1984 Top Ten: Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian (#8)

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It’s been a great birth month for me. I hope you’ve enjoyed celebrating with me as I look at these timeless songs that somehow have turned 40 and 70 years old. That’s the joy of music: it truly is timeless. Up next on the 1984 countdown is one of my dear mother of blessed memory’s favorite songs. #8: Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian - John Prine You know why we love John Prine? He could break your heart with a song like “Sam Stone” or “Hello in There,” then turn around and make you nearly break a rib laughing at things like “Dear Abby” or “Please Don’t Bury Me” (“send my mouth way down south, and kiss my ass goodbye” is one of those lines I use to prove what a genius he was lyrically). Here he’s going to town on double entendres (“would you like a lei?”) in the story of a guy from Wisconsin on vacation in Waikiki. While he’s on vacation, his dirty mind is working overtime. Like Jimmy Buffett (“Bubbles Up”) and Toby Keith (“Don’t Let the Old Man In”), Prine seemed to have a feeling of his mortality closing in on him, as he detailed in “Summer’s End” on The Tree of Forgiveness, released two years before he became an early victim of COVID-19 in April 2020. As I said, he could break your heart (“Summer’s End”), then make you laugh…as he did so well with this song. Let’s Talk Dirty in Hawaiian Written by Fred Koller and John Prine Recorded by John Prine From German Afternoons, 1984 Hope I said it right: