On Friday, Bruce Springsteen showed up at U2’s concert at Madison Square Garden to help out the band with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Then, they followed that up with a version of Ben E. King’s classic, “Stand By Me.”
The show was the final night of U2’s eight-show run at the Garden as part of their Innocence and Experience Tour, which will begin its second leg in Europe. So far, U2 has welcomed a number of guests on this tour, including Lady Gaga and Jimmy Fallon and the Roots. Below, check out Bono and Springsteen performing two great rock songs.
Reportedly, the power of the Boss and Bono were enough to get everyone to stand in the audience, including Bill and Hillary Clinton.
One of my favorite songs by John Prine is “Lake Marie,” which first appeared on Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings (1995). The song, which is also a favorite of Prine’s, tells a love story intertwined with history, legend, murder, and heartbreak. One may interpret the song in a number of ways, but John Prine based some of the images on real people and places.
“Lake Marie” The Song
The tale of the peaceful waters of “Lake Marie” can be divided into three segments. First, the song begins with a story about Native Americans along the Illinois-Wisconsin border discovering two white babies. Although it is unclear how the Native Americans learn the names of the two babies, they name their Twin Lakes after the two little girls. The smaller and less fair lake is named “Lake Marie” after the less fair baby.
In the second part of the song, the singer tells about falling in love with a woman at Lake Marie. Many years later, the two go to Canada to try to save their crumbling marriage.
The third part of the song tells of a crime scene, where police find two naked bodies, apparently by Lake Marie. The singer then brings this third part of the story back to his lost love: “All the love we shared between her and me was slammed / Slammed up against the banks of Old Lake Marie.”
Below, Prine performs “Lake Marie” in 2010 at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival.
What Inspired John Prine to Write “Lake Marie”?
There are in fact two lakes like in the song, Lake Marie and Lake Elizabeth. A John Prine fansite, the John Prine Shrine, explains how Prine came to write the song. While Prine was in Wisconsin for a show, a crew member told Prine a tale about the local Lake “Marie” (actually, it is “Lake Mary”). As the crew member told a mysterious tale about the lake, Prine decided he wanted to visit the lake. So he and the crew member drove twenty-five minutes to see the lake.
After seeing the lake, Prine and his brother visited a library to read stories about the lake. There, Prine discovered that Lake Marie and its sister lake, Lake Elizabeth, were named after two babies discovered by a Native American tribe.
From there, Prine began writing the song that began with the baby story. The Prine Shrine explains:
But after that [first verse], John went into some fictional story-telling about a marriage on the rocks, and a shadowy double murder that took place in the proximity of Lake Marie. “When I was done, it was exactly what I wanted. I guess the point of the song is that if the Indians hadn’t named the lakes after a couple of white girls, they would still be peaceful waters.” (Puckett 15)
What About the Dead Bodies?
And then there is the crime scene in the story. In an interview in No Depression, Prine explained that the dead bodies in the third part of the song were inspired in part by Chicago news footage he saw as a kid about a series of murders.
Regarding the bodies in the song, though, on various discussion sites, listeners debate the relationship between the story of the narrator and the double-murder at the end. Is the narrator one of the victims of the crime along with his lover (or former lover), or is the narrator the perpetrator of a murder-suicide? Or, is the narrator just someone watching about the murder on TV?
I lean toward the latter interpretation. It seems that the narrator is seeing the story on television. That explains why he is seeing it in black and white: “You know what blood looks like in a black and white video? / Shadows!”
The TV interpretation is consistent with Prine’s statements about the song. The crime scene at the lake seems to reflect on how the land had changed since the white people came and took the land from the Native Americans.
This TV interpretation also fits with another quote from Prine. He reportedly said that the reference to the TV coverage of the murders was not a particular murder. He knew it seemed like a sharp left turn in the song, “but when I got done with it, I kind of felt like it’s what the song needed right then.”
A Great Song
The love story and its struggles and its heartbreak, though, are what tie the song together and make it a classic, not to mention Prine’s wonderful emphasis on certain words and syllables as he talks through the lyrics. It is a brilliant song. Heck, it is Bob Dylan’s favorite John Prine song, which says a lot.
