Tag: Iris Dement

He’s got more balls than a big brass monkey
He’s a wacked out weirdo and a love bug junkie
Sly as a fox and crazy as a loon
Payday comes and he’s a howlin’ at the moon

There will be only one John Prine. He was down-to-earth and a wonderful songwriter. This song describes more couples than people may think. Both describe their marriage to each other in a different light.

I do have a second-hand John Prine story. A friend of mine named Chris went to see John Prine and Arlo Guthrie in the ’80s and met John in the parking lot after the concert. Prine was really talkative and asked Chris if he could boost his car off…which he did. Chris told me he was really down to earth and a genuinely nice guy.

He wrote this for a movie called Daddy and Them released in 2001. Prine is in the movie also…he plays Billy Bob Thorton’s brother and Andy Griffith is their dad. Prine talked about it and said that made him Opie’s stepbrother.

Iris Dement dueted with Prine on this song and fit the song perfectly. Prine developed cancer in 1998 in his neck…and after the operation, he wasn’t sure if he could sing again. After recording this song…everyone was happy because he still could do it. It was originally released in 1999 on the album In Spite Of Ourselves…and was released again when the movie came out in 2001.

That album was an album of duets. He thought that most people would turn him down but most agreed.  Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Connie Smith, Melba Montgomery, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, and Dolores Keane also appear. In Spite of Ourselves was the only original song on the album…the rest were covers.

The album peaked at #21 on the Billboard Country Charts and 197 on the Billboard 100. Critic Robert Christgau wrote: “… the costar is Iris DeMent, who kills on both the Bobby Braddock cornpone of “(We’re Not) The Jet Set” (rhymes with “Chevro-let set”) and the conflicted spouse-swapping of the impossible old George & Melba hit “Let’s Invite Them Over”—as well as Prine’s only new copyright, the title track, in which a husband and wife who love each other to death paint totally different pictures of their marriage.

In Spite of Ourselves

She don’t like her eggs all runny
She thinks crossin’ her legs is funny
She looks down her nose at money
She gets it on like the Easter Bunny
She’s my baby
I’m her honey
I’m never gonna let her go

He ain’t got laid in a month of Sundays
I caught him once and he was sniffin’ my undies
He ain’t too sharp but he gets things done
Drinks his beer like it’s oxygen
He’s my baby
And I’m his honey
Never gonna let him go

In spite of ourselves
We’ll end up a’sittin’ on a rainbow
Against all odds
Honey, we’re the big door prize
We’re gonna spite our noses
Right off of our faces
There won’t be nothin’ but big ol’ hearts
Dancin’ in our eyes

She thinks all my jokes are corny
Convict movies make her horny
She likes ketchup on her scrambled eggs
Swears like a sailor when shaves her legs
She takes a lickin’
And keeps on tickin’
I’m never gonna let her go

He’s got more balls than a big brass monkey
He’s a wacked out weirdo and a love bug junkie
Sly as a fox and crazy as a loon
Payday comes and he’s a howlin’ at the moon
He’s my baby
I don’t mean maybe
Never gonna let him go

In spite of ourselves
We’ll end up a’sittin’ on a rainbow
Against all odds
Honey, we’re the big door prize
We’re gonna spite our noses right off of our faces
There won’t be nothin’ but big ol’ hearts
Dancin’ in our eyes

In spite of ourselves
We’ll end up a’sittin’ on a rainbow
Against all odds
Honey, we’re the big door prize
We’re gonna spite our noses right off of our faces
There won’t be nothin’ but big ol’ hearts
Dancin’ in our eyes

There won’t be nothin’ but big ol’ hearts
Dancin’ in our eyes

In spite of ourselves

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