Reader’s Choice/Tom’s Top Tunes…Song #67/250: Paradise by John Prine

I have always wanted to write about John Prine. If there is anyone in the music industry whose skill and personal manner I seek to emulate, it is this man. Humble to a fault, John Prine wrote songs about ordinary people and the lives they were leading and, in doing so, he gave dignity to those who often lived the sum of their days in anonymity. Prine’s discography totals over twenty albums and includes some of the most venerated songs in music history such as “Sam Stone”, “Angel of Montgomery” and “In Spite of Ourselves”, all of which are deserving of their own dedicated future posts. But more than having gained fame as a singer, Prine is respected most as a songwriter. It is his gift as a poet and as a painter of scenes that brings us to today’s featured song called “Paradise”. In order to best appreciate the lyrics to “Paradise”, it is prudent for us to put the song in some historical context. The events of which Prine speaks in this song are based on real experiences that he and many others have come to know due to the human folly of seeking to harness the land and the sea and the air for selfish purposes. Prine’s life has revealed itself in his Art. It is a biography well worth reading about and listening to. Let’s dive in!

John Prine was born in 1946 to working class parents in a small village named Stom’s Landing in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. Stom’s Landing was situated along the Green River, which serves as a tributary to the mighty Ohio River. Geographically speaking, Kentucky sits smack dab in the middle between Chicago, in the north and New Orleans, in the south. Both Muhlenberg County and the Green River were named after generals in the Continental Army who fought during the American Civil War. When the Civil War concluded, the victorious members of the Continental Army were often paid for their service in the form of their choice of land from the conquered territories. Thus, many soldiers found themselves developing tracts of land on either side of the Green River. Because of their proximity to this waterway, trading routes were established along the river, one of them being a small place called Stom’s Landing.  In time, Stom’s Landing would be renamed as Paradise, Kentucky due to the bucolic nature of the land found along this beautiful part of the country.

Like many regions in America, Muhlenberg County fell upon hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Land values plummeted. Farm incomes dropped significantly. Unemployment rates rose. Many families went hungry. As you may know from your history classes in school, as a way of dealing with the myriad economic, social and political factors that contributed to the Great Depression starting in the first place, newly elected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt introduced a series of economic policies that became known as The New Deal. One of the pieces of legislation that made up Roosevelt’s New Deal was the creation of a government agency called the Tennessee Valley Authority. The creation of the T.V.A. was meant to do several things, the most important of which was to ensure that the essentials of life for ordinary Americans (such as access to affordable electrical power) was taken out of the hands of private businessmen such as Henry Ford and placed under the care of the government. In a vast oversimplification, the New Deal set off a contentious debate in America of the merits of unfettered capitalism versus the collective action that has come to be known as socialism. FDR is on record as stating that one of the purposes of his New Deal legislation was to ensure that America’s sovereignty remained in the hands of the elected government and not in the hands of a few billionaire businessmen who sought to control the country’s resources as a means of extracting as much profit for themselves as possible. In a precursor to how our world exists today in terms of the outsized influence of oligarchs in the technology, petroleum, pharmaceutical and military industries, in the early 1960s, then actor Ronald Reagan lost a job as a television spokesman for his public criticism of The New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority as being “government overreach”. 

Initially, the Tennessee Valley Authority was viewed as a success. The details of its implementation saw a series of dams constructed along rivers such as the Green River. The idea was to use the power of water to create hydroelectricity as a cheap and abundant source of power for the area. The construction of these dams gave jobs to many of the local citizens. As well, the Army Corps of Engineers helped to install flood prevention measures, as well as irrigation canals that helped local farmers to work their fields more efficiently, produce higher crop yields and earn more money for themselves and their families. But change is not always a welcome house guest when it knocks upon your door. The creation of dams along the Green River led to the permanent flooding of some farms, as well as some Indigenous burial grounds. The introduction of government experts into the formally closed off confines of Muhlenberg County raised tensions with some of the locals who viewed these experts with suspicion. One of the most famous stories ever told about this change as it unfolded was in the movie Deliverance. *You can watch the trailer for that movie here. Who knew something as simple as a banjo could be so ominous? Other movies such as The River, starring Mel GIbson and Sissy Spacek, as well as the George Clooney romp O Brother, Where Art Thou? are set against the backdrop of the damming of rivers as a result of the implementation of the Tennessee Valley Authority legislation.

