadows cross the ceiling well i don't know but i can't see it snowing in your car the windows are wide open come on come on home no you don't have to [Music] be alone just come on home [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] new year's eve is bound to leave you crying just come on [Music] come on no you don't have to around just come on the moon and stars hang out in bars just talking i still love that picture of us walking just like that old house we thought was on it summer's in came faster than we wanted [Music] just come on [Music] thank you when i get to heaven i'm going to shake god's hand i'm going to thank him for more blessings than one man can stand then i'm going to get a guitar and start a rock and roll band checking to a swell hotel ain't the afterlife grand then i'm going to get a cocktail vodka and gingerbread yeah [Music] cause this old man then as god is my witness i'm getting back into show business i'm opening a next club called the tree of forgiveness and forgive everybody ever done me any harm why i might even forgive a few choice critics those sympathetic parasitics by my parents mythics and smother them with my charm cause i'm gonna get vodka and ginger [Music] here we go boys [Music] [Applause] [Music] yeah when i get to heaven i'm going to take this wrist watch off my arm what are you going to do with time after you bought the farm then i'm going to look up my mom and dad and good old brother doug well i bet him and cousin jackie are still cutting up a bug and i want to see all my mama sisters because that's where all the love starts miss them all like crazy bless their little hearts i always will remember these words that my daddy said he said buddy when you're dead you're a dead pecker head i hope to prove them wrong that is when i get to heaven cause i'm gonna have a cocktail vodka and ginger yeah [Music] is [Music] when i get to heaven the influence you've had you can't deny the influence you've had on on a lot of people has been been pretty pretty enormous it took me a while to swallow that one but uh it it's it's i don't mind it so much because they're the people that we're talking about jason is about sergio simpson margot price uh jessie muskraves will be here tomorrow to take a show with us really no ken casey's one of my favorites i love her all these people they're very talented so them saying that that i had any influence on their writing it's a real compliment to me you know because uh because they are so talented i i've been kind of waiting and i'm sure a lot of other people that like singer songwriters i've been waiting for stuff to get kicked up a notch and and i really feel like it has been in the last six seven years you know that there's some really great stuff out there i was writing but really slow i had about four or five things i liked it they uh booked me a suite at the omni in in nashville and i just started uh writing songs so i came out a week later and had enough songs for the record when i came out of the studio with the 10 songs produced by dave cobb then i started to see how they fit together and some of the songs were about uh oh i really think the songs were about mortality when i was writing them but now that i look back at them some of them seem that way woke up this morning see all my slippers walk in the kitchen and die [Music] he [Music] please don't bury me down in the cocoa ground i'd rather have them cut me up pass me all around for my brain in a hurricane the black have my eyes and the side [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey [Music] mommy [Music] hi [Music] ichigo [Music] mommy [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Austin City Limits TV

Views: 93,494

Rating: 4.9226189 out of 5

Keywords: Austin City Limits hd, AustinCityLimits, watch Austin City Limits, Austin City Limits season 46, Austin City Limits series 46, Austin City Limits

Id: dkvpPbh6D2Q

Length: 57min 17sec (3437 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 31 2021