John Cougar's "Jack and Diane"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Man, what a great song. Surprised it has never been singled out for a thread. I really like how it begins and ends with the same riff. Great character development in nice, tight storytelling. Handclaps. Minimal instrumentation. "Oh yeah, life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone." Tremendous.

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Why do we always come here?
I guess I'll never know.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

whoops, wrong thread. Sorry.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I really don't like this song, mainly because of the hokey story aspects and Mellencamp's singing, but it has some nice aspects: it's very catchy, esp. the guitar part, and it's pleasingly stark, with a lot of space.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Isn't it the same riff, or very close to "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

No.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

The guitar part during the verses is similar to "Fast Car", but not the big riff the song is famous for.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Doo-do-do-do, Doo Doo Doo, Doo Doo Doo, Doo-do-do-do.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

No.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Duh! Duh-da-da-DAH! Da-da!

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Nuh-uh.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

uh...wtf?

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

http://mmedia.ozon.ru/multimedia/audio_cd_covers/am_08_01282.jpg

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

that one's got "Pink Houses" which is probably my favorite song by him.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:15 (twenty-one years ago)

T/S: "jack and diane" vs. "livin' on a prayer"

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-BATMAN!

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

wow. look how tiny his waist is!

xpost

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Or rather, look how huge his J/C Melon(camp) is!

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

what nick said

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

that record's title is Uh Huh, natch.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

It's got that '80's big-drums-with-empty-spaces sound, but grafted onto a folksy, blue-collar aesthetic.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was about 10, I though JCM was the shit. Really dug on what I perceived to be his "authenticity." He was my Bruce (cuz my dad had dibs on the Bruce-Bruce).

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

T/S: uh huh vs. uh huh her

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Around this time (for context), I also thought Bryan Adams was a badass.

― Huk-L, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

I tried to deny the greatness of J(C)M for a long time (esp. since he is a Hoosier), but y'know some of those songs hold up pretty well.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

It's got that '80's big-drums-with-empty-spaces sound, but grafted onto a folksy, blue-collar aesthetic.
-- n/a (nu...), September 9th, 2004.

i guess the precedent would be springsteen's "hungry heart" then? (actually most of the river.)

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

american fool was pretty damn good

uh huh was pretty damn good

scarecrow was pretty damn great

lonesome jubilee was pretty damn good

big daddy was overrated but had its moments

then he started slipping

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i guess the precedent would be springsteen's "hungry heart" then?

but "hungry heart" had no empty spaces. it's kind of an opposite production.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

ok...i guess i'm not understanding what you mean by empty spaces? are you talking about the production (EQ/reverb/etc) or the arrangement?

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:31 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost - yeah I was gonna say, "Hungry Heart" is sort of like a Spector update or something. The Coug's stuff is obv. similar to Bruce in many ways (musically, lyrically, etc., etc.), but I don't know if it owes as much a debt to Phil.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm thinking more of the arrangement, i guess: the pile-everything-on aesthetic of "hungry heart" vs. the relatively spare "j and d."

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Hated it then. Hate it now. Will hate it for all eternity, long after my lifeless corpse lies dead in the cold, cold ground.

Keep your fuckin' chili dogs and tastee-freezes.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd move Lonesome Jubilee from "good" into the "great" column, but yeah that was a pretty fantastic 4 album run (note: never heard Big Daddy, just the singles) of heartland rock, smack dab in the middle of everything else that was going on in the 80s.

As a kid I loved "Hurt So Good", but didn't care for J&D so much when it was the next single; it felt a little stiff, that big guitar riff. ALso too slow. That first strum lasting the whole bar. ALso I could never understand the second verse (STILL can't, actually: is it "dribble off those bobby-brook slabs and do what I please" ?? Dunno.) I'm quite a bit more fond of it in my dotage, actually. THe middle "bible belt" part is pretty genius.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

this always sounded, for better or worse, like a bubblegum version of heartland rock, with its spare and primary-colors arrangement. (sort of like how "i've been lonely (for so long)" is the bubblegum version of stax/volt.)

and i still have problems with his vocals...

xpost

i'm not making any friends today, so what the hell: alex, that whole "let's come up with a really gruesome image to reveal how much i hate this song/person" is extremely tired. get a new joke.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

yikes. i think they put something in the water today.

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost

Too slow? Isn't that a bit of the point? Not supposed to be raising the roof over getting old are we...

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm not making any friends today, so what the hell: alex, that whole "let's come up with a really gruesome image to reveal how much i hate this song/person" is extremely tired. get a new joke.

Who said I was joking? And believe you me, I can be a lot more gruesome than that. And I find it to hammer the point home more than simply saying "I don't like it, me."

