Monday, November 14, 2011

Yes, I guess you could call it a crush

If there is an unseemliness to women of a certain age going full-on fanatic, then I am guilty once again of the faux pas. I am not the equivalent of tent-dwelling outside the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles where the newest TWILIGHT feature will debut, for a list of reasons so long it might never end. I am quietly cruising around with my computer keyboard while a squirrel eyes me from the nearest palm tree. He can't possibly know there were walnuts in the oatmeal. It is not any of my doing that a random phrase or notion launches a John Prine song in my head.

Each week I write an introductory paragraph to the e-newsletter for a local rubber stamp store. Today I thought of life as an adventure, of escaping the mind-anaesthesia that is the Republican debates and other national debacles and, of course, heard the advice to, "...blow up your tv."

Mr. Prine, as the New York Times would probably still call him in civilized fashion, and his music landed aboard my wobbling raft - best guess - in about 1971. My then beau, later husband, then not, wrote music reviews. He played JOHN PRINE for everyone who stopped by, made them listen. Mr. Kelly was adamant about his music. Soon the album was in the collections of most friends. The words from those first songs and the ones that came after reside in my trunk of "This makes me think of that."

It is a bright morning in Los Angeles County. Peaches, as sung about in the following video, are no longer in season but the brilliant orb of an orange sits on my kitchen counter, symbol of California dreams, of sweetness, of plenty. My siblings and I always found an orange in the toe of our Christmas stockings. If you feel ill-matched to your life or your skin today, it is not too late to change or at least think about doing some part of all this differently. Pyrotechnics optional.

10 comments:

Sultan said...

He's a wonderful guitar player.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Laoch - Yes, very much. And the mandolin player in the video isn't exactly chopped liver.

Jayne said...

Ok, so it's a crush. How could you not have a crush on the man. I love his music, his voice, his stories--nothing not to love about sweet Mr. Prine. ;)
(But I think you already know that.)

Love the video, too!

Marylinn Kelly said...

Jayne - Yep, the unavoidable crush. As often as I wanted to post his videos, I thought, why not confess? xo

Kerry O'Gorman said...

Love the Prinester...I was lucky to see him and Steve Goodman (just before he died) many years ago and it was one of those magical shows where you feel as if you were part of a unique time in music history...cheers!

Barbara said...

Gosh darn, I was thinking that almost all of life's experiences have a John Prine song to go along with them. Now I must pull out a couple of his cd's for our next road trip.

Marylinn Kelly said...

Kerry - That would have been a great show and it was a unique time in music. For the things that make me cranky about the internet, such gifts as YouTube and the availability of photos from other days make me happier than I can say. xo

Marylinn Kelly said...

Barbara - So many of his words resonate...one could not do much better for a road trip. Enjoy.

Anonymous said...

haha love it...im a big prine fan...so much so that i did a lil post on him....if you wanna check it out try this
http://dansdirtbox.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Prine

Marylinn Kelly said...

Dan - Thanks very much for commenting and sharing the link to your post. Prine turns up here more often than any other singer. Maybe I need a separate fan blog. Could listen to him all day.