By Ken Paulson –
I first saw John Prine onstage at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival in July of 1972. Prine was the main attraction, but the animated young man who shared the stage with him that night was a close second.
You might know Steve Goodman as the writer of “City of New Orleans” or as a close friend and collaborator of Prine’s, but he was also one of the most electric singer-songwriters ever to grace a stage. Goodman engaged an audience like no other, with songs that moved you or made you laugh, hilarious stage patter and rapid-fire acoustic guitar. If you saw him, you never forgot him.
Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 at age 36, which is part of the reason he’s not better known today. Last August, Omnivore Recordings reissued his final four recordings from the ’80s with bonus tracks, but it was pretty clear that the archives were empty. We would never again see a new Steve Goodman album.
Until now. In an unexpected move, Omnivore has released Steve Goodman Live ’69, a recording of a performance for a local Chicago folk music show. It’s a fascinating document and the sound is surprisingly good.
It’s from so early in Goodman’s career that his performance didn’t include any of his own songs. It’s very much a recording of its time. There’s a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Country Pie,” traditional folk (“John Barleycorn”) and “Ballad of Spiro Agnew,” a brief political joke masquerading as a song, written by Tom Paxton.
But it’s the rest of the album that is revelatory. The same guy who floored audiences throughout the ’70s is right there in 1969, opening with a full-throttle version of Willie Dixon’s “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover,” offering up a charming cover of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and tackling an odd medley of “Where Are You Going/Eleanor Rigby/Drifter/Somebody to Love.”
Closing out the set was what would go on to be a staple of Goodman’s live set, a stellar rendition of Leroy Van Dyke’s “The Auctioneer.”
Steve Goodman Live’ 69 is a treasure – unexpected, unpredictable and delightful. So was Steve.