A World Free of John Prine and Trainspotting
I often catch hell from fellow movie buffs because I’ve never seen Trainspotting. The truth is, if all goes well, I’ll go to my grave having never seen it.
I don’t own any John Prine albums. I hear he’s a brilliant songwriter, but I wouldn’t be able to name a song he’s written if my life depended on it.
My aversion to Trainspotting and John Prine is deeply rooted and closely connected.
South Texas is one of the major corridors for the trafficking of cocaine and heroin into the United States. I’ve never done heroin in my life, but I have known a disproportionate amount of junkies in my time. I used to live in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but I’ve never known as many junkies as I’ve known in South Texas.
Some of you may know where I’m going with this in regards to Trainspotting, but what the hell does it have to do with John Prine? Almost every junkie I’ve ever known has been a John Prine fan. Not “John Prine fan” as in they like all kinds of music, including John Prine, but “John Prine fan” as in everytime the subject of music comes up, John Prine is the first name that comes out of their mouths.
I’m generally annoyed by people who are overly fanatical about one particular artist. I knew a guy who was actually that way about Paul McCartney. Not The Beatles, but Paul fucking McCartney. He even referred to him as “Sir Paul McCartney”. I know another person who can’t talk about music without bringing up the alleged greatest band in the history of music, Urge Overkill. But these are merely anomalies; every single person I have ever met who has been a John Prine fanatic was also a heroin addict, and it’s created in me a Pavlovian response. I can’t think of John Prine without associating him with annoying fucking junkies. John Prine may very well be a talented singer and songwriter, but I’ll never know.
Because I’ve had the displeasure of knowing so many dope fiends, I don’t really enjoy movies about drug addiction. I liked The Man With the Golden Arm and Drugstore Cowboy, but I have no desire to see Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream. If I want to watch junkies, all I have to do is stick my head out the window.
I’m running out of naming options for these increasingly sick people. I started out a month ago with Church Burners. Then I had to add Ebola Boys. Church Burning Ebola Boys. Now what - Church Burning Baby Butchering Ebola Boys? That’s too long. Too unwieldy. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (Source: 
January 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Alright Mr. Hater- What about this? I direct your attention to #7… I’m thinking of Hovind singin’ this …with his “room mate”.
and #4 could be directed to Denyse…
Lyrics
1. Everything Is Cool
2. All The Best (Live)
3. Silent Night All Day Long
4. If You Were the Woman and I was the Man
5. Silver Bells
6. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
7. Christmas in Prison
8. A John Prine Christmas
January 30th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hah! OK - since you won’t try John Prine himself, try a John Prine cover… Alabama 3’s “Speed Of The Sound Of Loneliness” from their album “Exile On Coldharbour Lane”… OK, there’s junky references, and that particular band’s uberfans tend to be scary as hell, but it’s one hell of an album…
(Two asides… Requiem For A Dream is a truly remarkable piece of art… And Trainspotting features a song by a band callled Underworld - who truly do have *the* scariest uberoberfuhrerjunky ultra-fans…)
January 31st, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I guess the conditioning runs that deep, Otherfunk. I started out liking that Alabama 3, but then the lyrics got all Priney on me.
We’ve got a local “Texas Radio” station that’s just as much of a joke as commercial “Hot New Country”. I don’t know how country music is marketed in the UK, but one of these days I’ll post my thoughts on country radio; it’s won’t be pretty.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:35 am
I’ll step in on this one
Country music in the UK is usually seen as uncool… There’s the usual line-dancing grand-ol’-oprey crowd, and people know the odd Glen Campbell or Dolly Parton number (both great artists of course)… But that Fulks song “F__k ths Town” is a nice take on what’s wrong with the marketing of Country generally.
But there is an excellent Alt Country scene here, and of course a real music lover will like something from pretty much every genre.
If you’re a lyrics person, Country music is a gold mine… And there’s a running joke that Country music goes down superbly in Glasgow cause Glaswegians are miserable sods with a sense of humor : )
P
“We got both kinds of music… Country *and* Western.”
February 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
the song Paradise that Jim and Jesse did in the 70s is a fine fine fine piece of music. i have worked up an alternate set of lyrics that we perform around here, gets folks riled up about TVA and the Smokies and White Removal.
angel from montgomery is also a classic.
if you don’t like john prine then you probly don’t like Tom T Hall and if you don’t like Tom T Hall you probly don’t like James King and if you don’t like James King I just don’t know what to say.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:14 am
by the way Prine wrote ‘Paradise’. Ricky Skaggs did an unbelievably shitty version of it.