"They dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken/then they wrote it all down as the progress of man"

John Prine – “Paradise” from John Prine (1971)

I’ve had the great fortune to spend a lot of time this summer with my brothers, both of whom live states away. When we get together, we start playing guitars; when we play guitars, we eventually get to this song. “Paradise” packs in a lovely evocation of childhood idylls and uses that as a basis for a stirring indictment of environmental destruction.

Prine’s debut is a masterpiece, by the way. A few of the protest songs sound quaint, but others could have been written in our own day of ill-advised war and jingoism-for-show; cf. “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore.”

Get halfway to heaven, with Paradise waiting

Posted by Glenn

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