Howie Epstein, the bassist in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, lent Prine a crisper, more pop-oriented sound without sacrificing any of Prine’s rootsiness. “The Missing Years” was Prine’s first album since the death of his longtime friend and producer Steve Goodman.
The highlights are “All the Best,” “The Sins of Memphisto,” “Take a Look at My Heart,” “Everything Is Cool” … actually, everything on the album is pretty great. But that song is a trifle - the rest of the album consists of more substantial fare, alternating between solo acoustic songs and full-band workouts. The title was in part a play on Prine’s five-year absence from recording - but it also echoes the last song on the album, “Jesus The Missing Years,” a hilarious meditation on what Jesus may have been up to during all those years between childhood and his public ministry. It is a wonderful piece of work, warm, funny and wistful, showing off Prine at his best. In 1991, songs from his remarkable album “The Missing Years” began popping up on the radio, and I liked them enough to buy the CD. As with Tom Waits, Van Morrison and a few of the others on this list, I didn’t tune in to John Prine until his career was well under way.
