Video Selection of the Week (June 4)

Rummaging among my souvenirs
	It was a busy week here at Joe Briggs Place, what with the class struggle on in full force at the boss's wife's place of employment, one friend's pre-listing fluffing ops, a devious plan to ruin a picturesque bit of post-Edwardian worker housing in a neighbouring ward, the AGM of the local branch of the Socialist International that the boss always goes to, and Wolverfest (the annual street festival put on by the church across the street). Thanks to a brilliant m.s. union organizer (no one else has been thanked so far) and the Chinese Mennonites, two of the events ended in triumph for the forces of light. We'll see about the others. I trust that's sufficiently obscure for everyone. And, dammit, you nervous nellies, no one ever comes here anyway. Look at the stats over at the left.
Anyway, the point to all this is that there was no CPAL selection leisure time this week like there was last week. So I did what I naturally do in such circumstances. I went rummaging through my souvenirs and came up with John Prine. In the video offering above, John Prine sings "Flag Decal" at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in 2004. While the sound here is not wonderful, there are great comments just before the last verse (it was 2004). I thought of John because there's a free busker who regularly shows up outside the Woodbine subway station to sing John Prine standards, like "Sam Stone." The group that plays Tuesday nights after softball at the Swan is also heavily reliant on John Prine. Last year, Kevin offered to let Leaguers come up on stage to sing their own favorites. Anyway, when Steve Earle was still dreaming of going to Greenwich Village to walk the same streets that Dylan did, John Prine was writing songs in Chicago that still knock my socks off. You can easily find "Flag Decal" and others from the original mother lode of Prine material on YouTube. There are a few early songs with some nice the video here and here. I've always liked "It's A Big Old Goofy World" and "That's the Way that the World Goes Round" from the missing years period. And to my surprise, there's even a current period. The duet with Iris DeMent, "In Spite of Ourselves" is brilliant. It's apparently from the soundtrack to a 2003 Billy Bob Thornton film that I'd never heard of. And there is a 2005 album, Fair and Square that won a Grammy that I'd never heard of either. Where have all the hoboes gone to? I've still got a fire on in the stove beside my cot and I'm glad I've still got one troubadour on my side.