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

frankE - yeah I do believe that was the point. But as I say, as a kid getting really immersed in pop for the first time, it disappointed coming on the heels of the hormone-inflected "Hurt So Good". I do like it now.

― Reed Moore (diamond), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

got it. makes sense.

― frankE (frankE), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

How about that video with the home movie footage?

AND JAZZ HANDS CLAPPING! DAT YOU, AL JOLSON?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

britney spears has appropriated some of the jazz-hands-clapping, which she usually follows with an ever-so-sexy rapid twist of the next and a startled "how you like me now?" expression.

didn't she do a cover of this song or something?

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

twist of the NECK

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Jessica Simpson covered it.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

(I was gonna say, in what way was Alex's post gruesome? Did someone give Am a bad touch with a Tastee-Freeze?)

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 September 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

who can name the guitar player?

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

this song rocks much harder than 90% of the pussy new wave shit alex listens too

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I never used to pay much attention to lyrics (and still largely don't), so it wasn't until a coupla years ago that I fully realized how pessimistic, how downbeat that "thrill of living" line truly is. I'm still not terribly fond of this song, but I certainly prefer it to "Hurts So Good", the second-most overplayed John Cougar (as opposed to 'Mellencamp') song.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

alex listens to pussy shit?

― oops (Oops), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

this song rocks much harder than 90% of the pussy new wave shit alex listens too

I may like a lotta stuff you'd consider crap, but "pussy new wave shit"?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

learn to rock alex. learn to roll.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:33 (twenty-one years ago)

a recording exists of a friend of mine and me singing a karaoke version of this on the ocean city, md boardwalk when we were seventeen.

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

we were drunk, obv

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

drunk on rock

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

never sobered up

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

koritfw

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Unfortunately, years and years of hearing this song at 80's nights and pub jukeboxes has destroyed any liking I might have felt for this song.

I find I say that a lot around here, sorry if I'm being a broken record.

And I know there's only two degrees of separation between JCM and Spector (via Springsteen) but JCM has NOTHING in common with Spector's sound, so I have no idea how that got brought into the discussion.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

agreed:

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not saying I hate JCM, I was just sayin' I hate THIS FUCKING SONG.

His finest moment (and one which, in the capcity of that which rocks, drops a great avalanche of pungent brown all over "Jack & Diane") is "Rain on the Scarecrow."

Learn to stop wallowing in that which sucks, cinniblount.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

who can name the guitar player?

trying to do this without looking it up. was it mike wanchic? jcm went thru a few guitarists.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 9 September 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Mick Ronson "consulted" on this album. I think that had something to do with JCM's management by Bowie's people. They're the ones that gave him the "Cougar"

― misty drizzle, Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Sometimes, when my mood and the weather are properly aligned, I think that vanilla soft-serve ice cream is the most delicious food ever invented.

― Homarus Vulgaris, Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

huh: i don't remember the lyrics to this song but it always reminds me of diary queen! am i nuts?

― amateur!!st, Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

You should be thinking of Tastee Freeze, as it's alluded to in the song.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like a poor man's Dairy Queen....which is a very sad state of affairs indeed.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Why did I think that Tastee-Freeze was like a Freezee-Pop?

― Dan Perry '08 (Dan Perry), Thursday, 9 September 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

swan song by juliana hatfield is way better. "dear jack i hate you, love diane"

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Thursday, 9 September 2004 22:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I tried to deny the greatness of J(C)M for a long time (esp. since he is a Hoosier), but y'know some of those songs hold up pretty well.

-- hstencil (hstenc!...), September 9th, 2004.

What's wrong with being a Hoosier? I'm a Hoosier. Haven't you seen "Breaking Away?"

― shookout (shookout), Friday, 10 September 2004 00:50 (twenty-one years ago)

They weren't Hoosiers, they were Cutters! (like I know the difference).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

clearly

― manthony m1cc1o (former Bloomington resident) (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Alluding to another recent thread, I would say this the perfect song for folks with stellar sound systems.

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

this song has never been one of my favorites (it's catchy but the big "life goes on" line kinda bugs me - it's so miserable) but four years of Bloomington has made me a big Coog supporter.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I prefer the Jessica Simpson rip and "Fast Car"

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:04 (twenty-one years ago)

-- manthony m1cc1o (former Bloomington resident)

My condolences.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

town's great man

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder if the real "Jack" is "in Diane?"-uh

god, sorry

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

What's wrong with being a Hoosier? I'm a Hoosier. Haven't you seen "Breaking Away?"

I am from Kentucky. We are programmed to hate Hoosiers.

Tho on visiting Bloomington for the first time last year, I kinda liked it.

