The Missing Years
Whether you’re familiar with John Prine or not, you should at least make yourself familiar with The Missing Years. Produced by the late Howie Epstein of the Heartbreakers, and including such special guests as Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt, and the Boss himself, the album is full of warm melodies, and funny & insightful lyrics. You can end the weekend just right by listening to this tune…
John Prine: The Sins of Memphisto (mp3)
Buy The Missing Years on eMusic or Amazon.
Bonus: Todd Snider: That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round (mp3)
2 Comments
Bo-bella
Ok, I was giving The Sins of Memphisto a try and I was liking guitar picking intro but I had no idea what the song was about because of the ‘interesting’ lyrics. I googled the lyrics and apparently John Prine also felt an explanation of this song was necessary, lol. Here’s what he had to say:
The Sins Of Memphisto notes
“I never do my homework until after I’m done writing. And at the time, I thought that Memphisto was the city in ancient Egypt that Memphis, Tennessee, was named after. But the city in Egypt is Memphis. I also got it confused with Mephisto, Mephistopheles, the devil. But I thought, that’s okay, it’s kind of like the devil going to Memphis, Tennessee. I wrote this one under pressure from my producer, Howie Epstein. We were 12 cuts into The Missing Years, and Howie says, “We need one or two more cuts.” And I went, “You’re kidding. From where? We’ve been working for nine months. I don’t have anything hiding on the shelf. You could take a autopsy, and you won’t find a song inside of me.” So I went and locked myself in a hotel room and went, “If he wants a song, he’ll get a song.” I tried to write one from as far in left field as I could and came up with “Memphisto.” I’m convinced I was just working the whole song to get around the punch line “exactly Odo, Quasimodo.” It’s just hip lingo, kind of like “No shit, Sherlock.” I’d had it for about four years, trying to work it into song.” ~John Prine
Pete
That’s good stuff.
Thanks Bo-Bella. Will you be my Ickmusic Research Assistant?