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"The Great Compromise" | |
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Single by John Prine | |
from the album Diamonds in the Rough | |
Released | 1971 |
Genre | Folk, Anti-war, Protest song |
Label | Atlantic Records |
Songwriter(s) | John Prine |
The Great Compromise is a song written and performed by John Prine. [1] The song was included on Prine's album Diamonds in the Rough which was released by Atlantic Records in 1972. It is an anti-war song and a protest song. Its theme is the disillusionment of the country during the Vietnam War era. In the liner notes to his 1993 anthology Great Days , Prine writes of this song, "The idea I had in mind was that America was this girl you used to take to drive-in movies. And then when you went to get some popcorn, she turned around and screwed some guy in foreign sports car. I really love America. I just don't know how to get there anymore."
In 2011, Oh Boy Records released 1970 [2] recordings of Prine singing “The Great Compromise” on Singing Mailman Delivers. Before singing the song he says, “This is a song that Francis Scott Key and me wrote not too long ago. He writes political songs (you know), I write love songs. So we got together and wrote a song....It’s a hate song to a woman I love. It’s about a kid who went out to find America, and he found her in a bar room, drinking-she was feeling bad. So he felt sorry for her and asked her out to the drive-in.” [3]
The song was described as "Dylan-esque" in an obituary for Prine. [4]
Chorus:
'I used to sleep at the foot of old glory
And awake in the dawn's early light
But much to my surprise
When I opened my eyes
I was a victim of the great compromise'
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