John outlived his best pal by 26 years, and kept Goodman’s spirit alive always. He also knew and loved Steve Goodman, who died at only 36 years old in 1984. He knew Bud, Steve’s dad, so he could see into the song as if he wrote it himself. It was Goodman, and those in the know already know well, insisted Kris Kristofferson hear him, which led to Prine getting signed but Atlantic.īut of all the songs by Steve Goodman, this was one Prine performed more than any other. Usually it was Steve Goodman who sang John Prine’s songs, as he sang Prine’s praises to everyone and anyone who would listen. After knowing this, what could I write? It’s a dilemma never resolved.
It’s simple, funny, poignant and beautiful. Like many songwriters, when I first heard Steve’s song about his dad, I abandoned any idea of ever writing one of my own for my father. He then shrugged to the audience, as if to say, “Who knows what that is all about?” I asked my grandmother why she named him Bayer, cause there were no Bayers in the family. In concert he introduced it with a smile, saying, “This song is for Joseph Bayer Goodman, my father. “And for the first time since he died/late last night I cried/I wondered when I was gonna do that for my old man…” Yet it’s a necessary acceptance, though heartbreaking, before singing the inevitable song of grief, the one which never really ends. “ He was always trying to watch his weight/but his heart only made it to 58…”Īnd then the key line, which is about the songwriter, and about all humans having to somehow accept a loss so deep that it’s hard to fathom.
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Plus the sad and ironic humanity of father and son reflected: “And I’d give all I own to hear what he said when I wasn’t listening.” And Stevey also was human, and hardly a perfect son – admitting to tuning out his father – and the regret: Then the fights with Stevey and his brother. But also the history – time in the war, marrying mom, and then, becoming a dad. It’s got his dad’s real character – the corny jokes, the cheap cigar, his greatness at selling used cars. Written in 1977, it was on Steve’s album Say It In Private, produced by Joel Dorn. And never was there a more sweet and poignant song about a father than this one. Even when he’d look you in the eye and sell you a used car. But as Steve sings in the song, never was there a more charming guy on this planet. Steve Goodman’s dad didn’t work in a coal mine. Although this is as specific as it gets, with the true details of the life of his dad, known as Bud Goodman, a used car salesman in Chicago, it’s a song about all dads, and all children of parents who have dealt with the grief of losing their own dads. It’s also a perfect example of the songwriting wisdom that the more specific a song is, the more universal. More than forty years since it first emerged, it still is pure and perfect. When Stevie wrote a song, he wrote a song to be remembered. The son, the father, the love, the regret, the tune.
But more than anything, because it’s genuine. It’s a song long beloved as among the greatest ever written from a son to his dad. It was about America, and how swiftly it has changed.īut this one. It was about coal-mining in America, and the little town of Paradise where it happened. Prine had already written a great song about his own father, “Paradise.” It was a song that moved his father more than any he ever wrote. When it came to writing a song about your father, even John Prine knew that nobody ever did it better than his pal, the late Steve Goodman. I wondered when I was gonna do that for my old man…” “And for the first time since he died, late last night I cried, John Prine & Steve Goodman together forever.