Inspiration can—and often does—come from the unlikeliest of places, as proven by John Prine’s “Sam Stone” and its heavy influence on Roger Waters’ last Pink Floyd album, ‘The Final Cut.’ While the two artists share few apparent similarities, take away Prine’s country twang and Pink Floyd’s psychedelic ambiance, and suddenly, they’re not so different after all.
Roger Waters has long been a fan of John Prine, citing him as one of his all-time favorite songwriters in a 2015 interview with Haaretz. (Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney also made the cut.) But as any artist knows, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Waters gave Prine his props in the opening track of Pink Floyd’s 1983 record.
How John Prine’s “Sam Stone” Informed “The Post War Dream”
The fourth track of John Prine’s 1971 debut, “Sam Stone,” is easily one of Prine’s saddest songs of all time. The all-too-topical song follows an injured veteran who returns home to a bleak existence colored by opioid addiction. There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes, Prine sings in the chorus. Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose.
Twelve years later, Pink Floyd released ‘The Final Cut’ in 1983, which opens with the harrowing track “Post War Dream.” The similar themes of the dark side of war would be enough to connect these two songs on their own, but Waters took it one step further—albeit perhaps unconsciously—by mimicking the opening melody of “Sam Stone” almost note for note.
Tell me true, tell me why, was Jesus crucified? Waters softly sings in the first verse. Thanks in no small part to “Sam Stone” and “Post War Dream”’s shared key of F major, Waters’ melody sits in an eerily similar place as Prine’s first lines: Sam Stone came home to his wife and family. Of course, melodic inspiration—especially in the country and Americana genre, like Prine’s—can come from anywhere, but even Waters’ lyrics seem to be a call and response to multiple tracks from Prine’s debut.
First, Waters asks if this was why Jesus died, seemingly mirroring Prine’s glib remark about Jesus dying for nothing in the chorus of “Sam Stone.” Later, Waters asks, Was it you, was it me? Did I watch too much TV? From there, Prine listeners can easily make a connection to another track off the country singer’s debut, “Spanish Pipedream,” in which the chorus urges the listener to Blow up your TV, throw away your paper.
Roger Waters Had Great Respect and Admiration for John Prine
Despite their decidedly different musical backgrounds, the Pink Floyd bassist was always an outspoken fan of John Prine’s. So, while Roger Waters never outright said whether John Prine influenced his last Pink Floyd record, it doesn’t take too much connecting the dots to place the two songs together. After all, ‘The Final Cut’ and its opening track, “Post War Dream,” came out 12 years after ‘John Prine,’ allowing Waters ample time to study and absorb Prine’s stunning debut.
Waters briefly mentioned Prine in a 2016 discussion with NPR about creative inspiration. “I don’t choose what I paint,” Waters admitted. “It’s very, very difficult to write a song or to paint a picture. And I think people who do it, whose work we admire, like John Prine—he doesn’t one day sit down and think, ‘I know, I’m going to write a song about old people and what it must be like to be ignored in old age and the connections between people.’ He wrote that song after he spent a summer delivering laundry to old people’s homes. It’s an expression of some love that he felt.”
Years later, when Prine was in the hospital with COVID-19 in the earliest days of the pandemic, Waters voiced his support in a touching social media video. “This good friend of ours is full of love and always has been his whole life, and love is a powerful drug,” Waters insisted. After Prine tragically lost his battle with COVID in April 2020, Waters shared a video of himself singing Prine’s classic track, “Paradise.”
Photo by Nina Westervelt/Shutterstock
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