Fantastic lyric; great song; Bette at her best.

It's a John Prine song - his original version is OK but Bette has that ability to sound heart broken and slows it down so you can hear the lyric; her studio version is better.

Another fabulous version

I must admit prefer the Natalie Merchant/Michael Stipe version. It is a little rawer and edgier and benefits from that. At the time they were "an item" but you can sense an on stage tension between them. I do like the Bette Midler version but it does drift into "show tune" territory at times.

John Prine has written some great songs but his delivery can be to raw for some people. I was first introduced by seeing him play "Sam Stone" on The Old Grey Whistle Test in the early 70's and have never regretted keeping in touch with his output.

BTW, Have you heard "Angel of Montgomery"?



Bonnie Rait's version is the best known but I love this interpretation, the violin and organ are scored so well. Sometimes the violin almost seems to take on the vocal duties, beautiful song and first class version.

Oh check this out - wonderful Bette.