John Prine’s five favourite love songs: “She’s my baby, I’m her honey”
It could be argued that a good love song is the pinnacle of artistry. Think about it for a second; every feeling in the world is a variation of love. Longing is the lust for love; heartbreak is the loss of love, and even hatred is the evil twin of the feeling. When it comes to creating music, films or art, that drive is born out of love. So, as that one emotion rules over everything, the ability to articulate it perfectly is a talent at its finest, and John Prine had that in abundance.
Prine’s country-folk takes on the topic have captured hearts for decades now. There’s something about his lyricism that seemed able to bottle the realities of the emotion, embuing his songs with a casualness or humour that reflects the day-to-day experience of it.
On ‘In Spite Of Ourselves’, he rolled from daily gripes and little annoyances about his partner, into the grand and adoring sentiment of “She’s my baby, I’m her honey / I’m never gonna let her go.” On his anthemic hit ‘Angel From Montgomery’, he stepped it up a notch for his own play on the sentiment that love is all you need as he calls out for the feeling, singing, “Just give me one thing / That I can hold on to / To believe in this livin’”.
Between these two places, the simple and the grand, lies the key to a perfect love song. And as Prine shared a list of his all-time favourite love songs on Valentine’s Day in 2016 on Instagram, it’s easy to see who passed down the formula to him. As a mix of tracks from some of the all-time greats of the genre, Prine clearly was raised on a hearty education of love songs.
First up is Elvis Presley’s opus on adoration. The simply titled ‘Love Me’ is one of his most crooning and desperate tracks, bottling the feeling of total desire as he begs simply, “Treat me like a fool / Treat me mean and cruel / But love me”. The track is a masterclass in portraying the tricky feeling through the simplest, most to-the-point lyricism. It’s full of feeling without being too flowery, which is clearly a lesson Prine learnt well. He also picked out Elvis’ ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You’, respecting The King as the laureate of love songs.
He also picks a track from Buddy Holly, another favourite crooner, about the feeling. ‘True Love Ways’ is similar to ‘Love Me’ as it focuses on total, wholesome adoration, but much like Prine’s own love songs, this track mixes the feeling in with more relatable day-to-day images, seeing love as a thing to live within rather than just this mythical place to reach.
Prine seemed to have a real admiration for the love songs of the 1950s as he dedicated two slots to the decade. The Duprees’ doo-wop classic ‘You Belong To Me’ appears as a favourite. That track ties him to another favourite, as ‘50s singer Jo Stafford also sang the track. But from Stafford, Prine picks out the heart-aching track ‘No Other Love’, a lyrical ode that toes the line between love and heartbreak with a bittersweet edge to it.
While Prine didn’t pick any country songs, that simply proves that the feeling of love and the skill of articulating it surpasses all genre boundaries as one of the most universal feelings and sentiments there is. Whether sung with an acoustic guitar and a folk twang or crooner over an orchestra, the fluttering feeling in your heart stays the same when it hits home.