"Jesus, the Missing Years" and "Lake Marie"

Two of the strangest, yet most beautiful John Prine songs ever written

Trying to come up with some semblance of ranking for Prine’s albums was difficult enough. There’s no way I’m going to try it with songs.

There are too many great ones. And they are all great for so many reasons. And I keep stumbling over ones that I didn’t know very well previously that hit me in such a different way that I say to myself, “How am I just discovering this?”

In short, it would be an impossible task and I’d immediately regret it. I’m not putting myself through that sort of mental anguish!

Instead I’d like to focus on two favorites that come out of what one might consider “later period Prine”.

They are similar in one major way. They both employ spoken word verses and circle back to a tuneful refrain. The form of “Jesus, the Missing Years” and “Lake Marie” is nearly identical, though the songs themselves differ quite greatly.

But both pull you along on an epic ride. You don’t always know where you’re heading and why you’re heading there, but John’s storytelling and wit make the journey irresistible.

“Jesus, the Missing Years” is a modernized, slightly comedic interpretation of what Jesus may have been up to in those years that aren’t mentioned in The Bible. It’s light, but there’s also a sadness to it and a tragic undertone to it as well.

“Lake Marie” seems to tell multiple stories at once and could very well be interpreted as the fever dream of one man who is grappling with the difficulties of divorce. There’s something tragic and weird at work. It makes as much sense as a David Lynch movie, but still you feel like you understand what he’s trying to tell you somehow and either way you can’t turn away.

Both songs are sort of strange. Both songs are sort of surreal. “Jesus, the Missing Years” is a bit more straight forward, yet I have no idea what the refrain means:

Charley bought some popcorn

Billy bought a car

Someone almost bought the farm

But they didn't go that far

Things shut down at midnight

At least around here they do

Cause we all reside down the block

Inside at ....23 skidoo.

Beyond the odd chorus, the verses are packed with clever line after clever line telling the story of a young man of the ‘50s and ‘60s trying to find his way. It name drops, “Rebel Without a Cause”, The Beatles, and The Stones. It talks about having no money and getting in trouble with the cops. It talks about moving around and experiencing life.

Beyond the comedy of it all, there’s a message here in John imagining Jesus as a regular kid who builds empathy through experiencing the world one place at a time. That is, after all, one way empathy is built.

And he realizes through his travels that the world is broken, so he goes home to become…well…Jesus. Maybe the missing years were just a diversion from what he knew his real mission was. Maybe it was some joyful time spent in the real world while he could, since he knew his fate all along.

He said "whatcha gonna be when you grow up? "

Jesus said "god"

Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?

I'm a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood

They're gonna kill me mama. they don't like me bud.

So jesus went to heaven and he went there awful quick

All them people killed him and he wasn't even sick

It’s here we realize that this isn’t purely a fun little romp of a song. It imagines Jesus, the regular kid who fell in love with the world and all the kicks to be found within it, as a tragic character in his own fated story. That last line about all the people killed him and he wasn’t even sick…that gets me every time. Even though I can’t say I completely understand what it means if I think about it too hard.

I could write down every favorite line of mine, but you the reader are better served if you just watch a performance of it and delight in the mastery of it all yourself.

And “Lake Marie”? “Lake Marie” was a crowd favorite at John’s live sets, and for good reason. Before I get into some of my thoughts, you should watch it. I’m going to as well. Let’s reconvene in about 10 minutes to chat about it, shall we?

That outro is fantastic. It’s not difficult to play those chords, and there are only three musicians up on that stage, but somehow they turn it into something positively anthemic. And John’s leg bobbing is all old-school rock and roll. I’m telling you. Like I said in one of my earlier posts, he would have been a rockabilly legend had he been born in a different time.

The song centers around “peaceful waters”, which is somewhat ironic if you consider it could be someone who is trying to figure out what went wrong with his relationship, a process that is anything but peaceful. But somehow it’s Lake Marie, one of the twin lakes on the Illinois/Wisconsin border named by the native people after one of two twin white girls they discovered, as the story tells it, that he romanticizes or maybe curses at this point. But the song comes back to those peaceful waters.

It starts with the legend of the twin lakes, the more prominent of them being named after the fair Marie, and the smaller lake named after the slighter, more fragile Elizabeth. It is then the tale of two stories. One where the wind is blowing and the sausages are sizzling by lovely Lake Marie and the other where they are up in Canada by a different lake, “trying to save their marriage or catch a few fish…whatever was easier”.

And then comes the murder part of the song. Well, that took a turn. Two women are found badly disfigured in a forest preserve, and the narrator watches the black and white footage on the 6 o’clock news. And here’s one of the most quoted lines and also sung along lines during a Prine show:

You know what blood looks like in a black and white video?

Shadows, Shadows that's exactly what it looks like

Well, the sing along part was actually only the second, “Shadows”, which was shouted by John and in turn often shouted by members of the audience too. People liked to do the “sizzling” part too. There are a lot of quotable lines in it.

Are the murdered women somehow related to the story of the twin babies found years before that the lakes were named after? How does it relate to the story of this man and his marriage? Does it relate or is it just a surrealistic leap in the story of the peaceful waters?

I don’t really know and I think that’s one of the reasons I’m so compelled by the song. There’s a story to it and there’s not a story to it. That’s kind of what makes it Lynchian, which if you’re into that sort of thing, can be a thrilling way to experience a song. If you’re not into David Lynch oddness, you might be slightly frustrated by the song. I’m not sure how you could be, but if you’re looking for a song with a clear plot line, you’re not going to get it with this.

But if you like imagery. If you like connecting the dots yourself. If you like uncertainty and uneasiness in your art, I’m not sure how you can’t love, “Lake Marie”.

I’m going to say it. It might be my favorite Prine song.

Why am I doing this to myself? I take it back. It is in a several way tie for my favorite Prine song.

Shadows, sausages grilling, “Louie Louie”, fishing trips, Native American lore, brutal murder, and peaceful waters. That’s a lot in one song. No wonder why it needed a long outro. It’s a lot to unpack and process, so I for one think the jam at the end helps.

But I’ve talked about it enough. We’ve got one more day of Prine writing to go. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. But for now…

Ahh baby! We gotta go now