Still true after all these years.,...John Prine...Flag Decal

Your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore. 1971

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."

"Sam Stone" is also one of the best.

"There's a hole in daddy's arm where all the money goes..."

Sam Stone, came home, to the wife and family
after serving in the conflict overseas
and the time he had served
had shattered all his nerve
and left a little shrapnel in his knee

but the morphine eased the pain
and the grass grew round his brain
and gave him all the confidence he lacked
with a purple heart and monkey on his back



Great song.

Anybody hear "Parachute Ballad"?

"And God said: Hey, Gatekeeper!
Open the gate to my Garden!
This is My order: from dawn till dawn
Let the paratroopers into Heaven, Warden" :-)

nt

A :toast: for your first milestone!! :-)

And I got a John Prine ticket for two Saturday's hence. Cant wait

DDQM

heartbreak never sounded so good

after 9/11.

All the cars with their flags, stickers, and decals.

Prine is one of the all-time great songwriters. Kris Kristofferson, one of the greats himself, said that Prine's first album just totally knocked him out. That's pretty high damn praise. Prine paints pictures with words and melody.

Hello in there.

Bake

then I dug up the album and listened again, for the first time in a long time, and I am hooked on Prine again.

what a writer.