Recently, we experienced the loss of two gifted, singer-songwriters of somewhat different styles and talents; the two in their own way and through their own routes reached out to our minds and hearts and spirits. Bill Withers worked as an aircraft mechanic before becoming a singer-songwriter, while John Prine was a mailman as he started his path to his songwriting and singing career. Both seemed to have gathered their passions, their power, and their unique talent from their previous careers.
I had the pure luck and privilege of seeing Bill Withers in DC on his debut tour in the early 70s; I was there as a part-time rock critic (who was a mild-manner lawyer by day, and by night a rock enthusiast). He seemed to communicate the vulnerability that we each felt in our respective roles, but he had a rare quality through the power of his voice and words that made a very strong first and lasting impression. His “Lean on Me” was a spiritual lead in, anchor, and title to the namesake movie about my high school in Paterson NJ. His songs had the easy power of anthems. it has become an anthem for health workers and our current times of mutual reliance and dedication.
His family described him as “A solitary man with a heart driven to connect to the world at large, with his poetry and his music, he spoke honestly to people and connected them to each other.” This became very clear during these weeks of isolation and connectedness.
John Prine, has a very special gift of storytelling that broke through to tell us in a special way about the loneliness and exclusions of our modern day every day life. He sent through his special deliveries, the personal packages of special connection to all of us, breaking through the walls of our comfort zone. His words too seem to have very special meanings especially at these times of challenge. He touches on the loneliness that we all experience in isolation and we now are all his characters in his stories of “Hello in There” and “Angel from Montgomery” and so many other tales of our times.
In a recent obituary, a writer related that “[a]s a songwriter, Prine was admired by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and others, known for his ability to mine seemingly ordinary experiences — he wrote many of his classics as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois — for revelatory songs that covered the full spectrum of the human experience. There’s “Hello in There,” about the devastating loneliness of an elderly couple; “Sam Stone,” a portrait of a drug-addicted Vietnam soldier suffering from PTSD; and “Paradise,” an ode to his parents’ strip-mined hometown of Paradise, Kentucky, which became an environmental anthem. Prine tackled these subjects with empathy and humor, with an eye for “the in-between spaces,” the moments people don’t talk about….”
Each in their special way touched our lives with warmth, spirit, and wonderful song. We will miss them, but we will always have them with us.
