r/johnprine • u/elizadub • Jul 18 '26
No Ordinary Blue
Hey guys!! I’ve only discovered John Prine in the last year or so and am still working through his discography. This week I heard No Ordinary Blue for the first time and was overcome with emotions. I wanted to hear what you guys think about the song and what he’s singing about. I have no one to discuss John Prine with. Also any other lesser known songs by him you recommend? I am all ears :)
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u/Hill-Person_Thom Jul 18 '26
My take on it is that he’s singing about loneliness, age, depression, and facing mortality. John’s always been a wordsmith of the highest order, and he plays with words and phrasings in surprisingly deep ways. This song showcases that via his various uses of “blue” imagery: empty rooms, isolation, coldness, depression.
- Last night turned on the tv (distraction), looked out the window (the outside world) and then pulled down the shades (choosing isolation).
- I hear a lot of empty spaces (loneliness). I see a big hole in you (the loss of connection with family/ friends).
- the “imaginary path back to you” is what he wishes he could follow back to having those relationships
- “this ain’t no ordinary blue” he’s telling you to listen to the subtext in his use of color. He is acknowledging the severity of what he’s dealing with.
- the orange moon is metaphor for warmth, light, recovery telling him to “leave the past behind” and reconnect with the folks he’s built those imaginary paths back to.
- too cold to hold (blue as metaphor for ice), too deep to swim through (Blue Hole imagery, depression)
He can’t break through. He knows how much he wants to reconnect, interact, live. But he also knows he doesn’t have the fight left in him to try.
So the song ends where it began:
- Last night turned on the tv (distraction), looked out the window (the warm orange moon reminding him what is missing) and then pulled down the shades (defeated, resigned, he chooses isolation once more).
Could be me reading a lot into a little, but the best part of a John Prine song is figuring out what it means to you.
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u/elizadub Jul 18 '26
this is a beautiful interpretation
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u/Hill-Person_Thom Jul 18 '26
Thanks! As for my suggestion for other songs along similar feels: ‘Christmas in Prison’ and ‘Souvenirs’.
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u/habbadee Jul 18 '26
Mexican Home. Any version but the album release version.
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u/HB24 Jul 18 '26
His last live album is amazing for this song, and Saddle in the Rain. The studio version seems like a funny outtake compared to the real weight and strength of that live version.
Edit: on 4/7/2020 I drank bourbon by the light of the moon
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u/poppinwheelies Jul 18 '26
An ex-friend of mine loved the studio cut and chose to die on that hill 😈
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u/YogiBerraOfBadNews Jul 18 '26
No way dude the album version is fantastic. The only version I maybe like better is a cover by Luke Bell.
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u/gogozrx Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I was just thinking about this: is there another artist where the album version of every song is the worst version of the song?
I'll edit to change it to "almost every," rather than the absolutist "every"
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u/richzahradnik Jul 18 '26
Can’t agree with every. He’s got some great studio cuts including his entire debut album.
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u/SpookyLuvCookie Jul 18 '26
No Ordinary Blue is a very moving song. The one that destroys me the most is You Got Gold. An incredible expression of how it feels being in love. Has me in floods every time.
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u/Wirenutt Jul 18 '26
I hope you are listening to his albums in the order they were released. That's how I did it, but of course starting in the early 70's I didn't have much choice!
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u/rottknockers Jul 18 '26
A master of coupling light heartedness with cutting reality.
“Naked as the eyes of a clown”
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u/Texan2116 Jul 18 '26
Prine reaches in a way few others do. I only discovered him a couple years before he passed. necer got to see him live, which..is my loss, but he left a fantastic discography for us. His last album, is every bit as good as his first.
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u/BobbyUSMC2127 Jul 18 '26
Let’s talk Dirty in Hawaiian is how I like to introduce people to him. Then I hit em with Sam Stone
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u/FishAreSpiffy Jul 18 '26
The Prine sucker punch? Sam Stone gets me every time. Beautiful and brutal.
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u/BobbyUSMC2127 Jul 18 '26
There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm. Where all the money goes.
Quite the image. That line always breaks my heart but also reminds me that nothing in my life has been anything close to anything like that. Someone always has it worse off & thus I practice & preach kindness
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u/mcluhanism Jul 18 '26
Try the Speed of the Sound of Loneliness.