Some songs make you sad.
This one is certainly one of them.
I wanted to post a video of John Prine singing “Hello in There” and came across this one on YouTube. It had 85,439 views. There are other versions of the song by Michael Stipe + Natalie Merchant, Bette Midler and John Prine singing live from Alaska this past summer. I chose this one because of the number of people who left comments about the video. Read the comments.

Anthony2106 said – “I’m about John’s age. When I first heard this song, I thought of my grandparents generation, then later my parents generation. I’m next I think.”

If you wish to know more about John Prine go here or here

“Hello in There” is on Great Days: The John Prine Anthology

The Lyrics

Hello in There

We had an apartment in the city,
Me and Loretta liked living there.
Well, it’d been years since the kids had grown,
A life of their own left us alone.
John and Linda live in Omaha,
And Joe is somewhere on the road.
We lost Davy in the Korean war,
And I still don’t know what for, don’t matter anymore.

Chorus:
Ya’ know that old trees just grow stronger,
And old rivers grow wilder ev’ry day.
Old people just grow lonesome
Waiting for someone to say, “Hello in there, hello.”

Me and Loretta, we don’t talk much more,
She sits and stares through the back door screen.
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen.
Someday I’ll go and call up Rudy,
We worked together at the factory.
But what could I say if asks “What’s new?”
“Nothing, what’s with you? Nothing much to do.”

Repeat Chorus:

So if you’re walking down the street sometime
And spot some hollow ancient eyes,
Please don’t just pass ‘em by and stare
As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello.”