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I& #39;ve been thinking about this John Prine song a lot lately. It& #39;s about being betrayed by someone you love, except that the someone you love is your country. https://youtu.be/x2okOuZ8T_o ">https://youtu.be/x2okOuZ8T...
"I really love America," Prine once said about this song. "I just don’t know how to get there anymore."
He was drafted in & #39;66, but stationed in W. Germany, not Viet Nam. "I was in the army, but I never dug a trench," he once sang. When he got back to Chicago, he performed "Sam Stone," about a heroin addicted vet, at his first live show.
That song and "Your Flag Decal Won& #39;t Get You Into Heaven Anymore" are from his first album. "The Great Compromise" and "Take the Star Out of the Window" (about a guy returning home with blood on his high school ring) are from his second.
The Great Compromise (shoutout to my HS history teacher Mr. Johnson) was a way of a papering over America& #39;s original sin, keeping the union together for a little while by denying the humanity of enslaved peoples.
Listening to this song made me think how much of what I love about America was forged in response to enormous crises. The Civil War, the Great Depression, Viet Nam, the Civil Rights movement — all forced a reconsideration of who we are, and a recommitment to what we could be.
Anyway, he& #39;s another John Prine song. More fun, but it& #39;s still about struggle, faith and wondering if you& #39;re gonna see tomorrow. Inspirational lyric: "When we get through we& #39;ll make a big wish that we& #39;ll never have to do this again." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek0YaBxj6C4">https://www.youtube.com/watch...
