Meaning Of John Prine Song Lake Marie

But the last verse of the song paints a pretty graphic picture of a gruesome murder scene involving i assume the ex wife.

Meaning of john prine song lake marie. My impression is that prine is telling a story about how he met a former wife. The lake was tangled with mystery and this persuaded prine to want to visit it. I m rarely attentive to lyrics on the first listen.

He told prine of lake marie which was an interesting tale. Prine walks us through the disparate inspirations for 1995 s lake marie from an expedition to a twin lakes wisconsin library and a dive into local history to the artistic confluence of van. Finally got to see john prine in concert.

It s an actual place. There s an odd sort of power in that song mainly because he combines several disjointed images a grisly murder a failing marriage native american lore grilling italian. The song was lake marie by john prine.

The song was inspired in part by prine s crumbling marriage and a series of grisly murders the singer remembered the chicago news media having a field day with when he was a kid. General commentjust found this on a website. At the end of it the radio dj mentioned this was bob dylan s favorite john prine song.

Lake marie is arguably the album s most popular track. The lyrics recount a history part actual and part fictional that describe a few of the events observed by the lake s peaceful waters. On the way home from the show my wife was asking just what exactly is the song lake marie about.

The subject of the conversation turned to some local lakes. The john prine shrine website quotes the singer discussing his inspiration for the song. Prine s first experience with the song came while talking to a crew member in wisconsin after a show.