"Crooked Piece Of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980)" by JOHN PRINE - Including The Albums "John Prine" (October 1971 USA, February 1972 UK), "Diamonds In The Rough" (October 1972 USA), "Sweet Revenge" (October 1973 USA, May 1974 UK), "Common Sense" (April 1975 USA), "Bruised Orange" (July 1978 USA), "Pink Cadillac" (August 1979 USA) and "Storm Windows" (August 1980 USA) - Guests Include Steve Goodman, David Bromberg and Wayne Perkins on Guitars with Producers Arif Mardin, Steve Goodman, Steve Cropper and many more (October 2020 UK Rhino/Atlantic/Asylum 7CD Remasters in a Clamshell Box Set with Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves and Replica Inserts for Each Release - Dan Hersch, Dave Schultz and Bill Inglot Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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"...Reading Old Love Letters..."

What a trip – the memories! I'm playing the stripped-back bareknuckle acoustic guitar and voice of John Prine's "Sour Grapes" from his second album "Diamonds In The Rough" in 1972. Can it really be 50-years on. He was wise, articulate, funny as Robin Williams and such a great chronicler of life in all its weird screwed up cradle to the grave lunacy – it hurts. Laugh and stare, I don't care...Prine moans in "Sour Grapes" - his mannerisms and head so young and full of promise and songs - his uniquely touching music sailing out of my speakers in gorgeous clarity. "The Great Compromise" is the same, a track I reckon will slaughter many a nostalgic heart in its beautiful simplicity. "Angel Of Montgomery" from the debut LP too that so many have covered...

 

Having said all that, I'd be the first to admit that Prine and his world-weary whine is an acquired taste and albums like "Common Sense" and the awful mess that is "Pink Cadillac" drop a star straight away. And I also think (perhaps controversially) that like John Martyn, his albums from the 90s only saw him get better and better, defying the rep that his best work all came from the Seventies. I mean check out Prine's "The Missing Years" from 1991 and "Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings" from 1995 on his own Oh Boy Records – each a quiet CD masterpiece few know about and should. But man Rhino has done right here by his starting legacy with this gorgeous sounding mini Box Set. Lots to cogitate...details... 

 

UK, EUROPE and USA released 23 October 2020 - "Crooked Pieces Of Time: The Atlantic & Asylum Albums (1971-1980)" by JOHN PRINE on Rhino/Atlantic/Asylum R2 643404 - 603497846504 (Barcode 603497846504) is a 7CD Remastered Clamshell Box Set with Seven Mini LP Repro Artwork Card Sleeves each with Fold-out Replica Lyric/Credits Inserts that plays out as follows:

CD1 "John Prine" (44:44 minutes):

1. Illegal Smile [Side 1]

2. Spanish Pipedream

3. Hello In There 

4. Sam Stone

5. Paradise 

6. Pretty Good 

7. Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven No More [Side 2]

8. Far From Me

9. Angel From Montgomery 

10. Quiet Man 

11. Donald And Lydia 

12. Six O'Clock News 

13. Flashback Blues 

Tracks 1 to 13 are his debut album "John Prine" - released October 1971 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 8296 and February 1972 on Atlantic K 40357. Produced by ARIF MARDIN - guest musicians include members of Elvis Presley's house band - Reggie Young and Steve Goodman on Guitars, Bobby Emmons on Organ, Leo LeBlanc on Pedal Steel Guitar, Mike Leach and Gene Chrisman on Bass and Drums. 

CD2 "Diamonds in The Rough" (38:40 minutes):

1. Everybody [Side 1]

2. The Torch Singer 

3. Souvenirs 

4. The Late John Garfield Blues 

5. Sour Grapes 

6. Billy The Bum

7. The Frying Pan

8. Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You [Side 2]

9. Take The Star Out Of The Window

10. The Great Compromise 

11. Clocks And Spoons 

12. Rocky Mountain Time 

13. Diamonds In The Rough

Tracks 1 to 13 are his second studio album "Diamonds In The Rough" - released October 1972 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7240 and November 1972 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 40427. Produced by ARIF MARDIN - guest musicians included Steve Goodman and David Bromberg on Guitars, Dobro and Other Instruments with Steve Burke of Jacob's Creek on Bass and Drums.

