Remember When Miranda Lambert Covered a John Prine Classic?
John Prine was one of the most gifted songwriters of his generation, and although he didn't score a lot of chart hits himself, a number of other more mainstream artists recorded his songs over the years. One of them was Miranda Lambert, who recorded a Prine classic on one of her most important albums, 2009's Revolution.
Lambert writes or co-writes the majority of her own songs, but she gave a nod to Prine on "That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round," a song that he wrote and recorded for his fifth album, 1978's Bruised Orange. The song features Prine's customary juxtaposition of pathos and humor as he relates a laundry list of woes, reflecting in the chorus, "That's the way that the world goes 'round / You're up one day and the next you're down / It's half an inch of water and you think you're gonna drown / That's the way that the world goes 'round."
Watch: Miranda Lambert Pays Tribute to John Prine:
Prine's rendition of the song features an acoustic bed track and one of his typically rough-hewn, earthy vocal performances. Lambert retains the original acoustic feel for the verses on her recording, but adds some distorted electric guitars that lend an almost country-punk feel to the choruses, and she changes the main character from male to female to make the song more relatable to her performance. Listen to Miranda Lambert's performance of "That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round" in the video at the top of the story.
Lambert also covered Fred Eaglesmith's "Time to Get a Gun" on Revolution, which won Album of the Year at both the ACM and CMA Awards. The album also included Lambert's first No. 1 hit, "The House That Built Me," and scored additional hits with "Dead Flowers," "White Liar," "Only Prettier" and "Heart Like Mine."
A post to Prine's social media on March 29 revealed that he had experienced a "sudden onset of COVID-19 symptoms" on March 26, adding that he was intubated at a hospital and "his situation is critical." His wife, Fiona, shared that he was "stable" the following day before clarifying, "[Stable] is not the same as improving. There is no cure for COVID-19. He needs our prayers and love — as do the thousands of others who are critically ill. Stay at home. Wash your hands. We love you."
Prine died on Tuesday (April 7) at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville after suffering complications from the virus. He was 73 years old.
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