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"The Great Compromise"
Single by John Prine
from the album Diamonds in the Rough
Released1971
GenreFolk, Anti-war, Protest song
LabelAtlantic Records
Songwriter(s)John Prine

The Great Compromise is a song written and performed by John Prine.[1] The song was included on Prine's album Diamonds in the Rough which was released by Atlantic Records in 1972. It is an anti-war song and a protest song. Its theme is the disillusionment of the country during the Vietnam War era. In the liner notes to his 1993 anthology Great Days, Prine writes of this song, "The idea I had in mind was that America was this girl you used to take to drive-in movies. And then when you went to get some popcorn, she turned around and screwed some guy in foreign sports car. I really love America. I just don't know how to get there anymore."

In 2011, Oh Boy Records released 1970 [2] recordings of Prine singing “The Great Compromise” on Singing Mailman Delivers. Before singing the song he says, “This is a song that Francis Scott Key and me wrote not too long ago. He writes political songs (you know), I write love songs. So we got together and wrote a song....It’s a hate song to a woman I love. It’s about a kid who went out to find America, and he found her in a bar room, drinking-she was feeling bad. So he felt sorry for her and asked her out to the drive-in.” [3]

The song was described as "Dylan-esque" in an obituary for Prine.[4]

Chorus:
'I used to sleep at the foot of old glory
And awake in the dawn's early light
But much to my surprise
When I opened my eyes
I was a victim of the great compromise'

References

  1. ^ "The Great Compromise". The Celestial Monochord. Retrieved 2018-10-08.
  2. ^ "The Singing Mailman Delivers (Double CD)". Oh Boy Records. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  3. ^ John Prine (2011). The Great Compromise [Singing Mailman Delivers]. Oh Boy Records.
  4. ^ "7 Songs by the Late, Great John Prine You Should Know". www.themanual.com. 11 April 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
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