As Prine explained generally about his songs in a 1970 article by movie critic Roger Ebert about the then-young singer, “In my songs, I try to look through someone else’s eyes, and I want to give the audience a feeling more than a message.”
So enough with the analysis, and you should just enjoy the feeling here in a more recent version of “Lake Marie” on Sessions at West 54th, in a John Prine performance that one commenter called, “Arguably, the best 10 mins of music on You Tube.”
If you have not seen the 1985 movie Runaway Train, it will take you back to the time when action movies were about more than explosions. Even though there is plenty of action this film, there also is a lot more.
Runaway Train features one of Jon Voight’s greatest performances. And it also has a meaningful story that has something to say about life and freedom.
The movie opens in an Alaska prison, where Voight plays an inmate. The inmate, Manny, is despised by the prison’s warden. Another prisoner named Buck — who is played by a young Eric Roberts idolizes Manny.
When Manny makes a move to escape, Buck goes with him. Not long after getting out of prison, the two end up on a train, which as you may guess from the movie’s title, becomes a runaway train due to various circumstances.
Although that is the basic plot, there is a lot more going on in the story. Much of the best part of the movie is the interactions between the characters and what the story has to say about life, freedom, and death.
In many ways Runaway Train is an existential movie about choices we make, either dictated by luck or by our own choosing. If the movie had nothing else going for it, the movie is worth watching for the final haunting scene. Runaway Train also stars Rebecca De Mornay and was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky. One may surmise that some of the depth of the film came from the original version of the screenplay that was written by the great director Akira Kurosawa.
Kurosawa explored similar themes in his own movies, including in a much quieter way in the wonderful Ikuru (1952). The acting, especially by Voight, is also excellent, as both Voight and Roberts were nominated for Academy Awards for their roles.
Conclusion?
If you have never seen Runaway Train, you are in for a treat if you enjoy thoughtful movies. Although the movie features plenty of action, it does not have the myriad of explosions of modern movies. This movie is really about something. Runaway Train is one of the great existential action films of all time.
Other Reviews Because Why Should You Trust Me? On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has an 86% critics rating and a 77% audience rating. If you do not believe me about the movie, here are Robert Ebert, who loved the movie, and Gene Siskel, who did not, discussing Runaway Train.
{Missed Movies is our continuing series on good films you might have missed because they have not received the recognition and attention they deserve.}
What did you think of Runaway Train? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Kasey Chambers released her new album, Bittersweet (2015). The album, produced by Nick DiDia, features a range of styles, including rockers and alt-country, that touch on various topics, including love and spiritual themes. Allmusic finds the songs “unpretentiously intelligent” while dealing “with matters of the heart and soul with unrelenting honesty.”
On the title track, the Australian singer-songwriter is joined by Bernard Fanning (former lead singer of the Australian rock band Powderfinger) in a duet about love and regret: “And I could list a thousand things / That’d make me take you back again / But I don’t really need you half as much / As I did then.” The video highlights the poignancy of new love evolving into long-term heartbreak by beginning with two young people in the role of Chambers and Fanning. Check out the official video for “Bittersweet.”
This video of a live performance combines one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs with one of my favorite singers, Ryan Adams. On July 21, 2015 at the Sydney Opera House, Adams busted out an acoustic version of “Times Like These” as a tribute to Foo Fighters lead singer David Grohl, who has had some recent injuries while still being devoted to his music.
Earlier this year, Grohl announced he had broken his rib after performing at Sasquatch! Music Festival. He continued touring only to break his leg mid-set last month. Adams noted his admiration for Grohl, who even finished the concert where he broke his leg. And then Adams gave a moving acoustic rendition of “Times Like These.” Check out his cover of the song from the Foo Fighters 2002 album One by One.
What is your favorite cover of a Foo Fighters song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(1995). The song, which is also a favorite of Prine’s, tells a love story intertwined with history, legend, murder, and heartbreak. One may interpret the song in a number of ways, but John Prine based some of the images on real people and places.
(1997), the various artist collection 
(2001).
If you have not seen the 1985 movie Runaway Train, it will take you back to the time when action movies were about more than explosions. Even though there is plenty of action this film, there also is a lot more.
(2015). The album, produced by Nick DiDia, features a range of styles, including rockers and alt-country, that touch on various topics, including love and spiritual themes. 