John Mellencamp

All posts tagged John Mellencamp

Too fast

Published 05/28/2011 by MoonieZ

The other day while taking some photos of  flowers in the garden I thought of how fast the seasons change and how short the summer really is here. I’ve never thought of it before the same way but after this winter when there was snow covering the ground from November to late March I have really longed for a long warm summer. Now it seems it won’t be longer than usual.Perhaps two months at the most. Three months if we are really, really lucky then we fall back into darkness and cold and eventually snow.

Spotify provides nice background music when it selects John Mellencamp‘s depressing tune Empty Hands while on auto-shuffle through my playlist.

So I think time is moving too fast. Going faster every year. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe I’m just too slow.

Anyway A Camp comes next singing about love being stronger than Jesus and how love can kill anyone like a shotgun…. Not a very promising proposition. And yet, without love what have I got left ?

 

Nostalgia

Published 02/04/2011 by MoonieZ
Lives in the Balance

Image via Wikipedia

I remember the early February days back in 1986. Last half of the last year of highschool had just begun.  Walking home from the bus station after having gone through another day of school. Probably thinking of some movie I had seen – or some book I was reading. Hearing the sound of some song in my head. Softly singing the words to myself. Might have been some tune off of Jackson Browne‘s album Lives In The Balance but it may also have been one from Steve Winwood, John Mellencamp or Bruce Springsteen. The full catastrophe of our prime minister being shot dead in the street while on his way home from a cinema had yet to hit the nation. Things were pretty good and as normal as normal can be.

Why do I think of this now ? I was watching  music video clips on YouTube today and suddenly had some flashbacks from when I first heard the songs.

In those days  I was often thinking of some story to write. Settings, characters and themes, bits and pieces of dialogue were floating through my mind  while I walked the 2ooo meters back home. Also I was most likely thinking of a certain blonde girl in my class whom I happened to have a big crush on at the time. I had just begun to communicate with her through old-school hand-written letters sent by postal mail. That’s what people did back then. They actually sat down with a pen and paper and wrote letters, folded the paper, put it in an envelope and mailed it. Then they waited a few days for the receiver to read and respond to the letter.  It wasn’t all instant like today’s email, chat, twitter and Facebook. Anyway, I had probably just gotten a letter or just sent one and had to think about what would happen next or what the response ought to be. It would still be more than  a month before I would get the letter that would shatter my hopes and dreams but for the time being I was happy to have the connection I had.

What else was I thinking about? Probably politics. I had just recently begun to take an interest in political matters and my freshly formed and rather shallow political views were decidedly left-wing. That was one reason why I bought Jackson Browne’s album. Also I had begun to pick up on some political currents in the music of Springsteen and Mellencamp.

Sweden back in those days had a political climate dominated by the ruling Social Democratic Party (Arbetarepartiet Socialdemokraterna) and the mood  of the society has since  been described as rather dull and  bland. However , I liked living in Sweden back in those days. Unemployment was almost zero, taxes were high but the standard of living was also at the absolute top among the nations of the world. Things worked back then. Life was safe and secure and you didn’t have to worry as much as today. Sure there were only two channels of national public service television available and not too many radio channels. But it worked. It was stable.  The future looked bright as a job would not be too hard to find once school was finished.

While being a rather dull and bland society, Sweden  was and is heavily influenced by American popular culture. To the degree that some critics were saying even back then that Sweden ought to be the 51st state of the United States of America.

We have most of the fast-food franchises (not as many then as  there are today), are influenced by American cuisine, we listen to American music, read American books and magazines,  follow American sports, watch American TV-shows and of course lots of American movies. We wear clothes influenced by American fashion and we are generally skilled at speaking English.

Being a teenager in Sweden was hence not much different  from being a teenager in the United States. At least that was what many  of us believed since not many had actually visited the United States or had any real knowledge of what it actually is like to live in the American society. Our image of American life was formed by TV, music and movies and while not entirely false it was by no means realistic. It was a dream or perhaps a kind of illusion we all  willingly indulged in. Even those of us who  were opposed to the American influence upon the rest of the world.

I’m not sure where I am going with this post so I might aswell end it before I digress further.  At least it is a sort of glimpse of a time long gone. Perhaps.  Maybe only a lot of words.

“Paper in Fire”

Published 10/04/2010 by MoonieZ

John Mellencamp – Paper in Fire (live at FarmAid 2010)

Saw this today on YouTube and decided to add the link to my blog because this was the first song John Mellencamp performed  at the concert I attended in Stockholm back in January 1988. My first ever visit to a live concert by a foreign artist. Was a great evening which I will never forget.

1990 live performance at FarmAid

Official music video of Paper in Fire

Remember

Published 09/26/2010 by MoonieZ

Sitting here. Saturday night. I’m all alone as usual. Sitting here. Thinking. Listening to music. Thinking back on the glory days. When I was still young. Where did all the time go ? Once  I thought I had all the time in the world to do what I wanted to do. Then I thought I had time to find out what I wanted to do. Now that time is all used up and I still don’t know what I want to do. So much wasted time. Listening to Dire Straits thinking back on the girl at school who introduced the music of Dire Straits to me almost 25 years ago. If it hadn’t been for her I probably would never have started to listen. If not for her I would never have found out how much I like John Mellencamp‘s music. Sometimes I wonder if she ever returned from that trip around the world she embarked on a long time ago. Haven’t heard from her since then. Last news was a postcard from Bali or someplace around there. Anyway I’ve already told the story on this blog about how she managed to break my heart – or rather how I managed to break my then young fragile heart over her. Foolish I was to break my heart over somebody who never loved me and never ever would, no matter how much I wanted it to happen. Well sometimes listening to music brings back a lot of memories of the past. I don’t know why I always return to my past. Maybe because I think the future hasn’t got much to offer ? Maybe because  I think my best days are all behind me ? Well I hope there are some good days still left in front of me but I can’t deny I doubt it lately. The way my life is going I don’t know if it even deserves to be called a life. At least its not living, its just staying alive. Still I keep on hoping there’ll be something good coming my way yet. If I just hold on one more day things will change. Right ?  So why did I start writing this ? Oh I was listening to some old tunes and started to remember my glory days. The sky was the limit. Everything was possible. How I long for those good old days now ! To be back in the high life again…. Keep dreaming.