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Happy Birthday, John Prine
He was a man of few words and beautiful songs. Thank you, John.
The United Kingdom had their Shakespeare. Ireland has Yeats. Chile has Pablo Neruda, India has Rabindranath Tagore, Poland has Wisława Szymborska.
That’s all well and good.
We have our great poets too. But a few of ours were able to put their poetry to music. We were blessed that way.
John Prine is one of those poets/songwriters.
He’s one of ours and his birthday is October 10.
I wish with all my heart John was here to celebrate his birthday with us, but he’s not. He passed away from complications caused by COVID-19 on April 7, 2020, at the age of 73. Earlier that year, he received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
A Lifetime Achievement Award speaks to how special John was, but it is only the tip of a very large iceberg.
I love John because he was one of us. He didn’t come from wealth. He didn’t have anything handed to him — he worked for everything he ever got. And he never forgot his people or where he came from. Who he was came out in his songs.
