[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 73 (Friday, April 17, 2020)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         REMEMBERING JOHN PRINE

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 17, 2020

  Mr. COHEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to a great singer-
songwriter and friend, John Prine, who passed away last week in 
Nashville from complications of the coronavirus. John was an 
exceptional lyricist, described by his friend and producer Jerry 
Phillips as ``thinking like nobody else thought'' and writing lines 
that were ``brilliant in the strangest way.'' John produced three of 
his 18 albums in Memphis, including his debut, the eponymous ``John 
Prine,'' in 1971. The album was cut at Chips Moman's American Sound 
Studio, and included his classics ``Angel from Montgomery'' and 
``Paradise.'' His fourth album, ``Common Sense,'' was made in 1975 at 
Ardent Studios in Memphis and was produced by the legendary Steve 
Cropper. His sixth album, ``Pink Cadillac,'' was made at the Sam 
Phillips Recording Service in 1979 by Sam's sons, Knox and Jerry. 
John's last album, ``The Tree of Forgiveness,'' was recorded in 
Nashville and produced by his friend Matt Ross-Spang of Memphis. Songs 
from that album--You Got Gold,'' ``When I Get to Heaven'' and ``No 
Ordinary Blue''--were part of his last performance in Memphis, at The 
Orpheum, on September 25, 2018. John's songwriting career took off 
when, working as a postal worker in Chicago, he was discovered by 
singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson. Bob Dylan said of his work: 
``Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind trips 
to the Nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs.'' Always gracious and 
friendly, he seemed to his friends to be delighted with life. As Ross-
Spang told The Commercial Appeal: ``If you can imagine a kid eating an 
ice cream cone for the first time, that's how John looked at life. He 
had a love of Archie comics, hot dogs, meatloaf, fried chicken and 
Cadillacs. He always had a twinkle in his eye.'' And as his friend 
Memphis singer-songwriter Keith Sykes said in tribute: ``I don't think 
there's many songwriters who can make you laugh and cry in a single 
line--and make it rhyme.'' John Prine's was a life well-lived and he's 
been taken too soon. He leaves the treasure of song for future 
generations to enjoy and learn about life. He will be missed.

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