(Don't tell anybody but I kinda like Seymour, where J(C)M is from, in sort of a gee-I-like-podunk-small-towns kinda way)

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I am from Kentucky. We are programmed to hate Hoosiers.

having lived in Indiana AND Pennsylvania, I am programmed to note that it all makes sense now.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:22 (twenty-one years ago)

ok hstencil since you're from Kentucky, who was Kris Thompson's boyfriend?

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:25 (twenty-one years ago)

the only Chris Thomson I know of is a dude. And not from Kentucky.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:26 (twenty-one years ago)

ie http://www.simplemachines.net/images/monorchidphoto.jpeg

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

ihttp://www.dullicious.com/

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck i'm such a dunce at posting images

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:33 (twenty-one years ago)

no, no, that's n/a.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

where do rock kids go when they leave Louisville? hmm?

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 01:56 (twenty-one years ago)

pervis ended up in boston

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:05 (twenty-one years ago)

well i heard it was cinncinati but what do i know

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

fuck a Cincinatti, that's worse than Indiana!

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

ts: fifth circle of hell vs. sixth circle of hell

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

eek

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't think i've ever been in indiana for more than 7 or 8 hours at a time, amazingly

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

it's near chicago, that's all i got to reccommend it

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I've ever been in Indiana.

But I did just pick up a slick vinyl American Fool for half a buck at a yard sale.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:30 (twenty-one years ago)

i have been to michigan city, chesterton, gary, and have driven through all those towns between gary and chicago. oh and the indiana dunes of course.

i've never really been anywhere in illinois, either, come to think of it.

i feel so ignorant of my region.

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Bloomington is accurately referred to as the liberal oasis in the conservative desert of Indiana. If you do have to be the state, you def. should be in Bloomington.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i've always heard good about bloomington, though if i went there there's no way i could fight the urge to greet everyone "'sup knight"

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"i don't think i've ever been in indiana for more than 7 or 8 hours at a time, amazingly"

i almost made yet another bad pun from the song title but hallelujah i've resisted

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

oh I've been in Indiana, but not in Indiana hahahaha.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I moved long before the Knight ousting. While I lived there you could buy paintings of Knight surrounded by two eagles at more than one store. He and the Coog were gods in that town.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:35 (twenty-one years ago)

we named the dog indiana

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Sit Indiana, Sit. Stay Indiana.

― jim wentworth (wench), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:47 (twenty-one years ago)

we named the dog indiana

-- cinniblount (littlejohnnyjewe...) (webmail), September 9th, 2004 10:37 PM. (James Blount) (later) (link)

i typed this in and then decided not to post it. :-)

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Indiana wants me
Lord
I can't go back there.
Indiana wants me
Lord
I can't go back there
I wish I had you to talk to.
If a man ever needed dyin'
He did
no one had the right
To say what he said about you
It's so cold and lonely here
Without you.
Out there the law's acomin'
I'm gettin' so tired of runnin'
Indiana wants me
Lord
I can't go back there.
Indiana wants me
Lord
I can't go back there.
I wish I had you to talk to.
It hurts to see the man that I've become
And to know I'll never see the morning
Sunshine on the land
I'll never see your smiling face
Or touch your hand.
If just once more I could see you
Our home and our little baby.
I hope this letter finds its way to you
Forgive me
love
for the shame I put
you through and all the tears
Hang on
love
to the mem'ries
Of those happy years.
Red lights are flashin' around me
Yeah
love
it looks like they found me.
Indiana wants me...

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

do you want me to post "Back Home Again in Indiana?"

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm too drunk to read this thread in its entirety right now but I will say this song has crossed my mind lately. I resent the way my mom used to comment on the line "Life Goes On, Long After the Thrill Of Living Is Gone".

This song is not as bad as some Mellencampers but still not too pleasing.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

"Life Goes On, Long After the Thrill Of Living Is Gone".

this is also the central theme of carl theodor dreyer's gertrud

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Can't go west,
Can't go east,
I'm stuck here in Indiana
with a fuel pump that's deceased...

God love that Brian Henneman. And if KY and IN are such bitter rivals, what's up with an area of the country being known as "Kentuckiana"?

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 10 September 2004 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

This here’s a story about billy joe and bobbie sue
Two young lovers with nothin’ better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose

vs.

Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two American kids growin' up in the heartland
Jackie gonna be a football star
Diane debutante backseat of Jackie's car

― chuck, Friday, 10 September 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Great song, obviously. Anybody who thinks otherwise is certifiably insane. It's like the national anthem of the midwest or something, too. And I will take the Bobby Brooks and Taste-Freez shoutouts over the Coug's later earnest whining about corporate sponsorship anyday.

