John Prine’s Sam Stone There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes. Jesus Christ died for nothin’ I suppose. Little pitchers have big ears. Don’t stop to count the years. Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios. --John Prine, “Sam Stone” (1971) On the liner notes to John Prine’s self-titled debut, Kris Kristofferson writes about “the late-night morning” when Steve Goodman introduced him to the artist …showed first 75 words of 630 total…

…showed last 75 words of 630 total…just like the pictures of my short-haired brothers and I from childhood. To me, the song--with its old-timey Hammond organ arrangement--is a memory of a sad and distant childhood, of a time when kids my age never knew the fathers who went away seemingly whole, and either never returned or came back soulless, with “monkey’s on their backs” and “gold flowing in their veins.” Sweet songs, indeed, never last too long on broken radios.