I was just singing that song a couple days ago. “There’s a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes,” is a line that makes me sad every time.
I first heard of John Prine because he collaborated with the Cowboy Junkies on some tracks in the 90s. But I’d never heard him on the radio. Later on, I gathered he was one of those performers within the spectrum of “musicians in the know and music critics love them, but if you’re part of the general public, YMMV.” I’ve got like 30 Richard Thompson CDs but I know that he flies below the radar of many and I’m not stunned that many of my friends, few of whom are musicians, have heard of him. Maybe lump John Hiatt or Graham Parker (in North America at least) or Loudon Wainwright III in there as well.
Songwriters are at another tier of fame that people don’t know about unless they follow music at a certain level of intensity. If you’ve read a couple of music biographies you’ve likely heard of Lieber and Stoller. A zillion people bought Carole King’s solo record, hopefully they picked up that she co-wrote “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and wasn’t just covering it. Doc Pomus is a deeper cut, but I learned about him through Lou Reed. When the second Barenaked Ladies album came out, I heard Steven Page mention in an interview how he’d wanted to collaborate with Stephen Duffy, and the latter got co-writing credit on a bunch of tracks (including the single “Jane”). I’d never heard of the guy: apparently he was a founding member of Duran Duran and went on to form other bands that had passed me by. But Page liked his work enough to seek him out. Though the old Brill Building system isn’t in place any more, there are professional songwriters that the public doesn’t know about. Maybe 10% of music fans would recognize Dianne Warren’s name.
I did take civics class (required back in the day) but mostly I remember governmental structures and the constitution. Learned Hand I only know because at some point in my adult life I thought I was too ignorant of American history so I bought a set of the truly wonderful grade school series The Story Of Us. You can soak up a lot of the foundational history of the US from that well-written series.
I was working (my first real job) at a local newspaper office during the Watergate hearings, and the radio was permanently tuned to them, all day long.
I was always surprised that few people had heard of Arthur Brown, especially those who were around in the late 60s and early 70s. Granted, he didn’t exactly overwhelm the charts, but he had at least one sold hit with “Fire”, and he was a total wild man at concerts.
Jimmy Webb was one of those people who was always in the background while writing megahits for people like Glen Campbell, Ronstadt, The Supremes and others. I can’t remember how I became acquainted with his name, but I’m sure it was in conjunction with Campbell’s songs like By The Time I Get To Phoenix.
Who?.
I knew a lot of the songs he’d written, but I only ever really got to know anything about him from listening to Chicago radio host Steve Dahl, who is a friend of Webb’s, and who regularly had Webb on his radio show back in the '90s.
The first time I met my future father-in-law, (who was born in 1940), I struggled not to gape in shock and horror when I realized he had never heard of Bob Dylan.
I hadn’t even heard he was sick…
I was going to say “that’s weird”, but there is a large population of country singers that I’ve never heard of.
Graham Parker was on my short list of faves, but I was all about that British punk flavor.
John Hiatt I personally think of quite fondly. When in college I was in a record store, and they had one of those deals where the more records you bought the cheaper each was. I needed one more. Finally, I saw this one by a guy I’d never heard of, but recalled reading a favorable review in Rolling Stone by a guy whose opinion I respected.
Our band ended up playing 2 songs off of Slug Line. Yeah, another one of the artists where I can annoyingly say, “Well, I liked all of his work up until Riding with the Kind”! 
It was weird when I went to a show of his just a couple of years back, and all these folk were singing along to songs he wrote and released decades after I had stopped really listening to him.
A friend used to do music promotion for RCA’s country artists. I got backstage passes to lots of shows, but usually had no idea who they were. Thing is, backstage was a blast regardless. One night I hung out with Clint Black and he was a really cool guy. No clue what his songs were, but he autographed a harmonica he used that night and gave it to me.
The first concert my daughter went to without adult supervision was Kenny Chesney (it was her Country phase). She went with a friend, and I got them great seats, plus meet and great passes. It was my “cool dad” phase.
You can count me as another person who hadn’t heard of John Prine (that I remember) before his death. Now I know who he is, and that he’s well enough that it’s a bit surprising that I hadn’t heard of him, but I still couldn’t name any of his songs off the top of my head.
Personally, I try not to hear of them on purpose.
Old hit. It just doesn’t get played that often anymore on even oldies stations, so influential as he was to certain bands, he never was very well known. Solid short retrospective:
My wife and I regularly encounter folk for the first time on SNL - both hosts and musical guests. Often the host will come out and we’ll ask each other if we’ve ever heard of them, or know whether they are an actor, singer, whatever.
But that is one of the reasons we keep watching. It is a minimal way for us to try to not be COMPLETELY out of modern culture.
Modern country is a huge black hole for me. Lotta men and women in big hats whose names are completely unfamiliar to me, playing to huge arenas. But I’d place John Prine more in the category of Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Kenny Chesney, … Sure, JP never sold the numbers those folk did. But I’m thinking about people whose careers lasted for some time, rather than a hit album or 2.
And even tho JP’s type of music is not as popular as “big hat arena country”, I’d say JP was pretty much among the top in his niche for some time. So - does big fish in a smaller pool = being well known? I dunno who was bigger longer - would people know Steve Goodman? Nanci Griffith? Iris Dement?
BTW - how exactly would you describe JP’s type of music?
And we haven’t even mentioned the huge stars whose names you know, but you wouldn’t be able to identify a single song of theirs. I mean, I know who Rhianna is, and saw her on the Superbowl. But I couldn’t name one of her songs, or identify her as the artist if you played some of her type of music. Heck, I couldn’t name a Taylor Swift song, except I think I’ve heard young people jumping and screaming “Haters gotta hate hate hate” at weddings. That’s one of hers, right? And my familiarity w/ Beyonce’s music may end at “All the single ladies - If you want it then you’d better put a ring on it.”
I’ve heard of Garth Brooks, but not the other two. So you’re example might be apt.
Fucking awesome. Thanks! I only bought his album in '68 because I was buying everything in the psychedelia rock genre at that time. Liked it a lot.
I’ve also worked with teenagers.
No, they aren’t
Wow - that sorta strikes me as curious as well. Even tho I do not listen to their kind of music, their names are not at all uncommon in newspapers, on TV, etc.
So - who else joins Procrustus in never having heard of TY or KC?
(Turns out I was confusing them with some other country stars. I was thinking of 2 who are married to each other. But it seems TY is married to Garth Brooks, and KC to Renee Zellwegger.)