Song of the Day 3/19/09

Every day, our top 666 songs of alltime countdown gets one step closer to #1. Thursday’s song is #496:

John Prine – Down by the Side of the Road

Prine at the peak of his drawling, narrative power, an offhandedly scary, death-obsessed tale of a woman’s long fall that leaves her in the song’s title – a shot rings out, a pickup truck pulls up and the rest is left up to you. Nice tune, too. From the Pink Cadillac lp, 1979, reissued on his own Oh Boy label.