Just to piggyback on your take that his songs usually 'twist' towards the end, one of the things I noticed in the performance was how the audience laughed heartily at his lyrics in the beginning of the song, but by the end it's almost like they realized how deep and poignantly sad they actually were. I, too, really love how he was never afraid to "go there", as they say. A true American treasure.
All I can figure out for sure is that Jesus appears to have done a lot in those missing years. Thanks much to Ryan from Odessa and you, Don, for presenting this song for my listening pleasure. (Perhaps Jesus had later incarnations and did all this, which actually occurred simultaniously in conjunction with that other time period.)
There is a video you can find online where John Prine and Sturgill Simpson are being interviewed for some TV show thing. At one point, they discuss the song "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" - particularly the line about the "land of the wind chill factor". The interviewer engages in a bit of philosophy - "well, aren't all songs really about the songwriter" blah blah blah, and Prine says he used it because he needed something to rhyme with "child actor". Sturgill Simpson gets a kind of confused look on his face, and he says "It is beginning to occur to me that maybe I've been over-thinking this whole thing..." And I think this dude is definitely over-thinking The Missing Years.
There's a book titled - The Gospel According to Biff. The premise is Biff was Jesus childhood best friend. Similar to the song its an interesting entertaining read.
He book-ended the song with the "known" story and added what he would liked to have happened. Maybe pointing out that that's what everybody does, really. Prine basically made him a hippie. The mention of Rebel Without a Cause is interesting as well.
![John Prine -- 6 O'Clock News [REACTION/GIFT REQUEST]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RFOUEuwHZG0/mqdefault.jpg)
The old back man was an apostle, human corkscrew, the wine is his blood
Just to piggyback on your take that his songs usually 'twist' towards the end, one of the things I noticed in the performance was how the audience laughed heartily at his lyrics in the beginning of the song, but by the end it's almost like they realized how deep and poignantly sad they actually were. I, too, really love how he was never afraid to "go there", as they say. A true American treasure.
All I can figure out for sure is that Jesus appears to have done a lot in those missing years. Thanks much to Ryan from Odessa and you, Don, for presenting this song for my listening pleasure. (Perhaps Jesus had later incarnations and did all this, which actually occurred simultaniously in conjunction with that other time period.)
There is a video you can find online where John Prine and Sturgill Simpson are being interviewed for some TV show thing. At one point, they discuss the song "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" - particularly the line about the "land of the wind chill factor". The interviewer engages in a bit of philosophy - "well, aren't all songs really about the songwriter" blah blah blah, and Prine says he used it because he needed something to rhyme with "child actor". Sturgill Simpson gets a kind of confused look on his face, and he says "It is beginning to occur to me that maybe I've been over-thinking this whole thing..."
And I think this dude is definitely over-thinking The Missing Years.
There's a book titled - The Gospel According to Biff. The premise is Biff was Jesus childhood best friend.
Similar to the song its an interesting entertaining read.
He book-ended the song with the "known" story and added what he would liked to have happened. Maybe pointing out that that's what everybody does, really. Prine basically made him a hippie. The mention of Rebel Without a Cause is interesting as well.