My Heart’s in the Ice House: John Prine’s Bruised Orange

john prine bruised orange chain of sorrow One time on the streets of New Orleans I saw a street performer who had a dog who would retrieve donations from audience members. A person would hold out a bill while the performer played guitar and sang, and the dog took the cash in his mouth and dropped it in the guitar case.

Initially, we were attracted to the dog’s skills. But after awhile, I noticed that the talented street performer was only playing John Prine songs. I was impressed with his taste in music and willingness to play songs that most tourists may not recognize. I guess having a talented dog gives one a little artistic freedom.

“Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)”

One of my favorite John Prine songs is “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow).” It is a beautiful song about anger, frustration, and accepting what we cannot change. The song, which first appeared on Prine’s Bruised Orange (1978) album, provides a valuable lesson in its chorus.

For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter;
You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there,
Wrapped up in a trap of your very own chain of sorrow.

The True Story Behind “Bruised Orange”

A tragic true story inspired the opening tale in “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow).”

Like a long ago Sunday when I walked through the alley,
On a cold winter’s morning to a church house,
Just to shovel some snow.

I heard sirens on the train track howl naked gettin’ nuder,
An altar boy’s been hit by a local commuter,
Just from walking with his back turned
To the train that was coming so slow.

The John Prine Shrine website quotes Prine explaining the inspiration for the opening lines of the song.  One day he was driving to do his job shoveling snow at a church:

Turns out one of the altar boys on his way to the Catholic church was walking down the train tracks. God only knows where his mind was, but a local commuter train come from behind and they had to put him in bushel baskets – what was left. I saw a group of mothers standing near the accident, not knowing whose boys it was. When they finally identified the boy, the mother broke down, and the other mothers consoled her with a great sense of relief. This story is coupled with a shattered romance, juxtaposed with a loss of innocence: “My heart’s in the ice house/Come hill or come valley.” In the following video, he tells the story of the alter boy, followed by a video of him singing the song.

Why an “Orange”?

But why the “orange” in the title? The Prine Shrine website quotes from Clay Eals’ biography of Steve Goodman Facing the Music for an explanation. (p.511)

Prine explained that he used the word “orange” for the reason that “he liked the colors of autumn and Halloween, and he ate oranges ‘by the dozen’ as a child.”  He added, “‘It just came up as somethin’ that’s really sweet and delicate and gettin’ bruised just by bein’ mishandled,’ he says. In short, the orange symbolized the human heart.”

And that is the Story Behind the Song.

Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Sky is Deep Black: RIP Neil Armstrong

    first on the moon Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong, the first human to step on the moon, passed away on August 25, 2012 at the age of 82. After having traveled so far, Armstrong died in the same state where he was born, Ohio.

    Armstrong accomplished one of the great feats of the twentieth century with Apollo 11 landing on the moon.  The mission also included Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

    Choice for Apollo 11 and Famous Words

    Although it was not revealed at the time, NASA chose Armstrong for the honor of being the one to take the first human step on the moon that July 20, 1969 because his stoic and ego-less personality would make him a good heroic representative for NASA.

    Armstrong later explained that his famous words that accompanied his step off the ladder onto the moon’s surface at 10:56:15 p.m. Eastern time came to him only after he and Aldrin had landed on the moon. To this day there is still some debate about whether he misspoke or whether the transmission omitted a key word.

    What the world heard, and what was conveyed by reporters at the time, was, “That’s one small step for man, One giant leap for mankind.” Because “man” can also mean “mankind,” the correct quote would have been “one small step for [a] man.” Subsequent studies of the transmission seem to reveal that the reporters were right that the “a” was missing. Armstrong later explained that he wished history would remember the quote with the “a” in parenthesis.

    After Apollo 11

    Apollo 11 Insignia For someone with such an achievement, Armstrong lived mostly out of the public eye after the moon landing. After working at NASA for a few more years, he joined the engineering faculty at the University of Cincinnati, later resigning in 1979 to pursue a career in business.

    Armstrong did not say much publicly about his thoughts about the historic trip to the moon.  He believed he should not get so much attention when his trip to the moon was such a team effort.

    But in this BBC interview from 1970, Armstrong talks about the view from space and from the moon, describing the “deep black” sky.

    It this day of modern celebrity where so many people are famous for just being famous, it is amazing that someone with such an accomplishment could walk down the street in his later years without anyone recognizing him or approaching him. Well, unless he happened to be walking down the street next to a Kardashian.

    RIP Commander Armstrong.

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    Eddie Vedder Joins Tom Petty for “The Waiting”

    eddie vedder and tom petty
    We looked back at another Tom Petty song recently, so let us revisit another old Petty classic with a new lead singer. In Amsterdam recently, Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder joined Petty and the Heartbreakers on stage to sing “The Waiting.” Petty focuses on his guitar playing to let Vedder sing the 1981 song. Check it out.

