You loved 'Rain on the Scarecrow' and Farm Aid and 'The Authority Song' -- that was all political. Now this guy comes from Texas and all of a sudden I'm a no-good sonofabitch?

i've always been a huge fan of john mellencamp. partially because his music and voice remind me of regular everyday simple life in the midwest, but also because his lyrics have always had more to them than just simplistic love pans or odes to small towns. oftentimes his songs evoke philosophical and political images, like the always amazing 'pink houses' song that has been a consistent favorite of mine, or 'cherry bomb' or 'paper in fire' or little known songs like 'melting pot' or 'down and out in paradise' or 'human wheels'. or frankly, the entire albums of scarecrow, lonesome jubilee, and one of my personal favorites whenever we wanted which have consistent messages of how hard life is and how hard-working people struggle daily, but there's larger political and corporate forces against them. (from those links to his albums you can actually read all of his lyrics and they're well-worth checking out again. poetic everyday stylings that might shock with their incredibly strong political statements, but shouldn't because he's always talked like that.)

and he's always spoken out, even if no one in the 'blue' states were paying much attention to him. and then this year, as he once again spoke out, as he has always done, he got major flak from those who felt that he had betrayed them because he spoke out against the same things he's always spoken out about (but namely this time against bush, and some of his audience, who are under the spell of the charisma and media-spins of bush, felt betrayed. but he hasn't changed. and i don't think america really has changed that much either in its heart and soul. good people can always be swindled to buy snake oil with the right packaging, even if they sometimes got an inkling it is snake oil.

anyway, i'm rambling off my subject of john mellencamp. i was reading this article, partially quoted from and linked above, about him which was called "The Blue in Blue Collar" which is quite an apt title, after my family kindly got me his wonderful greatest hits package (with even a semblance of a few of his videos on dvd), and i fell in love with his open style and political phrasing and love of america once again. for those of you who think he's just another pop singer without a real story, check it out again tonight.