CD3 "Sweet Revenge" (39:01 minutes):

1. Sweet Revenge [Side 1]

2. Please Don't Bury Me 

3. Christmas in Prison 

4. Dear Abby 

5. Blue Umbrella 

6. Often Is A Word I Seldom Use

7. Onomatopoeia [Side 2]

8. Grandpa Was A Carpenter 

9. The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)

10. Mexican Home 

11. A Good Time 

12. Nine Pound Hammer

Tracks 1 to 12 are his third studio album "Sweet Revenge" - released October 1973 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 7274 and May 1974 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 40524. Produced by ARIF MARDIN.

CD4 "Common Sense" (32:05 minutes):

1. Middle Man [Side 1]

2. Common Sense  

3. Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard

4. Wedding Day In Funeralville 

5. Way Down 

6. My Own Best Friend [Side 2]

7. Forbidden Jimmy 

8. Saddle In The Rain 

9. That Close To You

10. He Was In Heaven Before He Died

11. You Never Can Tell 

Tracks 1 to 11 are his fourth studio album "Common Sense" (last for Atlantic) - released April 1975 in the USA on Atlantic Records SD 18127 and July 1975 in the UK on Atlantic Records K 50137. Produced by STEVE CROPPER - guests include J.D. Souther, Glenn Frey of The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Wayne Perkins.

 

CD5 "Bruised Orange" (32:50 minutes):

1. Fish And Whistle [Side 1]

2. There She Goes 

3. If You Don't Want My Love 

4. That's The Way The World Goes Round 

5. Bruised Orange (Chain Of Sorrow)

6. Sabu Visits The Twin Cities Alone [Side 2]

7. Aw Heck

8. Crooked Piece Of Time 

9. Iron Ore Betty 

10. The Hobo Song

Tracks 1 to 10 are his fifth studio album (first for Asylum) "Bruised Orange" - released July 1978 in the USA on Asylum Records 6E-139 and August 1978 in the UK on Asylum Records K 53084. Produced by STEVE GOODMAN - guests include John Burns and Diane Holmes

 

CD6 "Pink Cadillac" (37:26 minutes): 

1. Chinatown [Side 1]

2. Automobile

3. Killing The Blues 

4. No Name Girl

5. Saigon

6. Cold War (This Cold War With you) [Side 2]

7. Baby Let's Play House 

8. Down By The Side Of The Road

9. How Lucky

10. Ubangi Stomp 

Tracks 1 to 10 are his sixth studio album (second for Asylum) "Pink Cadillac" - released August 1979 in the USA on Asylum 6E-222 and October 1979 in the UK on Asylum K 52164. Produced by KNOX and JERRY PHILLIPS -  

CD7 "Storm Windows" (32:55 minutes):

1. Shop Talk [Side 1] 

2. Living In The Future 

3. It's Happened To You 

4. Sleepy Eyed Boy 

5. All Night Blue 

6. Just Wanna Be With You [Side 2]

7. Storm Windows 

8. Baby Ruth 

9. One Red Rose 

10. I Had A Dream

Tracks 1 to 10 are his seventh studio album (final for Asylum) "Storm Windows" - released August 1980 in the USA on Asylum 6E-286 (no UK release). Produced by BARRY BECKETT. Wayne Perkins and Barry Beckett are guest musicians.

