Robert Plant’s Favorite John Prine Song

Who doesn’t love John Prine? We venture to guess that there aren’t many musicians out there that don’t recognize the genius of his music–even if they aren’t necessarily in his niche. Robert Plant, though a hard rocker, once tipped his hat to Prine. Find out what the Led Zeppelin member’s favorite Prine song is, below.

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Robert Plant’s Favorite John Prine Song

As the café was closing on a warm summer night
And Cathy was cleaning the spoons
The radio played the “Hit Parade”
And I hummed along with the tune

Though Led Zeppelin and John Prine couldn’t be in starker contrast than they are, Plant still found the Americana legend’s work transcendent. When Prine was getting inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, Plant honored him by citing his favorite Prine song: “Far From Me.”

The mid-tempo ballad sees Prine sing about the end of a relationship. His trademarked humor and quick wit are very much present in this track. Another selling point for Plant was Prine’s ability to write so intimately that the listener feels like it was written just for them.

“Your work is extraordinary,” Plant once said of Prine. “A vast endearing treasury, a beacon of light in these ever weirder times. Sometimes it seems like you’re writing for all of us, which in fact, you probably are. Today, I am sure that you wrote this one for me. In fact, I don’t know if you’ve been following me around, but today’s favourite John Prine song, for me, it’s called ‘Far From Me.’”

We have to agree with Plant that this song is one of Prine’s best. It’s somber, poignant, and yet oddly comforting. For Prine, the song was an ode to his childhood.

“The first girl I went steady with waitressed at the old Seville’s on Fifth and Madison,” Prine once said. “‘A broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring’ is in reference to my childhood. We were raised close to a junkyard and one of my favorite pastimes was playing in the junkyard breaking bottles. The kids always commented that the fragments of glass looked just like a field of diamonds. The majority of my songs are written from life experiences and a lot of times there is not any symbolism but just words that take me to another place and time.”

Revisit this powerful Prine track, below.

And the sky is black and still now
On the hill where the angels sing
Ain’t it funny how an old broken bottle
Looks just like a diamond ring?
But it’s far, far from me

(Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)