Hello In There notes
"I wrote Hello In There
on the mail route.
I'd heard the John Lennon song Across The Universe, and he had a lot of reverb
on his voice. I was thinking about hollering into a hollow log, trying to get
through to somebody - Hello in there. That was the beginning thought; then it
went to old people. I've always had an affinity to old people. I used to help a
buddy with his newspaper route and I'd deliver to a Baptist old people's home
where you'd have to go room -to-room and some of the patients would kind of
pretend that you were a grandchild or nephew that had come to visit instead of
the guy delivering papers.
That always stuck n my head. It was all that stuff together, along with that
pretty melody. I don't think I've done a show without singing Hello In There,
nothing in it wears on me." ~John Prine