As the 1950s unfolded, it was decided by people in boardrooms far from Muhlenberg County that hydro electricity might be good but that there was the potential for even more power generation and more revenue creation in the form of coal. The geology of the Green River area made it a natural place for coal deposits to form. Thus, it was decided that a coal generating power plant would be built at the site of Paradise, Kentucky. A dam was created there called the Rochester Dam. It was determined that seams of coal existed close enough to the surface of the land that it could be extracted most cost-effectively by a technique known as strip or surface mining. Thus, Paradise, Kentucky evolved from a lush green farming area into a region scarred by a large open pit. The coal was dug from the ground by an army of steam shovels. The coal was placed on rail cars and on ships that plied the waters of the Green River. For a while, Muhlenberg County became the coal producing capital of the entire nation. However, it wasn’t long before the environmental impact of such large scale strip mining began to be felt. The farm land began to become poisoned and was no longer suitable for growing crops that were safe for human consumption. But more than that, the local people began to become sick, too. Rather than deal with the cost involved in rectifying the situation, it was decided that razing the entire town of Paradise and relocating its citizens was the easier option. It is because of how this scenario unfolded over the course of a decade or so that John Prine and his family ended up in Chicago.

Prine spent his teenage years attending school in the city of Chicago. As a young man, he began his working life as a postal worker. As he delivered his mail to the homes on his route, Prine had lots of time to think his own thoughts about life and the lives of those in the world around him. In time, he began to write down his thoughts in the form of poetry and song lyrics. He never envisioned himself becoming someone who was a music star. That sort of dream world was for other people, not a regular guy such as him. And yet, Prine’s arrival in Chicago coincided with a period in that city’s musical history known as the Great Folk Revival. Folk music proved to be the perfect genre for someone as lowkey and humble as John Prine was back in the day. As much as any genre of music, Folk music is one that centres on songwriting. It is a genre that is well suited for listening to songs with a poetic construction and a story to tell. And so it was that Prine met some people who were involved in this burgeoning music scene who encouraged him to perform at open mic nights and the like. One of the people who encouraged Prine the postal worker the most was someone named Steve Goodman. Goodman was a Grammy award-winning songwriter best known for his song “City of New Orleans”. Goodman was connected to well known singers such as Judy Collins, Willie Nelson and, most importantly for this story, Kris Kristofferson. It was while starring as the opening act for Kristofferson while he played in Chicago that Goodman invited him to come with him after the show to hear a local singer that he felt had what it took to become one of the greats. Initially, Kristofferson was skeptical but he agreed to go with Goodman after the show. What happened next is told in Kristofferson’s own words as reprinted in the liner notes of John Prine’s eponymous debut album.

