DCV Top Bands of the 80's: #5

#5. John Mellencamp

As Etienne noted earlier, he & Dolberry and the Dolberry Sisters once made a pilgrimmage to Indianapolis to see Mellencamp on his home turf. As I recall, the concert was at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, which I interpreted to mean that the fair was going on and we should arrive really early. Which we did, but there was no fair. Instead we sat/stood in line for most of the day & still had "seats" (it was a huge lawn) about 50 yards back from the stage. I recall there being a really cool sunset that night.

Anyway, Mellencamp was obviously a big deal to us Midwesterners in the 80's. "Scarecrow" and "The Lonesome Jubilee" dealt w/ issues that meant something to people outside of LA and NYC. Lyrics like "I'll probably die in a small town", "It's a lonely ol' night", and "his dream burned up like paper in fire" resonated back in the day.

JM was famously from Seymour, Indiana. Seymour was one of the many southern Indiana towns I visited during the summers of 1987 and 1988 working for Nabisco. Thanks to Mr. Jim Allen, I had one of the best summer jobs imaginable. Let me highlight the perks:

1) You made like $7 bucks per hour which was pretty sweet.

2) Every Friday you could fill a box w/ all the Nabisco products you wanted (e.g., Oreos) from their snack closet.

3) They let me take Fig Newton end stands to SLU after they were done w/ them. We used them as bookshelves and they were surprisingly dorm-durable.

4) The job was really easy. All you had to do was take the cookies/crackers from the back room where the trucks dropped them off and stock the shelves.

5) On really long trips (e.g., Washington IN), Nabisco would put me up for the night in a hotel, w/ a per diem. Other than when APD was really young & we all went to San Diego for a conference, this was probably my favorite business trip of all time. Got to watch a movie and eat at Ponderosa on Nabisco's tab. Wow.

6) Most of my summer was spent driving around southern IN farmlands listening to music in the old Datsun. Except for those times when the Datsun expired, then I spent my time in repair shops in southern IN.

Anyway, that was a great job & Mr. Allen was a great guy. This year's version of the O'Jimmies (my Dad & my roto baseball team) is an obscene offense to his memory. Ah, now I'm in a bad mood, just thinking about it.

I was tempted to dock Mellencamp a spot in the ranking for every thousand times I heard his "Our Country" song in that Chevy commercial. If you're so inclined, move him down to 19th.

Best Songs: Paper in Fire, Small Town, Minutes to Memories, Human Wheels, Rain on the Scarecrow, Hand to Hold Onto, Pink Houses, Pop Singer.

Worst Song: "This is our countreeeee. From the East Coast ... to the West Coast ... to the Dixie Highway ... back home. This is our countreeeeee." And this is our truck.