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13 February 2008

Embracing My Inner Melonhead I’ve had this song stuck in my head for something like a month now, and it’s showing no signs of going away. Now I share the joy with you.[More:]

Yeah, the video is a little on the cheesy side, but you’ve got to remember that it’s a product of its time. (I’m pretty sure it’s lip-synched, too; I have a bootleg from this period, and the song there doesn’t fade like that. Having seen Mr. Melonball on that particular tour, I will say that it matches up pretty well with my memory of what the show was like.) Full disclosure: if I could do those James Brown splits, you can bet your ass I’d be doing them at every opportunity.

I love the way the song sounds. The production is fairly light-handed (for being from the 80s), and the interplay of the fiddle and accordion knocks me out every time. It’s that little riff that’s been buzzing around my skull all this time. And hey, let’s give it up for the fierce background singers – especially the one stage left, with the maracas.

Usually Melonhead’s songs fall down in the lyric department. Dude wrote some really good rock & roll records, but the words weren’t always there. In this particular case, though, I think he did alright. It’s difficult to do the “rocker sliding into adulthood” thing well – there are a couple of other attempts on the same album, The Lonesome Jubilee, that plow the same field and only turn up stones and bad lines:“That’s when a smoke was a smoke / and groovin’ was groovin’ / and dancin’ meant everything / We were young and we were improvin’”, from “Cherry Bomb”, for example. Not bad enough? How about “She had a dream / And boy it was a good one / So she chased after her dream / With much desire” from “Paper In Fire”? They’re both decent-sounding songs, but the lyrics just ain’t getting’ it done.

With “Check It Out”, though, I think ol’ John cut a little closer to the bone. Or maybe it’s just that I’m twenty years older now and it resonates now in a way it didn’t then. I’m officially older than dirt now, so I dunno.

Anyway, there it is.
Amusingly naive me thing: I lived in central Indiana until 1999. I then moved to Florida. I honestly did not realize how popular Mellencamp's music was until I lived in Florida. I knew I liked his music and I knew he was a hugely popular hoosier, that he'd had a kazillion hits, and that type of thing but I didn't realize that I'd hear him on radio elsewhere like I always had in Indiana.

Jack and Diane is full of lyrical win, if you ask me. Particularly the bridgey thing. Actually, I quite like a lot of his lyrics.
posted by fluffy battle kitten 13 February | 00:55
For me, Mellencamp didn't really hit his stride until the mid-eighties. That run of three albums from Uh-Huh (1983) to Scarecrow (1985) to The Lonesome Jubilee (1987) was the Little Bastard in his prime.

Honestly, I never really did care much for "Jack and Diane", even before radio played it into the ground. As always, your mileage may vary (and apparently does).
posted by bmarkey 13 February | 01:56
I liked the song when it came out. Then I went through a long period of years where I didn't like it. A few years ago I happened to pick up a greatest hits cd and really looked/listened to the lyrics and now I like it and, in particular, love this bit:

Gonna let it rock
Let it roll
Let the Bible Belt come
And save my soul
Hold on to sixteen as long as you can
Changes come around real soon
Make us women and men
posted by fluffy battle kitten 13 February | 03:03
A million young poets. I love me some Johnny Cougar.
posted by Eideteker 13 February | 07:52
WTF - they're putting ads on YouTube videos now?!
posted by Atom Eyes 13 February | 10:40
Yeah, so I forget how great Rock and Roll is || Photo Friday Update

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