Lost Gem: "It's A Big Old Goofy World" - John Prine (1991)

"There's a big old goofy man dancing with a big old goofy girl."
~ John Prine ~

Look up the phrase...kool breeze...and you're liable to find a picture of John Prine.

For over 40 years (and all of my life) John has been a fixture in our household...his timeless songs spinning around every room.   A rare artist who taps into all of our everyday frailties without making us feel guilty of our shortcomings.

John Prine is an American treasure. A folk singer/songwriter with a catalog of music that inspires, sometimes amuses and always comforts. So familiar a voice, he's become almost a surrogate big brother for me as I go stumbling through adulthood.
So it's always a good thing when I get another opportunity to turn someone on to the kool breeze.

Lost Gem:--> "It's A Big Old Goofy World"...is a gentle and sweet conglomeration of cliched similes effortlessly tied together into a retrospect of life lessons learned.  Simple in nature but definitely not a simple song.

Have you heard this one?


Up in the morning
Work like a dog
Is better than sitting
Like a bump on a log
Mind all your manners
Be quiet as a mouse
Some day you'll own a home
That's as big as a house.

I know a fella
He eats like a horse
Knocks his old balls
Round the old golf course
You oughta see his wife
She's a cute little dish
She smokes like a chimney
And drinks like a fish.

There's a big old goofy man
Dancing with a big old goofy girl
Ooh baby
It's a big old goofy world.

Now Elvis had a woman
With a head like a rock
I wished I had a woman
That made my knees knock
She'd sing like an angel
And eat like a bird
And if I wrote a song
She'd know ever single word.

Kiss a little baby
Give the world a smile
If you take an inch
Give 'em back a mile
Cause if you lie like a rug
And you don't give a damn
You're never gonna be
As happy as a clam.

So I'm sitting in a hotel
Trying to write a song
My head is just as empty
As the day is long
Why it's clear as a bell
I should have gone to school
I'd be wise as an owl
Stead of stubborn as a mule.

John Prine Interview

Good stuff!

Casey Chambers
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