Joan Baez serenades John Prine (and the rest of us) with "Hello in There"

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/30/joan-baez-serenades-john-prine.html

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Of course it’s not a random choice, Joan recorded it on her 1975 “Diamonds & Rust”. (Bette Midler recorded it first, although on her first album.)

Of course, Joan wrote a couple of songs about her husband in prison for resisting the war. On “One Day at a Time” (a title about waiting in itself) she does “Song for David”, and on “Blessed Are…” she recorded " Fifteen Months". In essence , being connected and waiting while he’s stuck in prison.

Being in the hospital for months isn’t unlike being in prison, or at sea, and now not unlike waiting in isolation for the virus to pass.

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Hopefully he doesn’t whistle and go fishin’ into heaven just yet.
He looks older in this tiny desk performance, but he still sounds great.

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One of my favorite John Prine songs from one of my favorite singers, and I love me some covers, but this version didn’t connect with me. At least anywhere near as much as the original.

Or this amazing version. He made that first album when he was 21, but I personally would call this the proverbial “peak of his powers”:

On a quarantine-y sidenote, my absolute favorite John Prine song:

And of course Illegal Smile:

And how damn good is this:

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Thanks for that, I hadn’t heard Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore. So damn good. John Prine is a lifelong pursuit.

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And sorry @Papasan, the board isn’t letting me reply to you directly, but:

That amazingly good version of Angel From Montgommery you posted led me to this phenomenal cover of Gold Dust Woman. In the interest of everyone sitting around and listening to tons of music (after or before watching an episode of Tiger King of course):

And ha, that sure looks like a 12 string Les Paul he’s playing.

And as wow what a great interview with John:

Lots of favorite lines, but one is “I don’t have to supply the meaning to the song, I just have to write it”.

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My favorite is “Please Don’t Bury Me”.

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Joan Baez is really cool. First time I ever heard Joe Hill was a Joan Baez version of it (which is a tradition in that genre of music.) People like to bitch about “covers” or “sampling” or “copying” but that is a norm in that genre, and often mutations grow from the process organically

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I shed a tear when I read the news. This is one of his songs I replayed, as I went over the memories I have associated with hearing him sing his songs. I hope he is on the up and up now.

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Muchas gracias mi amigo / amiga!

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Was driving once several years ago through a stunningly-gorgeous New Mexico desert with beautiful plateaus and blue sky all around, and this version came on at random. It put me in tears. I still get chills thinking about it.

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