Column: Mellencamp speaks, few listen

Dear readers,  

John Mellencamp is currently touring. His show is billed as “Live and in Person 2023.”  The show is much better than the title suggests.

Mellencamp delivers so much more than the usual rock show. He doesn’t just crank up the victrola for one more visit with Jack and Diane.  The show is an allegory like a Tennessee Williams play. In fact, the backdrop for the performance is a scene from “Streetcar Named Desire.”

Mellencamp begins the show with a series of film clips shown on a movie screen in front of the stage. Audience members showing no patience whatsoever began shouting for Mellencamp and the band to take the stage. The noise from the audience completely drowns out the sound from the movie.

Lucky for me, like Norma Desmond, I don’t need sound. The faces flickering on the screen are familiar. The movie clips are not trailers for coming attractions. I would describe the film as an anthology. It is a collection of prose from great writers filled with wisdom. 

The words spoken on the screen by James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, and Marlon Brando were the inspiration for the lyrics in Mellencamp’s songs. Distilled in this montage they represent the very Tao of John Mellencamp.

Mellencamp’s lyrics are poetry. His songs are deeply introspective and explore themes of love, loss, isolation, and the search for meaning.  Mellencamp’s audience should not expect him to just run through his hits. He is a philosopher, and he isn’t just getting philosophical in his old age. His real fans shouldn’t be surprised. Mellencamp warned them as far back as 1989 with “Pop Singer” from his “Big Daddy” album.

“Never wanted to be no pop singer,

Never wanted to write no pop songs.

Just want to make it real – good, bad or indifferent.”

Maybe I understand this because Mellencamp and I go way back. We first crossed paths in 1968. However, I didn’t realize it at the time. I only know from a meeting we had in Bloomington in 1980. Learning that I was from Shelbyville, he immediately asked me, “Do you know a girl by the name of Myra Conner?”

I did and right there and then we had a “small town” instant connection.

Mellencamp said he was in love with Myra when he was in high school.  He would drive over from Seymour every chance he could. By coincidence I was a newspaper carrier with a route that included the Conner home located in the 400 block of W. Franklin St.

Mellencamp had yet to receive fame and fortune. His commercial breakthrough album “American Fool” with the hit single “Jack and Diane” was two years in his future. Mellencamp was living in a big old, rented house in Ellettsville. He invited me and my girlfriend at the time, and now my wife, Sandy, to come over. We did and his band had all their instruments set up in the living room. We stayed to watch Mellencamp and his band practice. 

I read a few of the reviews from Mellencamp’s current “Live and in Person 2023” tour. The majority hate the film clips. Most suggest that he not show the film clips or show fewer of them. I was glad that Mellencamp didn’t take the critics’ advice. 

I think he should add an additional film clip. For the benefit of those who weren’t paying attention, a film clip with a special message should end the show. Lower the movie screen in front of the stage and show one last message.

Actor Strother Martin, the Captain in Cool Hand Luke, delivering his often-quoted line, “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”  

See you all next week, same Schwinn time, same Schwinn channel.

Get the most recent Shelby County Post headlines delivered to your email. Go to shelbycountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.