    The performance is from 24 June 2012 at Music Hall.

    Who would you like to hear sing with Tom Petty? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Killing of “Two Good Men”

    Sacco and VanzettiOn August 23, 1927, Massachusetts executed Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolemeo Vanzetti. The two admitted anarchists were Italian immigrants executed for the 1921 murder of a person during an armed robbery of a shoe company paymaster.

    The Trial and Execution of Sacco and Vanzetti

    The fish-peddler and shoemaker had no prior criminal record when they were arrested for the murder.  But they were prosecuted during a period of anti-immigrant and anti-radical sentiment, and many aspects of their trial were unfair.

    The judge overseeing the proceedings saw the two men as “anarchist bastards,” but others rallied in support of the accused. At the time of their execution, protests were held at many places around the U.S.

    Many still believe to this day that the two men were innocent of the crime.  Also, there have been recent arguments that only Vanzetti was innocent. There is a Sacco and Vanzetti Commemoration Society that works to keep the case in the public eye, and there is an exhibit about the case at the courthouse in Massachusetts.

    Woody Guthrie and “Two Good Men”

    Many years after the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, folk-singer Woody Guthrie found some kinship in the plight of the two men. In the mid-1940s, he worked on a project of several songs about Sacco and Vanzetti to tell their story.

    One of the songs in the cycle is “Two Good Men.”

    Like Guthrie’s song about “Tom Joad,” which we discussed previously, “Two Good Men” is a story song.  “Two Good Men” focuses on the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. Although the song is not as complete and detailed as “Tom Joad,” it contains many details.

    Some of the details in the song include the names of the judge (Webster Thayer) and the people who prosecuted the two men: “I’ll tell you the prosecutors’ names,/ Katsman, Adams, Williams, Kane.”

    In addition to the details of the case, in “Two God Men” Guthrie also focuses on connecting the execution to the labor movement of his day:

    All you people ought to be like me,
    And work like Sacco and Vanzetti;
    And every day find some ways to fight
    On the union side for workers’ rights.

    Supposedly, Guthrie was unsatisfied with his cycle of songs about Sacco and Vanzetti. Eventually, he gave up on the project.

    Fortunately Guthrie’s songs about Sacco and Vanzetti were not lost.  The founder of Folkway Records Moe Asch, who had commissioned the songs, went ahead and released the unfinished product.

    Guthrie was probably right that “Two Good Men” and the other songs did not live up to his best work. I prefer folksinger Charlie King’s song about Sacco and Vanzetti with a similar name, “Two Good Arms.” But Guthrie also was right that we should continue to remember and fight against injustices.

    {Woody at 100 is our continuing series celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the birth of American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie on July 14, 1912. Check out our other posts on Guthrie and the Woody Guthrie Centennial too. }

    Photo via public domain.

    What do you think of “Two Good Men”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Magnavox Odyssey Video Game Released August 1972

    As a kid, I was lucky to get to play the first commercial home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey. The game is pretty primitive by today’s standards . . . .

    magnavox odyssey

    Magnavox Odyssey, the world’s first commercial home video game console, was released more than four decades ago in August 1972. The game console preceded Atari’s Pong consoles by three years.

    I remember as a kid getting Magnavox Odyssey for Christmas that year.  My sister and I spent hours playing it.

    It is funny now to think how primitive the game was compared to what we have today.  You had to tape the layout screens to your TV screen, otherwise it just looked like a few white dots on your screen.

    The table tennis and tennis games worked pretty well.  After you hit the “ball,” you then were able to control it. I mean you could control it as much as anything else. The paddles were controlled with one knob for vertical movement and one knob for horizontal movement. And there was a separate knob to control the “ball.”

    Oh, and there was no sound.  And you had to keep score in your head or on paper.

    Some of the other games did not work so well.  We never got the add-on rifle, but the games were fun to play.

    We never advanced to getting an Atari as many of my friends did.  It would be many years before I owned another video game system.  But in 1972, it was fun being on the cutting edge for a short time with the Magnavox Odyssey.

    For you kids out there who do not know how good you have it, check out this commercials for the Magnavox Odyssey.

    For even more details about the game system, including how it was hooked up to your TV in those days, this promotional video goes into more depth.

    Several websites have more detailed information about the history of the Magnavox Odyssey, such as on PongStory.com, GiantBomb, and RalphBaer.com (by the designer of the game).

    Finally, a video by the Angry Video Game Nerd does a good job of illustrating how you played several of the games on the Odyssey (but it is not for those who do not like swearing or poop humor).

    What was your first video game? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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