John Prine kicks every kind of ass.

It just shows you what a songwriting genuis John Prine is, that he can so easily write from a woman's perspective.

I've heard his health hasn't been so good these last few years. I hope we still have him around for a while.

I first heard this song at the perfect time. Wanting to break up with my boyfriend, not sure why. Listened to this a hundred times, singing along, while trying on every outfit in my girlfriend's thrift-store costumery, and then I knew.

Bonnie Raitt's version of this is absolutely beautiful & haunting - I knew it was by John Prine but hadn't ever heard him sing it. Neat.

Actually, there's a live version of this by Dave Matthews on peer to peer networks that's pretty good.

On the other hand, isn't this song about a million years old? I mean, did you just hear it for the first time or something?

This band called the Black River Mudskippers does an awesome version of this song. Okay, it's my band. And we haven't rehearsed in six months. But there were a few times where we totally kicked ass on that song.

Bonnie Raitt's version of "Angel From Montgomery" drives me nuts. She transposes the "If dreams were lightning / and thunder were desire" lines. You don't fuck with John Prine's lyrics. You just don't.

i saw him at the fifth avenue theatre in '97 or '98 and it was one of best concerts i've ever seen. and i bought the official john prine flyswatter that has "There's flies in the kitchen I can hear 'em there buzzing" printed on it.

Transposed lyric or not, Bonnie's version is the best.

I hear Bonnie Raitt on the Muzak and wonder why anyone considers her an important musician. Then someone plays 'Angel from Montgomery' and I know again. Thanks and God Bless You to John Prine.

I've heard this song a million times. My wife loves it, but I never really paid a whole lot of attention to it. I regret that now. I read those lyrics there and almost cried. That is the most beautiful and sad thing. John Prine should get a medal or something.

jjjj

Having written about Zach Rockhill's work in some depth I have to admit that this aspect of his practice eluded me. I was aware that there was a tie to architecture (http://www.rockhillandassociates.com/) and that that tie was, in part, a fraught and ambivalent relationship to some of the more heroic aspects of modernism (utopian claims for the promise of architectural space). His choice of the classic Sears and Roebuck kit house circa 1916 as the source image for 'If Dreams were Lightning’ seemed to me a direct reference to Victor Fleming’s choice to represent Kansas in 1939 - not a John Prine song – ‘this old house would have burned.’

Knowing that it is a John Prine song, written from the perspective of a woman offers a strange second tier of information to the video – particularly as, yet again in Rockhill’s work, there is the posing of a question about the nature of desire (his other obsession seems to be Tarkovsky’s ‘Stalker’). ‘If dreams were lightning and thunder were desire’- perhaps the video propose what might happen if we could physically see something concealed and internal made manifest; in this case as a storm system (thunder, lightning), but might as well include oz, architecture, a woman’s meditation on the past, years flowing past, houses burning.

Kalakalot: "You don't fuck with John Prine's lyrics. You just don't."

I admire you. Consider this a virtual handshake, friend.

Kalakalot: "You don't fuck with John Prine's lyrics. You just don't."

I admire you. Consider this a virtual handshake, friend.