Sophia Michaels
Jeff Tweedy shared an impromptu tribute to songwriter John Prine with a cover of “Please Don’t Bury Me” on his nightly Instagram livestream, The Tweedy Show. Prine died Tuesday, May 7th, from complications related to COVID-19 at the age of 73.
“Please Don’t Bury Me” appeared on Prine’s 1973 album, Sweet Revenge, and found the musician crafting a delightfully surreal yarn about a man (also named John, probably not coincidentally) who slips on his kitchen floor, dies, goes up to heaven and tells the angels not to bury him — to instead cut him up and donate his organs and limbs.
As such, it was a fitting tribute track and Tweedy delivered it with plenty of good humor — and, of course, plenty of sorrow — as his sons joined him on the chorus, singing in harmony, “Please don’t bury me/Down in that cold, cold ground/No, I’d rather have ’em cut me up/And pass me all around.”
The performance initially appeared on the Instagram account of Tweedy’s wife, Susan, although a fan has since uploaded it to YouTube.
Prine’s death has elicited a wave of tributes from both his contemporary peers and the myriad artists he’s influenced. For Instance, like Tweedy, Dixie Chicks frontwoman Natalie Maines took to Instagram in the hours after the songwriter’s death and covered his signature song, “Angel From Montgomery,” joined by her two sons.
Featured via: Rollingstone
