Musicians I Would Like To Take Out For Dinner (Part 1)

I'm cribbing off a friend of mine who has her own series, but since I think a) she has a great idea but b) she has some hugely glaring omissions on her list, I figured it'd serve me well to compile my own list of musicians I really dig. These are all people I would like to have a chance to sit down with and talk to over a good meal, preferably not from my own kitchen. But that is another post on another blog.



The first one I would like to consider is John (Cougar) Mellencamp. John Mellencamp, not only being a fellow Libra, is also someone who strikes me as being completely unpretentious, a straight-shooter, and someone who doesn't stand for much bullshit.

While I don't know much about Mellencamp's earliest recordings, I have heard that a) he sang covers of rock tunes from the 1950s and '60s and basically sounded like a wanna-be Bruce Springsteen, and b) his stage name ("Johnny Cougar") was given to him and showed up on the front of his first record without his knowledge or consent.

I got to know Johnny Cougar when I was maybe 7 or 8 and watching Solid Gold with my mother. He was performing "Hurts So Good," strutting across the stage and wildly waving one of his hands in a circular motion toward the end of the song. Even then at the young age I was I thought he was a really weird dancer, and while I didn't know at the time that he was most likely lip-syncing, I think there had to have been something about his performance that has made it stand out all these years later.

A few things I admire about John Mellencamp is how he has never forgotten where he has come from, a small town in Indiana. After all, he may have married a former supermodel, but they currently reside in Indiana most of the time. After 1985's Live Aid made hundreds of thousands of people turn their attention to starving children in Africa, Mellencamp and Willie Nelson put together a benefit show that raised awareness of another group of people struggling to get out of poverty -- American farmers. And unlike Live Aid, which had one show in 1985 and another one to commemorate its 20th anniversary in 2005, Farm Aid has gone on every year save for two since its inception. The 19th Farm Aid will happen September 30th in Camden, New Jersey.

I also admire how over the years, he not only gradually renounced what essentially was his slave name (ha), he has constantly looked for new ways to express himself in his music. Earlier I stated that he was a kind of Springsteen clone, someone who sounded like they'd be perfectly happy as some bar's house singer, who covered hits like "Do You Believe in Magic?". 1985's Scarecrow mirrored his work in Farm Aid, celebrating Middle American life with songs like "Small Town" but also cautioning the rest of the country about how a necessary American demographic was slowly fading away in "Rain on the Scarecrow."

1987 saw John Mellencamp reinvent himself again, playing music that was now incorporating elements of bluegrass, country and folk. I'm not generally a fan of these genres of music, but I love what he was doing on Paper and Fire and one of my most favorite John Mellencamp songs, "Check It Out," a song that features an accordion and a fiddle, along with the standard drums, bass and guitars.

And then later, he worked with Junior Vasquez, who is famous for making dance records. Not the kind of dancing Mellencamp claimed he was good at way back in "Crumblin' Down" (and John, I love you, but...no, you really aren't a real good dancer!) but honest to goodness dance music producer and DJ.

In short, I admire him for his integrity as a musician and for his humanitarian side.

My Top 5 John Mellencamp Songs: (thanks to Rob Fleming/Gordon for the inspiration!)

1. Small Town
2. Check It Out
3. Pink Houses
4. Rain on the Scarecrow
5. Lonely Ol' Night