In Spite of Ourselves

Prine had recently come through treatment for throat cancer. He said the radiation had left him unable to sing, and that the song was the first thing he wrote that resembled work after his illness. He asked Iris DeMent to sing the woman’s part, and the song became the title track of his 1999 album In Spite of Ourselves on Oh Boy Records, his thirteenth studio album. The rest of the record is a set of duets on country songs by other writers, with partners including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Connie Smith and Patty Loveless. The title song was the only new Prine copyright on it.

The verses take turns: one describes the woman’s habits and quirks in blunt, comic terms, the next does the same for the man, and each ends by calling the other “baby” and saying there is no letting go. The chorus predicts that the couple will end up “sittin’ on a rainbow” in spite of themselves.