John Prine

In Spite of Himself

By: Eddie Huffman

Narrated by: Nick Sullivan

Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's Summary

With a range that spans the lyrical, heartfelt songs "Angel from Montgomery", "Sam Stone", and "Paradise" to the classic country music parody "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", John Prine is a songwriter’s songwriter. Across five decades, Prine has created critically acclaimed albums - John Prine (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time), Bruised Orange, and The Missing Years - and earned many honors, including two Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for Songwriting from the Americana Music Association, and induction into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. His songs have been covered by scores of artists, from Johnny Cash and Miranda Lambert to Bette Midler and 10,000 Maniacs, and have influenced everyone from Roger McGuinn to Kacey Musgraves. Hailed in his early years as the "new Dylan", Prine still counts Bob Dylan among his most enthusiastic fans.

In John Prine, Eddie Huffman traces the long arc of Prine’s musical career, beginning with his early, seemingly effortless successes, which led paradoxically not to stardom but to a rich and varied career writing songs that other people have made famous. He recounts the stories, many of them humorous, behind Prine’s best-known songs and discusses all of Prine’s albums as he explores the brilliant records and the ill-advised side trips, the underappreciated gems and the hard-earned comebacks that led Prine to found his own successful record label, Oh Boy Records. This thorough, entertaining treatment gives John Prine his due as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation.

©2015 Eddie Huffman (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Boring...tells us nothing

John Prine story is nothing short of compelling, yet this book manages to provide few details of his interesting life in music. The vast majority of what is written here could be gotten from the liner notes of any of Prine's albums. Such a book is going to be read by people who have loved and followed Prine's work for 5 decades, yet the book consists mostly of reading to us the lyrics of his songs...WHICH WE KNOW BY HEART! This offered nothing of interest on a great American song writer, whose life story is as compelling as his music.

Disappointing for Fans

If you're looking for the insights and stories of adventure on how John Prine came to be the jewel we know and love, walk away now. The narrator's tone reads like droning liner notes from a Door-to-door salesman, or at best, a man who's never had his nose bloodied in a bar fight. Endlessly, the listener is assaulted with a barrage of banal quotes from 3rd parties and listing statistics/song titles so often, your mind wanders, eventually turning to boredom, or worse, anger. Perhaps the greatest disappointment is that the kind of storytelling delivered here, (if there's any) is the polar opposite of the kind that Mr. Prine delivers. Don't waste your money and time.

A Definitive Collection of Every Prine Interview

It's pretty obvious the author has compiled every interview in existence to write this book and has not conducted his own interviews with Prine.
The narrator has an excellent radio voice but I do not think it's suitable for narrating a book. He is way too upbeat at inappropriate times.

Worst book I have ever listen to

This book is not a biography of John Prine. Rather it is a retelling of the John Prine concerts the author has been to. The reading is atrocious. There is no inflection, no emphasis where there should be, and no real connection with John Prine or the audience

Good but…

The author was hamstrung in writing this biography when Prine and company declined to work with him.

He does a great job of using as much publicly available material as possible to tell his story, but it does feel like there’s much more there on a personal level.

I really enjoyed learning more about every album and so many songs. And it led me to listen to his entire discography as I read along. But I do hope someone can write a more personal account one day.

Tedious, but hey, it’s John Prine!

I hope someone writes a real biography of John Prine soon. This is a plodding list of events, and a tedious reading of John’s quotes complete with attribution of each author and publication. Does not do justice to a man with so much heart, insight, and brilliance.

A Captivating Journey!!!

A great tribute and a well documented story.
A must read for all music lovers

Requires No Embellishment

Good story about a great songwriter and performer. John Prine was a most interesting man and I enjoyed his life story, but felt the narration was a bit over the top and detracted from it. A less theatrical read would have suited me. It was as if the narrator was trying to be too cutsie, like he thought the subject matter demanded it. Overall I thought the book was well done, just kept wishing for a different narrator.

Fantastic Chronological Ride Through Prine’s Life & Career

This book gave me exactly what I was craving—a deep dive into each Prine record and the circumstances around the making of it. I enjoyed learning the details record by record.

The narration could have been a little better.

Rip John

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