Diamonds in the Rough (1972)
13 tracks, 39 minutes
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When I was a little boy, I really attached myself to John Prine’s version of ‘Diamonds in the Rough’ in a way I can’t really account for – it was one of my very favourite songs. Over the years, I stopped listening to it, and until a couple of years ago, I’d completely forgotten what it sounded like. Then, all those years later, I was making a present for my nephew – a mixtape-CD of my favourite music when I was his age – and I remembered this one. I listened to it back and…no, no recognition there, but damn, I had good taste as a little boy.
It’s such a simple song. It only has two verses, both sharing the same melody, with a plain little story about finding religion. It’s completely a cappella, just the three voices of Prine, his brother Dave and guitarist Steve Goodman. The harmonies are strong and powerful and only very slightly, humanly, imprecise and their voices, with their mix of registers, blend well. This performance of ‘Diamonds in the Rough’ is at once very blokey – in an old fashioned, stoic sort of way – and yet very full of emotion. It reminds me a bit of this video of Luke Kelly and the Dubliners singing ‘The Old Triangle’, in a way. The closeness of harmonies seems to reflect the closeness of the singers’ relationships, a way that men can show their vulnerability and love for each other in a society where that is usually frowned upon. It’s a style of singing that sounds perfect in a pub too, which is always nice.
The song is even more effective if you’re listening to the whole album. Coming right at the end of a whole load of jangly country music guitars and mandolins, the warmth and roundedness of human voices seems to resonate in the soul. Which is not to cast any sort of shade on the rest of the album either, because it’s really good. It begins on a strong note with a perky, upbeat song about shooting the shit with Jesus, and makes it sound like a jolly old time, but also contains an important and humanist message about being there for people. After the opener, there are a few more upbeat tunes and some introspective ones, but what I love about it is that whatever the mood, it is suffused with a heavy wistfulness, even a saudade if you want to go Portuguese about it. Among the standard love-and-loss lyrics are many observations of humble daily life, and there’s a great sadness in a lot of it, heightened by his inherited Kentucky accent. Listening to John Prine feels in some ways like reading a Great American Novel.
Considering that for a long time, I thought I didn’t like country music – or, more accurately that I’d just dismissed it out-of-hand – it was a sort of mini-revelation when I came to listen to this album for the first time in potentially 20 years. It was only relatively recently that I’d embraced country music and started to understand its place in the musical world, and to play Diamonds in the Rough was to realise that I’d actually ‘got it’ for a long time. There’s a lesson and/or challenge for you: go back and listen to the music that Little You liked. Trust their tastes – you may rediscover something great!
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