John Mellencamp was recently enshrined rightfully in the Rock & Roll Hall-of-Fame, so quietly that you may have missed it. Makes sense. Most of Mellencamp's career has been that way.
John Mellencamp is my favorite musician. Has been since a young boy first discovered music. My enjoyment of music began at the same time Mellencamp first gained national attention, with hits like Jack and Diane, and Hurts So Good.
Why would a 13 year-old kid from Brooklyn like, and begin to follow the career of a rocker from Indiana? Even Mellencamp admits, "It has never been cool to be a John Mellencamp fan." That, for me, has always been part of the attraction. Mellencamp has enjoyed popularity, but never wild popularity. Even back in the 80's, there was always a Bruce Springsteen or Madonna grabbing headlines, and for Mellencamp, and for me, that was cool.
You can argue that John Mellencamp produced the best rock music of the 1980's. While Bruce Springsteen was trying to conquer the world with one massive album, Born in the USA, Mellencamp was grinding out one great rock album after another.
A garage-band sound with world-class arrangements and lyrics, Mellencamp quietly went about his business from the Heartland of America, storytelling of the highest order. The stories and melody were where it was at for me. I grew up in the early 1980's. The world of music was filled with techno beats, residue of disco, and songs about wanting to have sex, having sex, and thinking about having sex.
From the Heartland, Mellencamp's music and stories were always on a higher-plane. Yes, he wrote about getting busy early on, but Mellencamp got busy writing about issues, not just Midwestern, but universal. As a poor kid living in Brooklyn, I was always standing in the shadows of Manhattan. Me a Have-Not in the land of Haves, Brooklyn being a bridge apart yet a world away from the "good life" of the big city.
John Mellencamp wrote of that, sang of that. How everybody falls down, and the job is to stand back up, even when it hurts. How it was OK to not have, and that the measure of a person is not what they have outside, but what they have inside. His music has soul. It has vision. It is poetry wrapped in grooving rock, with a dash of folk and country for taste.
I have always been proud that Mellencamp is my favorite artist. He has always made me think. Always made me sing. Always made me feel good. That is the mark of Mellencamp for me.
By Freddy C
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