Old Friends they shine like diamonds
Old Friends you can always call
Old Friends Lord you can’t buy ’em
You know it’s Old Friends after all
— Guy Clark

Guy Clark had it right. Old friends really do shine like diamonds. You can call them at any time. Especially when you want to write a song. Ask Chip Taylor. He’ll tell you a story about a 2014 song collaboration with the late, great John Prine. 

Chip Taylor made his reputation writing iconic hit songs like “Wild Thing” and “Angel of the Morning.” He practically writes songs for breakfast. Over the years he has cultivated a lifestyle that includes his original songs as his most intimate travel companions as he records his impressions and stories like a living, breathing journal.

Taylor’s friend of fifty years, John Prine, who died a year ago from the complications of Covid-19, was part humorist and part surveyor of the human condition. He did so with a shot of the pathos and the poetry of Hank Williams, and a twist of James Thurber thrown in for good measure.

Chip Taylor and Prine found their friendship in a common bond as original thinkers who love to draw their lines of reality outside the box of stagnant conventions. They were companions of the road, brothers-in-song taking many side trips and back roads along the way.

The story behind their 2014 collaboration, “Sixteen Angels Dancin’ ‘Cross the Moon,” is one such trip. It could have easily been missed and lost. It was Chip Taylor who made this inclusion into his musical journal that helped to preserve this moment of song creation. Their relationship found a sweet spot in a lark of a song created in a treasured moment of authentic friendship. 

The result is a recording that is an epiphany from this pair of veteran songwriters turned pranksters as they weave and spin rhymes like so many playthings. But, there is something irresistible about the sense of camaraderie and inclusive fun they are having here. They can’t help but be self-effacing and charming.  There is a warmth to the recording as well. It is the kind of home-cooked feeling only two old friends can conjure up. The song is like one of Prine’s treasured fishing trips where he would catch everything but the fish. 

The song was born through a series of happy accidents. It was a matter of a chance reunion in an airport oyster bar, a Swedish pop singer, a phone call, and a long drive around a short circle along Nashville’s Music Row. 

Chip Taylor described the full story in this phone interview from New York City. 

The following conversation with Chip Taylor a week after Prine’s death in 2020, was filled with tears and laughter. By the time we finished, Taylor said the interview, ‘raised our spirits.’  With Prine’s untimely passing, there is a bitter-sweet comfort in the song they penned together that reminds us of the magic that can be created by two old friends trying to write a song.

Terry Roland:  Tell me about your friendship with John. 

CHIP TAYLOR:    It was something special. He was so charming. To sing with him is when I could really feel our bond.   We would be on stage.  It was always the same thing. There was this twinkle in his eye and a half smile. We would be about seven seconds from singing and he would look at me and I would look back at him then we both knew we were about to have the most joyous moment because we were going to be singing together!” 

I noticed over the years; you were one of his constant opening acts for his shows. It must have been good to connect with him from time to time.

I always loved it. Especially being there for his set. Hearing him do his songs in person, it’s not just a song. It’s a life that unfolds during his performance.  When I would be opening for John one of my favorite things to do was finishing up my set and then I’d go in the wings and watch him and just listen to those songs again. He would do them a little differently every night. It was like going to the best kind of church. It’s what church is supposed to do, raise your spirit, make you a better person, and have reverence for the human spirit. That’s what John would do in one show. I’d rather spend two and a half hours there than in church. I knew I was having one of the most beautiful experiences of my life listening to John Prine.  

Can you tell me about when you first met? 

It was during the early ’70s. After Kris and I became friends. John was coming through that magical entrance into our lives on his first visit to New York City. It was the real stuff. No one was trying to have a hit record. You could hear the real heart coming out when you heard Kris, John and Steve Goodman. It was great to be part of that. We were left-field folk-country music. The country on the radio had become too predictable. We were cut from the same cloth. We all had this real love of real country music like the Louvin Brothers and Hank Williams. Then, as I remember, here comes John Prine with that first album. It was like Mark Twain meets William Blake. The album opened all kinds of doors for country music’s return to the real thing. He’s always kept that up for his entire career.    

What are your thoughts on Tree of Forgiveness? 

What an amazing album. I have a beautiful email exchange with John when the album came out. I was at my Iocal pub. I found it online and listened it twice through. I emailed John and said, “I absolutely loved listening to your new album. It does me a lot of good.”  He wrote write back right away.  “Thanks, Chip. It’s great to hear from you. The album is selling like wildfire. I’m still enjoying myself. There’s something about this one. It’s got a shine of its own.”   That’s so John. “It’s got a shine of its own.” There is no ego in that. It does have a shine of its own. You cannot get anything better than a song about John Prine going to heaven.  The whole album is just magic. What a gem to leave us with.

The last song you wrote together, Sixteen Angels Dancing ‘Cross the Moon,” has become a personal touchstone for grief and joy for John’s passing. 

Nicely said. It was wonderful. It’s a little story that encompasses all of who John was. It was eight years ago. I was just off the road from touring Sweden. I met John and his band by chance at Grand Central Station. I was at this little oyster bar there. We started talking about the music in Sweden and one of the top female singers there. Her name is Jill Johnson. In recent years she had huge hits with “Angel of the Morning” and “Angel from Montgomery.” I started kidding John that we’d have to write another angel song for Jill. That was it. We let it go. One day later I was in my apartment writing words down and playing guitar. This feeling came out with these words, 

“Two old friends trying to write a song
Trying to write a song about some angels
angels on the mountain, angels left in June
sixteen angels dancing ‘cross the moon.”  

I didn’t know what the hell it meant. But it had such a nice feeling to it, I got chills. 

 So how did John enter the picture? 

 I decided to call John to see what he thought. He was driving home. I played the song for him. And he said when he heard the title line he said,” What the hell does that mean?”  I told him, “I don’t know. We’re songwriters. We don’t have to know this stuff.” That was exactly the start of the song. We started laughing going back and forth. He’d say a line and I’d say a line, then I’d write it down. Before we knew it, in half an hour, we had the song finished. But the most important thing is writing. It made us so happy. We had so much fun. I had never had the experience of writing with somebody out of town on the phone.  I asked him, “John, are in your driveway?” He said, “No. I kept driving around the circle on Music Row.” That circle only takes twenty-five seconds, so he must have gone around a lot of times.  I could picture him in his Cadillac slinking down in his chair cruisin’ along on the phone, trying to write a song. 

Then you recorded the song in Nashville? 

 We had a wonderful recording session at John Prine’s studio in Nashville  David  Jacques on bass and John Platania, was there.  it was a magical record. It got a lot of attention but the most important thing is it’s a wonderful memory of something that comes along once in a lifetime.  All from this little record with its funny lyrics…..all these rhymes with moon!  Like when I asked him, “What did you do last summer?” he answered, “I was in Hollywood looking for a spoon….16 angels….”  Or he says, “I got angels in the backseat/angels on the hood/angels everywhere I look, I must be doing something good”

You both have been doing something good as songwriters and as people. Thank you for that and for sharing this song and story with us.

(Chip laughs) It’s a blessing. I can’t get over how blessed I am to have had a friend like John Prine. We were cut from the same cloth.  To be able to write a song together like this raised our spirits. Isn’t that what life is all about?