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Grammy-winning singer John Prine, who wrote his early songs in his head while delivering mail and went on to become one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, has died due to complications from coronavirus.
Key points:
- John Prine came to prominence in the 1970s and his songs were covered dozens of times
- Bob Dylan called Prine one of his favourites, who wrote "beautiful songs"
- Prine survived cancer after multiple surgeries, including removing a lung
He was 73.
Prine's publicist confirmed the singer-songwriter died due to complications from COVID-19 at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, Nashville.
Prine was hospitalised on March 26 suffering from symptoms of COVID-19, according to his wife, Fiona Whelan Prine, who was also his manager.
"We join the world in mourning the passing of revered country and folk singer/songwriter John Prine," the Recording Academy, which gives out the Grammy Awards, said in a written statement.
"Widely lauded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, John's impact will continue to inspire musicians for years to come. We send our deepest condolences to his loved ones."
Early songs written walking the streets of Chicago
Born in Chicago on October 10, 1946, Prine's older brother taught him to play guitar at the age of 14.
After graduating from high school in suburban Maywood, Illinois, Prine worked as a mail carrier for five years, performing in Chicago clubs in the evenings at occasional "open mic" nights.
He would say later that some of his best-known early songs were written while he walked the streets of Chicago delivering mail.
"I likened the mail route to being in a library without any books," he told the Chicago Tribune in a 2010 interview.
"You just had time to be quiet and think, and that's where I would come up with a lot of songs. If the song was any good I could remember it later and write it down."
He was drafted into the US Army in 1966, and was stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War, before returning home to dedicate himself to music and establishing himself as a leading member of Chicago's folk revival scene.
Singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson fatefully saw Prine performing at the Earl of Old Town club, leading to Prine's signing with Atlantic Records and self-titled debut album, released in 1971.
That album, widely praised by critics, contained several songs that would become staples of Prine's catalogue.
They included Angel from Montgomery, about a woman wishing for deliverance from her unfulfilling life, Paradise, about a Kentucky town devastated by strip mining, and Sam Stone, chronicling the downward spiral of a drug-addicted Vietnam War veteran and containing the oft-quoted refrain: "There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes, Jesus Christ died for nothin' I suppose."
The songs have since been covered dozens of times by other artists.
Songwriting style compared to Bob Dylan
His early songwriting style earned comparisons with folk great Bob Dylan, who later called Prine one of his favourites.
"Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs," Dylan told the Huffington Post in 2009.
Prine released a string of albums in the 1970s, winning larger audiences and critical acclaim as his music stretched from folk to country to Americana, often infused with a sense of humour.
In the 1980s, fed up with the recording industry, he started his own label, Oh Boy Records, releasing albums under that imprint for the next several decades.
He won his first Grammy Award in 1991, Best Contemporary Folk Album, for The Missing Years.
He would win a second Grammy in the same category in 2005 for Fair and Square. In December 2019, the Recording Academy honoured him with a lifetime achievement award.
Prine survived squamous cell cancer in 1998, undergoing surgery to his neck and tongue that left his voice with an even deeper, gravelly tone.
In 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer in his left lung and had it removed.
Prine was able to find humour in his struggle with cancer, joking that it actually improved his voice. The same humour suffused much of his work, alongside its poignant commentary about the struggles and foibles of ordinary people.
"If I can make myself laugh about something I should be crying about, that's pretty good," he once said.
Reuters
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Topics: arts-and-entertainment, music, country, folk, diseases-and-disorders, health, covid-19, united-states
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