| Common Sense | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1975 | |||
| Recorded | ||||
| Genre | Folk, alt-country, Americana | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Steve Cropper | |||
| John Prine chronology | ||||
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Common Sense is the fourth album by American folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released in 1975.
Common Sense was produced by Steve Cropper and was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis and Larabee Studios in Los Angeles. The album features contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne and Steve Goodman. Bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, who played in Booker T and the MGs with Cropper, plays on "Forbidden Jimmy" and "Saddle in the Rain". The album marked the first time Prine recorded an album on Atlantic without producer Arif Mardin, and critics took note the change in the Prine sound. In the Great Days: The John Prine Anthology liner notes, Prine insists Sweet Revenge "was a really good record, but I didn't want to keep making the same album over and over, do another 'Dear Abby.' I was really reaching on Common Sense, trying to do some different things musically." According to Eddie Huffman's book John Prine: In Spite of Himself, the singer was “perfectly content with the record he cut in Memphis. But Cropper was moving into the rock ‘n’ roll big leagues as a producer, working on Rod Stewart's next record around the same time. He decided Prine's album needed fleshing out. Despite the singer's reservations, Cropper took the tapes to Los Angeles and added the kinds of overdubs Prine said he wanted to avoid...” [1]
For the sleeve to his 1988 release John Prine Live, Prine wrote that he began writing "Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" "in the summer of '73 during a tour of Colorado ski towns with Ramblin' Jack Elliott. What I had in mind was this girl who left home, did drugs, did religion, did husbands, and ended up doing diddley." In the Great Days anthology, Prine explains the idea behind the title track: "It's a song about the American dream only existing in the hearts and minds of immigrants until they live here long enough for democracy to make them cold, cynical, and indifferent, like all us native Americans. It don't make much sense." In the same essay, Prine reveals that "Saddle In The Rain" is "another song about friendships and relationships, and being let down. Ever since I can remember, when I was a small kid, anytime I had a friend who really let me down, it would affect me. The disappointment was always large with me. So I guess that's why that's a theme I go back to every once in a while." "Saddle In The Rain" is one of only two songs from Common Sense to appear on the 1976 Atlantic greatest hits compilation Prime Prine (the other being "Barbara Lewis").
Like “Mexican Home” on his previous album, “He Was in Heaven Before He Died” was partially inspired by Prine's father, who died in 1971, and Prine later reflected on the song's opening line about “a rainbow of babies draped over the graveyard”: “Where do you go from there? I consider it a challenge, though, to paint myself into a corner and then get out.” [1] The musical arrangements were more complex than they had been in the past, with Prine biographer Eddie Huffman noting that "Common Sense" used the common I-IV-V chord progression, though Prine "mixed it up with extra chords, as usual, stretching the music to fit the lyrics," while "Saddle in the Rain" "kept his sidemen on their toes, seeming to modulate between D and E minor," and "That Close to You" shifted from A to D in the bridge like a middle-period Beatles song. [1]
As with his previous two LPs, Prine ends the album with a cover song, this time Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell". Although primarily known as a folk singer-songwriter, Prine was just as captivated by rock and roll in his youth as he was by American folk and country music, telling Paul Zollo of Bluerailroad, "I was coming of age just as rock and roll was invented" and cites Berry as his favorite because "he told a story in less than three minutes. And he had a syllable for every beat...Some people stretch the words like a mask to fit the melody. Whereas guys who are really good lyricists, have a meter so that the melody is almost already there."
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [2] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | A− [3] |
Common Sense received mixed reviews. Writing for Allmusic, critic Jim Smith says of the album: "Unfortunately, the cloying production overpowers the lyrics and relegates them to an almost cursory notion, and it doesn't help that Prine hasn't come up with much new material of note. His wit is still sharp, but it no longer shines; consequently, Common Sense has the unfortunate distinction of being the worst of Prine's Atlantic albums." [2] Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was more enthusiastic: "Prine customarily strives for coherence, but this time he has purposely (and painfully) abjured it. He seems to regret this at one point--during a more or less cogent lament for a dead friend — but the decision was obviously unavoidable. It results in the most genuinely miserable album I've heard in years." [3]
The chilly critical response shook Prine and marked the end of his relationship with Atlantic Records, with the singer admitting to David Fricke in 1993: "After Common Sense it seemed like all there was to write about was what was going on on the road. Which was nothin'. The whole initial rush had left me...I had to take a good look at everything."
All songs written by John Prine, except as shown.
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | Billboard Pop Albums | 66 |
John Edward Prine was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. Widely cited as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation, Prine was known for his signature blend of humorous lyrics about love, life, and current events, often with elements of social commentary and satire, as well as sweet songs and melancholy ballads. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death.
Steven Lee Cropper, sometimes known as "The Colonel", is an American guitarist, songwriter and record producer. He is the guitarist of the Stax Records house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, which backed artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. He also acted as the producer of many of these records. He was later a member of the Blues Brothers band. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 36th on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, while he has won two Grammy Awards from his seven nominations.
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John Prine is the debut album by American country/folk singer-songwriter John Prine, issued by Atlantic Records in 1971. In 2012, the album was ranked number 452 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. It was later ranked number 149 in a revised version of the list published in 2020.
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Storm Windows is the seventh album by American folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released in 1980. It was his last release on a major label; he joined Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein to form Oh Boy Records, on which all his subsequent recordings were released.
Pink Cadillac is the sixth studio album by the American musician John Prine, released in 1979 on Asylum Records. The working title was Storm Windows, which Prine used for his next album.
Bruised Orange is the fifth album by American folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released on May 16, 1978.
Sweet Revenge is the third album by American country and folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released in 1973.
Diamonds in the Rough is the second studio album by American country-folk singer-songwriter John Prine, released in 1972.
The Missing Years is the 10th studio album by American folk musician John Prine, released in 1991 on Oh Boy Records. It won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In July 2003 the label released a deluxe vinyl reissue of the album with a bonus track called "The Third of July" from Prine's appearance on the PBS concert series Sessions at West 54th in 2001.
I Was Warned is a blues album by Robert Cray. It was released in April 1992 through Mercury Records. Like Cray’s previous album, it features his regular backing band playing alongside the Memphis Horns.
German Afternoons is the ninth album by American folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released in 1986.
John Prine Live is a live album by American folk singer and songwriter John Prine, released in 1988. It was originally released as a double-LP.
Live on Tour is a live album by American singer-songwriter John Prine, released in 1997. The album also include three studio tracks.
Great Days: The John Prine Anthology is a compilation album by American folk singer John Prine, released in 1993.
Southern Roots: Back Home in Memphis is an album by Jerry Lee Lewis released on Mercury Records in 1973.
