The Missing Years
The album recorded mostly in a Los Angeles guest bedroom, with Tom Petty, Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen.
John Prine, 1991
- Released
- 24 September 1991
- Studio
- Huh Sound Theater, Los Angeles, and The Money Pit, Nashville
- Label
- Oh Boy
- Producer
- Howie Epstein
It was his first studio album since German Afternoons in 1986. Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein were brainstorming producers at Oh Boy when Howie Epstein came up, and Prine said Epstein was in the office before Bunetta had hung up the phone. Roger Waters and Michael Kamen were also interested. Most of it was recorded at Huh Sound Theater, which was Epstein's guest bedroom in Los Angeles, with some at The Money Pit in Nashville. Prine said he cut most of it in a hallway three and a half feet wide.
Guests include Tom Petty on Picture Show, Phil Everly on You Got Gold, Bonnie Raitt on Unlonely and Bruce Springsteen on Take a Look at My Heart. Springsteen had met Prine at an Italian restaurant and offered to play on the record. The Sins of Memphisto was written in a hotel room after Epstein asked for one or two more songs, and the title comes from Jesus the Missing Years, which imagines the unrecorded years of Christ's life. It won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Entertainment Weekly gave it an A+. Fricke wrote that the songs equaled those on the debut and that this time the music industry and the public noticed.
Track listing
- Picture Show3:22
- All the Best3:28
- The Sins of Memphisto4:13
- Everybody Wants to Feel Like You3:09
- It's a Big Old Goofy World5:10
- I Want to Be with You Always3:01
- Daddy's Little Pumpkin2:41
- Take a Look at My Heart3:38
- Great Rain4:08
- Way Back Then3:39
- Unlonely4:35
- You Got Gold4:38
- Everything Is Cool2:46
- Jesus the Missing Years5:55
Personnel
- John Prine lead vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
- Howie Epstein guitar, bass, percussion, background vocals
- John Jorgenson guitar, bass, dobro, mandolin, reeds
- David Lindley guitar, bouzouki, fiddle
- Benmont Tench organ, piano, harmonium
- Mike Campbell bass, electric guitar
- Albert Lee electric guitar, piano, mandolin
- Phil Parlapiano accordion, mandolin, harmonium
- Mickey Raphael harmonica
- Tom Petty background vocals on Picture Show
- Phil Everly background vocals on You Got Gold
- Bonnie Raitt background vocals on Unlonely
- Bruce Springsteen background vocals on Take a Look at My Heart
More from John Prine
John Prine (1971), Diamonds in the Rough (1972), Sweet Revenge (1973), Common Sense (1975), Bruised Orange (1978), Pink Cadillac (1979), Aimless Love (1984), German Afternoons (1986), John Prine Live (1988), Fair & Square (2005), The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)
Sources
- The Missing Years (album), Wikipedia
- John Prine: The Missing Years, Discogs