John Prine caught us by surprise in the late-night morning let-down after our last show in Chicago. Steve Goodman (who’d shared the bill with us that week) asked us to go to Old Town to listen to a friend he said we had to hear, and since Steve had knocked us out all week with his own songs, we obliged.
  It was too damned late, and we had an early wake-up ahead of us, and by the time we got there Old town was nothing but empty streets and dark windows. And the club was closing. But the owner let us come in, pulled some chairs off a couple of tables, and John unpacked his guitar and got back up to sing.
  There are few things as depressing to look at as a bunch of chairs upside down on the table of an empty old tavern, and there was that awkward moment, us sitting there like, “Okay, kid, show us what you got,” and him standing up there alone, looking down at his guitar like, “What the hell are we doing here, buddy?” Then he started singing, and by the end of the first line we knew we were hearing something else. It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when he first busted onto the Village scene (in fact Al Aronowitz said the same thing a few weeks later after hearing John do a guest set at the Bitter End). One of those rare, great times when it all seems worth it,, like when the Vision would rise upon Blake’s “weary eyes, Even in this Dungeon, & this Iron Mill.”
  He sang about a dozen songs, and had to do a dozen more before it was over. Unlike anything I’d heard before.
  Sam Stone, Donald & Lydia. The one about the Old Folks. Twenty-four years old and writes like he’s about two-hundred and twenty. I don’t know where he comes from, but I’ve got a good idea where he’s going. We went away believers, reminded how goddamned good it feels to be turned on by a real Creative Imagination.

        ~Kris Kristofferson

P.S. Thanks to the people at Atlantic for making good things happen fast to someone who deserves it.

That private session with Goodman and Kristofferson led to a second session a short time later with Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler. Wexler was equally impressed and signed John Prine immediately to a recording contract. What captured everyone’s attention so much was John Prine’s ability to see the beauty in ordinary things and the dignity in the lives of everyday people. John Prine wrote about what he knew from his own experiences and what he saw with his own eyes. One of the things that he knew and saw was how Paradise, Kentucky had been transformed from a place of beauty into a grey and polluted hole in the ground that had been abandoned by those in charge as soon as its resources had become exhausted. The rape and pillaging of the place of his birth stuck with Prine as he grew into adulthood. Along with his family, he made regular pilgrimages back to Muhlenberg County to see family who had remained and to seek out any beauty that may have survived the initially honourable intentions of the Tennessee Valley Authority. His experiences going back home resulted in a song called “Paradise”. Like many of Prine’s songs, “Paradise” uses real names and events to tell a story of how the lives of innocent people often get overlooked in the grand sweep of larger events, in this case, the advent of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the damming of the Green River and the financial blood lust that came from coal mining in the area. “Paradise” is definitely a lament. Not all of John Prine’s songs present as such. There is much humour throughout his song catalogue. If today’s post is your introduction to John Prine then, welcome to his world. It is a grand and glorious place. I highly encourage you to listen to “Paradise”, as linked below and then, to explore his other songs simply by typing his name into the YouTube or Google search bars. It is a rabbit hole well worth exploring.

Over the years, John Prine was always one of those under-the-radar performers. He was never entirely comfortable playing before stadium-sized crowds. He preferred smaller venues where his story-songs were better suited. However, having said that, I would be remiss to not also mention the incredibly high regard in which he was held by many members of the music industry. Heavyweights such as Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan, Roger Waters (from Pink Floyd), Johnny Cash and Bonnie Raitt…just to name a few…all have stated that they believe John Prine to be one of the greatest songwriters of all time in America. For what it is worth, I concur with their assessment. There is something noble about the act of seeing the unseen and bringing value to their existence. That is what John Prine did through his words and through how he lived his life. 

In 2020, as the COVID pandemic raged around the world, John Prine contracted the coronavirus. Already weakened from two separate bouts of cancer, John Prine succumbed to the many complications that arise from the coronavirus and passed away. In accordance with the terms of his will and with the lyrics of his song “Paradise”, half of his ashes were scattered in Chicago and the other half at the Rochester Dam on the Green River, outside of his birthplace of Paradise, Kentucky. In the time that has followed his passing, a park has been created there in his name. So, if you ever find yourself driving alongside the Green River in Kentucky, keep your eye out for the John Prine Memorial Park. It honours Prine’s memory well and reminds us that beauty exists all around us in this world and that paradise is always close at hand when your heart is pure.

The link to the video for the song “Paradise” by John Prine can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.

The link to the official website for John Prine can be found here.

The link to a local newspaper story about the John Prine Memorial Park can be found here.

The link to the official website for Muhlenberg County, Kentucky can be found here.

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