Track Listing

1. Everybody
2. Torch Singer
3. Souvenirs
4. Late John Garfield Blues
5. Sour Grapes
6. Billy the Bum
7. Frying Pan
8. Yes I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You
9. Take the Star Out of the Window
10. Great Compromise
11. Clocks and Spoons
12. Rocky Mountain Time
13. Diamonds in the Rough

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32758 in Music
• Released on: 1990-09-17
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
The fireworks that accompanied the appearance of John Prine's 1971 debut cast a long shadow over its deceptively modest follow-up.Diamonds in the Rough admittedly isn't as laden with contemporary folk standards in the making as its predecessor, but it stands with 1978's Bruised Orange as one of Prine's most unified collections. Working in an acoustic setting, the raw-voiced wordsmith explores a melancholy milieu with "The Torch Singer," "Souvenirs," and "Rocky Mountain Time." "Everybody" recounts a conversation with a down-to-earth Almighty while "Billy the Bum" and "Take the Star Out of the Window" focus respectively on a local character and a weary Vietnam vet. Those are all excellent songs, but Diamonds in the Rough's strength lies less in the tunes themselves than in how sympathetically they're performed and sequenced. --Steven Stolder

Amazon.com
The fireworks that accompanied the appearance of John Prine's 1971 debut cast a long shadow over its deceptively modest follow-up.Diamonds in the Rough admittedly isn't as laden with contemporary folk standards in the making as its predecessor, but it stands with 1978's Bruised Orange as one of Prine's most unified collections. Working in an acoustic setting, the raw-voiced wordsmith explores a melancholy milieu with "The Torch Singer," "Souvenirs," and "Rocky Mountain Time." "Everybody" recounts a conversation with a down-to-earth Almighty while "Billy the Bum" and "Take the Star Out of the Window" focus respectively on a local character and a weary Vietnam vet. Those are all excellent songs, but Diamonds in the Rough's strength lies less in the tunes themselves than in how sympathetically they're performed and sequenced. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Avoids sophomore jinx
Although not quite as powerful as his self-titled debut album, "Diamonds in the Rough" still manages to hold its own with its eclectic collection of tunes. Prine's voice sounds, to me, even more rough-hewn and whiskey-soaked, an extremely evocative instrument that conveys deep humor and sorrow in the same album.

For me, the poignancy of Prine's writing and performing is best on display in "Souvenirs." The idea of the singer looking back wistfully on what he has lost has been much worked and can be ruined by sentimentality. But Prine conveys a sense of real loss. After cataloging the items, he sings, "It took me years/To get those souvenirs/And I don't know how they slipped away from me." It's a lament for the passage of time and friends and relatives gone, not for the material things themselves.

There is finely crafted protest, as well, with "Take the Star Out of the Window," a comment on a soldier's innocence lost in war. While the unspoken reference is to Vietnam, with overtones of the My Lai massacre that stained America's misadventure there, Prine humanizes the tune and makes it universal ("Take the star out of the window/And let my conscience take a rest.")

As I noted, there is plenty of humor in the record as well, particularly in "I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You," a great sendup of the tried-and-true singer-crying-in-his-beer tune.

A couple of the songs don't work as well as others (the first album contained no weak songs, to my ears), but overall this is a strong effort, a release that grew on me with repeated listenings.

My Favorite Prine
I was a kid working graveyard in a gas station working my way through my freshman year of college when the first self-titled John Prine album was released. I still remember the rush when I first heard "Illegal Smile" playing over the station radio one night about midnight. Shortly after that, he showed up in the studio of my favorite radio station - I think it was KPPC - you old LA'ers will remember that one, and played "the Late John Garfield Blues live over the radio. The DJ was so blown away by the song that he asked John if he would play it again, and he did. After running out and getting the album ($3.00 for vinyl those days), and hearing it all the way through, I knew he was another great one like my other singer/songwriter idols Lennon, Dylan and Ochs. The second album - "Diamonds In the Rough" - was somehow even better. Not as slick, or even as deep, but incredibly organic and heartfelt. Even though his biggest hits are on other albums, if I could only keep one of his, it would be "Diamonds." Even though I am an old fart now, that listens mostly to jazz, I still love it and consider it an essential.

Classic John Prine--from spiritual to the absurd.
Rolling Stone ranked John Prine as one of the most influential songwriters of the 1970s, and this record is one of the reasons why. The more obvious antiwar songs are overshadowed by the simple faith that is constant theme throughout Prine's work. Diamonds in the Rough, the title song sung a capella, is the perfect vehicle for Prine's ragged voice. The his clever plays on words offer a humorous undertone to the bleak themes of Late John Garfield Blues and The Great Compromise. I have been listening to Prine since 1973 and never tire of this record.