Through the influence of a good and trustworthy friend, my second (in age) daughter has discovered the joys of YouTube. With a great deal of parental guidance and supervision, my daughter has been enjoying the wonders of this marvelous medium – from classic video of songs like “Matchmaker” (from Fiddler on the Roof) to scenes from newer movies like Big Fat Liar, my soon-to-be-15-year-old is quickly becoming addicted.
There is so much out there on YouTube for the eyes and ears to behold. Some of it isn’t all that bad.
I decided to test the limits and typed in ”Cotton Patch Gospel”. Much came up, from a promo for a production of the Harry Chapin musical of the Clarence Jordan text to be performed at Southeastern University to a scene that includes my favorite song with the priceless line - “Spitball Me, Lord, Over the Home Plate of Life“.
As those of you who are my regular readers might expect, I quickly typed in “John Prine” and found a wide assortment of things, from live performances – some of which seemed almost professional, with high-quality sound and a variety of camera angles (like this one). Others seem to (but of course couldn’t) be ”bootleg” copies taken from about the 10th row, such as this. There are some great high quality videos of Prine songs old and new.
By far my favorite find was a series of finds. I was tracking down Prine clips from 1980 and found this on the song “The Accident” which depicts Prine driving around a small Midwestern town (which turns out to be his home town of Mayfield, Illinois) with an unnamed someone, interspersed with a concert clip from his hippie-hair days.
“The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)”, for those of you who don’t know it, conveys all the wisdom of Prine in wonderful 2-part harmony. It goes like this -
The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)
© John Prine
Last night I saw an accident
on the corner of Third and Green
two cars collided and I got excited
just being part of that sceneIt was Mrs. Tom Walker and her beautiful daughter
Pamela, was driving the car
they got hit by a man in a light blue sedan
who had obviously been to a bar.Chorus:
They don’t know how lucky they are
they could have run into that tree
got struck by a bolt of lightning
and raped by a minority.It was a four way dilemma
we all arrived the same time
I yielded to the man to the right of me
and he yielded it right back to mine
well, the yield went around and around and around
till Pamela finally tried
just then the man in the light blue sedan
hit Pamela’s passenger side.Chorus:
Pamela hit her head on the mirror
Mrs. Walker got a bump on the knee
the man hit himself in the face and said
“Why does this happen to me?”
the neighbors came out
and they gathered about
saying “Hey! who hit who anyway?”
and the police arrived at a quarter to five
and pronounced all the victims “Okay”.Chorus:
**********
I was transported back to Christmas break, 1982 (or was it ‘83?) when I first “discovered” Prine while surfing the 5 TV channels we had on my mom and step-dad’s set back then (3 network, 1 independent, 1 PBS). I think this was a PBS special that was part of a pledge drive.
Anyway, I was hooked. Here was the “modern-day Mark Twain” (as someone wrote on YouTube). Who else could get away with a line like “raped by a minority” in a song about a simple fender bender? Who else would try?
I realized what I was now watching via the magic of YouTube was the PBS special I had found some time back in 1982 or 83 when I first became a Prine junkie.
Now, I recognize that in extolling the virtues of YouTube, I may be bowing down to Satan (or at least one of his minions). There is much I don’t understand about the medium. Does the artist get paid? I doubt it. How would John Prine feel about me watching YouTube or promoting it with my blog? (For that matter, what would Prine think of my blog?)
Still, for better and for worse, I’ve got to tip my hat to YouTube who is helping yet another generation of listeners (and watchers) discover John Prine all over again.
more on John Prine and his music…
Whenever I say something like this it makes me feel old: but the thing I find I love most about YouTube is being able to look up all the TV show’s, commercials, etc… from my childhood.
Yeah. Saying that still makes me feel old.
The Pistol fires back: Let’s face it. We don’t just feel old. We are old. Now, doesn’t it feel good admitting that?
I think this is a change. A year or so ago, I had the impression that you wouldn’t be watching video and didn’t like blogs that had them embedded (inbedded? unbetted?…)
Like the web in general, YouTube has a lot of baloney and a lot of gems.
e. barrett reminded me of something I wanted to post on my blog:
I was telling a friend about David Foster Wallace and she said “Was he middle-aged?” (when he died). I said “Oh, no. He was MY age!” Which made my friend laugh and say “YOU are middle aged.” I was shocked at the thought.
Then later I was telling the story to my son and he said “Mom, you’re not middle aged, I’M middle aged.”
The Pistol fires back: YIKES!