meeting john prine

Well, if Simon has posted this, there are probably about three on top of it that have just recently been posted. I know the little monkey is busy, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Today is Tuesday. It's about 3 in the morning, and I was just reading Nate's new column, so I thought that I would throw together another as well. Keeping up with the Joneses and all.

I just returned from the great town of Milwaukee three days ago. On the 21st of March, Corey from the communist corner, his dad, his dad's friend, his roommate from school and I made the 41/2 hour voyage to the city-o-beer to checked out a John Prine show. I'll tell you now, it was the single greatest experience of my entire life. I'd seen John three times before, but there is nothing like seeing your hero as often as you can. The show was unbelievable, like they always are.

Here is a version of the incident, as I explained it to the guy that does John's web page

my friends and i, who live in michigan, made the voyage to milwaukee to see john at the pabst theater. r.b. morris opened, and was found to be one heck of a singer and poet. the poetry reading that he did was phenomenal. morris also did an epic cover of the marty robbin's hit, "devil woman." intermission came and went, and soon, john took the stage. this was the fourth show that i've been to in two years, and i still can't quite explain the feeling that i get when i see john first hit the stage. at this show, the opening number was "spanish pipedream." my friends and i were discussing how it's hard for us to listen to this song on any recording anymore, because john does it so fast live, and we enjoy it more that way. it's such a crowd pumper.

john proceeded to do a bunch of crowd favorites, such as "the late john garfield blues," "grandpa was a carpenter," and "donald and lydia." what surprised me (pleasantly), was when he strode into "jesus: the missing years," which he performed flawlessly. about half way through the show, we saw that there were open seats in the fourth row!, so we traveled down for a better view. the rest of the concert was just as astounding as it was from the farther view.

john was excellent. after the show, we met jason, one of john's guitar players, and thanked him for an excellent show. the milwaukee security was kind of uptight, and made the stragglers wait for john to leave. we left, but were in no way disappointed. how could you be after a john prine performance? my friends and i went to a local cafe, after checking into the wyndham hotel, which was attached to the theater. we returned to find that my pal's dad had "john prine" scrawled on his shirt! we couldn't believe our eyes. after intense questioning, we were told to follow him outside. from across the road, we were able to see the back of john's head in the third floor window! the unbelievable part was that john's room was just TWO doors down from ours!!!

by the time we had all settled down, it was past two in the morning. and even though it was late, i knew deep down that i had come too far and waited too long to pass a potential opportunity like this up. so my two college buddies and i grabbed a camera and a pen, and tip-toed over to john's door. i cautiously and guiltily knocked, expecting to be turned away by a security guard or a band member. instead, JOHN OPENED THE DOOR!!! he smiled at us, and i nervously apologized for the time and inconvenience, and asked for a picture. john's response was merely, "do you have a camera?" it was awesome. we snapped photos, and he signed autographs for us. we mentioned where we had seen him before, and he told us that he'd be playing navy pier in chicago again the end of june for two nights...then, we let him return to his poker game, and we (way too excitedly) returned to our room and screamed and cried for about a half and hour.

i'm telling you, ben...it was the GREATEST single experience of my life. i am only 19, and have only been a DIEHARD fan for about two years, but was sold upon initial prine contact. i have EVERY cd recorded by john - know EVERY lyric, EVERY track title and what order they go in, posters, t-shirts, coffee mugs and wash-n-wear tattoos. i now have pics and signed ticket stubs. john chuckled and told us that we were good, and that if he needed help, he'd hire us...can't even imagine...my friend actually left a note asking if road help was needed...that made me laugh. anyway, we left a thank-you letter at the front desk for john, and included addresses and phone numbers...i could never thank him enough for how good it felt to meet my idol. john has pulled me through some rough stuff, and every time i listen to a cd, i have the satisfaction of saying that i MET john prine. ben, if you see john, thank him again for me. i just wish that at the next show, we could see and talk to john on a level that is less "stalking." are back-stage passes an option for navy pier shows? if so, i would appreciate one or two...or three or more...thanks so much again. i'll write again soon...there's got to be something that i left out.

What I left out is the fact that I did my high school term paper on John…obsessive, huh? I ended up getting an A+, so I'm not gonna say that I should've done it on anything else. In closing, there's nothing more to say than that it was THE best weekend of my entire life, and if someone shot me in the head right now, it wouldn't matter. I'm sure someone wants to…

See a Picture of all of us with John Prine

Download the John Prine Term Paper (26K)
Includes Microsoft Word 7 files within a PKZip file.
If you need it in any other version then let me know and i'll convert it to whatever you want.

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Brian Frain

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