Search - John Prine :: German Afternoon

Not His Best But Contains Bright spots

07/29/1999

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I am a fan of Prine. I own all the discs. I've seen him a number of times. This album is good - just not as good as some of his others. I don't hear a connection between Prine and the album. Most times it sounds too glossed over and produced. The first three tracks are fine. "Linda Goes to Mars" and "Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian" are very good. "I Just Want to Dance With You" (recently covered by George Strait) is o.k. but lacks something. "Bad Boy" may well be the best song on the album with lyrics like "I got a way of / Fallin' in love / With angels / That don't shove / You into thinking / That you are committing a sin, / I've been a bad boy again" The version of Prine's own classic "Paradise" at the end of tha album is not the best recording of the song and leaves me wondering why it was included. If you are a fan - get it. If not, you would be better served by trying some of his better albums like "John Prine" , "Common Sense" , "sweet Revenge" or "The Missing Years"."

The 'O Henry' of music

01/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although some of the songs were co-written, there is no doubt that 'German Afternoons' is unmistakably John Prine. His are short stories set to music...like O Henry, there are the twists of phrase, the surprise choruses....the thumbnails of funny and sad lives told by a confirmed optimist. With A.P. Carter's 'Lulu Walls', Prine reaffirms the roots that influence not only his phrasing, but also his upbeat and melodic guitar. As a 20th-century man, he is bewildered by women in "Linda Goes To Mars", and loves them in "Lets Talk Dirty in Hawaiian". The latin-flavored 'I Just Want To Dance With You' makes you want to do just that. And in "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness", possibly the capstone of the album, he is surprised by, yet seemingly resigned to, a love gone wrong. There is something strikingly different about a John Prine song. When you are listening to it, it seems to say so little. And when you are done listening, you are confounded. Because when you start to think about what you have just heard, you know you have heard a gem."

His best, in my book

"Ginger Peach" | New Hampshire | 01/14/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my all-time favorite John Prine album, and I'm a long-time fan. How can you top a line like "You've broken the speed of the sound of loneliness"? The backups are just right for these songs, too. Listen through headphones to get all the subtleties. Like another reviewer, at first I prefered other takes on Paradise, but now I think I like this one at least as well."