― chuck, Friday, 10 September 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Gary, Indiana!
What a wonderful name,
Named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame.
Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say,
Trips along softly on the tongue this way--
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
Let me say it once again.
Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
That's the town that "knew me when."
If you'd like to have a logical explanation
How I happened on this elegant syncopation,
I will say without a moment of hesitation
There is just one place
That can light my face.
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but--
Gary, Indiana,
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
My home sweet home.

― chuck, Friday, 10 September 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm going back to Indiana
Back to where I started from
Going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come!
I spent my weeks with greener pastures
I still aint found what I was after
I got the blues
And that is why I sing
I just wanna do my thing

I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come
I'm going back to Indiana
Cause thats where my baby's from

Ok, Tito you got it!

I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come
I'm going back to Indiana
Cause thats where my baby's from

Hollywood you got a lot of pretty things
I saw a lot of moviestars with diamond rings
But I aint got my baby
And I'm feeling wrong
Thats why I gotta sing my song

I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come
I'm going back to Indiana
Cause thats where my baby's from
Yeah!

I'm comin', I'm comin', I'm comin', I'm comin'
I'm home, yeah!

Ha! ha! sis boom bah!
One more time for Roosevelt High!
Every soul that passes by
This one's for you from the Jackson 5!
I'm comin' home
It's plain to see
I still got Indiana soul in me!

I'm going back to Indiana
Indiana here I come
I'm going back to Indiana
Cause thats where my baby's from
That where she is, yeah yeah...

― chuck, Friday, 10 September 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.keithdelellisgallery.com/Exhibitions/Iron&Steel/images/11%20%20Gordon%20Coster.%20%20US%20Steel%20Gary%20Indiana.jpg

― amateur!!st, Friday, 10 September 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

And if KY and IN are such bitter rivals, what's up with an area of the country being known as "Kentuckiana"?

Only newscasters call it that. And they are not, as we all know, people.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 10 September 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i used to hate this song because of its production AND its lyrics. then again i am currently listening to a Thomas Bangalter song that shamelessly samples Steve Winwood's "Valerie". of all the things i lost, i miss my mind yada yada.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The thing that has always bugged me about "Jack and Diane" is the part where after the big crunchy riff that dinky little metallic synth "duh-nun" sound comes in. I guess it's supposed to symbolize the inevitable return of ordinary boring life after the passing of a transient thrill or something - but it just sounds totally un-rock if you ask me.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

you musta hated the nineties!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to know these girls whose dad was named Gary and whose mom was named Deanna. It took me six years to figure out the Gary and Deanna / Gary, Indiana homophone.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

In Indianapolis we added "-tucky" to the end of every place outside the city....Kokomo was Kokotucky, Muncie was Muncietucky, etc.

Anyway, like it or not, Mellencamp is our Springsteen. In his hit-making heyday I in high school and far too self-conscious to admit to mental snapshot of home no matter where I am,,,."Just Another Day" was a fantastic, later single.

― shookout (shookout), Saturday, 11 September 2004 11:12 (twenty-one years ago)

eight years pass...

In 1982, producer and guitarist Mick Ronson worked with Mellencamp on his American Fool album, and in particular on "Jack & Diane." In a 2008 interview with Classic Rock magazine, Mellencamp recalled:
"Mick was very instrumental in helping me arrange that song, as I'd thrown it on the junk heap. Ronson came down and played on three or four tracks and worked on the American Fool record for four or five weeks. All of a sudden, for 'Jack & Diane,' Mick said 'Johnny, you should put baby rattles on there.' I thought, 'What the fuck does put baby rattles on the record mean?' So he put the percussion on there and then he sang the part 'let it rock, let it roll' as a choir-ish-type thing, which had never occurred to me. And that is the part everybody remembers on the song. It was Ronson's idea."[3]

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Sunday, 25 August 2013 06:02 (twelve years ago)

Always thought he was singing "Hold on to the 60s as long as you can", which is about as lame as what he's really singing.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 27 August 2013 23:30 (twelve years ago)

one year passes...

enjoyed this:
http://thehairpin.com/2014/11/little-known-facts-about-jack-diane

― my jaw left (Hurting 2), Friday, 7 November 2014 17:49 (eleven years ago)

It just struck me around episode 4 of Blackish that the twins' names are Jack and Diane.

― Johnny Fever, Friday, 7 November 2014 17:50 (eleven years ago)

six years pass...

Jack and Diane but all of the lyrics are “suckin’ on a chili dog” pic.twitter.com/p0w7w0hDTV
— Tom McGovern (@tommcgovern27) February 12, 2021

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 14 February 2021 16:03 (five years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.