 

The Clamshell Box Set has a gorgeous painting by JOSHUA PETKER on its cover and a really clever inclusion is fold-out two-side paper replica pages for each album that offers punters those all-important lyrics. The Mini LP Repro Artwork Card sleeves are full versions front and rear - no borders like those 5CD capacity wallet versions in the "Original Classic Album" series. The 20-page booklet sports new liner notes from writer/fan DAVID FRICKE with tracks lists at the rear for each album (no credits or catalogue numbers). It's nicely done, but the big game hunter goes to the Audio provided by a team of three Sound Engineers - the deeply experienced duo of DAN HERSCH and BILL INGLOT (long-time associates with Rhino) and DAVID SCHULTZ. Take a track like "Storm Windows" (his last album for Asylum) - it rises and falls like "The Last Resort" by The Eagles and needed clarity in the quiet passages and muscle for the big crescendo chorus - and it gets both. To the tunes...

Many will reach for the doped-up classics of "Illegal Smile", "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven No More" or the kicked-off Noah's Ark "Sweet Revenge" and the brill live name-check of "Dear Abby" for a bewildered giggle, but a box set like this allows you to soak up deep album cuts like the raw and lyrically astute "Pretty Good", the country-jaunt of the strangely sunny "Blue Umbrella" or the duo that end his superb stripped-back second LP - both "The Rocky Mountain Time" and his Acapella cover of the 1920's Gospel song "Diamonds In The Rough" impressing so much. You have to love a singer who tells you that Venus De Milo can have his arms when he goes even if his country-fied cover of Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell" stills feels like a mistake. 

The title track "Common Sense" offers us a fabulous threesome backing vocals crop of legend - J.D. Souther with Glenn Frey of The Eagles and Jackson Browne while the witty "Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" has Bonnie Raitt doing the cool b-vox. Glenn Frey also plays Guitar on "My Own Best Friend" while Producer and pal Steve Goodman does guitar on "Forbidden Jimmy" alongside Booker T & The MG's bassist Donald "Duck" Dunne. Diane Holmes puts in some lovely support vocals on the pretty "That's The Way That The World Goes Round" from "Bruised Orange", Mike Utley on Organ with Corky Siegal on Piano add loads to the title track of that underrated album and "Sabu Visits..." has an almost Tom Waits world-weary sadness about its hard-done-by characters. 

The "Pink Cadillac" album from 1979 is largely awful to me, that distorted guitar on "Saigon" where Prine barely seems able to hold a note and that cod Rock 'n' Roll palsy-walsy shit with Sun Records legend Billy Lee Riley on "No Name Girl". At least stuff like the shuffling "Cold War" over on Side 2 has something in it, but again his Rockabilly stab at "Let's Play House" sounds like a drug-addict was given the microphone. Howard Levy and Leo Le Blanc both put in some lovely Organ and Pedal Steel playing on the pretty "Down By The Side Of The Road" and "How Lucky" feels like the acoustic sparseness of the debut and in a good way. A patchy album ends however on the echoed Harmonica "Ubangi Stomp" and Asylum Records must have been wondering why they signed up for this copycat rendition any fool could do.  

After the debacle of the second Asylum album and with not even one cheap assed cover version in sight, his last set of originals for the label "Storm Windows" does a lot to reestablish faith in his songwriting prowess. Tracks like the witty "Living In The Future" and the longing in "Sleepy Eyed Boy" show his lyrical and musical chops had only taken a sabbatical the year prior. "All Night Blue" is a straight-up Country Rock tune - his band of players in John Burns on Guitars and Leo LeBlanc on Pedal Steel once again doing the classy-players business. Rocker "Baby Ruth" gets a muscular makeover - cool.And on it goes...

 

John Prine was lost to us in April 2020 aged 73 to a battle with Covid-19 that left him ravaged in his final year - something he didn't hide (maybe in order to raise awareness). His Irish wife Fiona Whelan (as per his wishes) spread half his ashes in the Green River in Kentucky. 

 

Rhino have done warm reissue compilations before, but there feels like an earnest effort with this John Prine one to honour his great storytelling ability. Float away on this one...