One of the songs that has continued to be a hot bed of consternation for decades is John Cougar Mellencamp's Top 10 hit, "Pink Houses."
The roots of the song, though, had little to do with being political, according to Mellencamp.
Mellencamp was riding in a car in Indianapolis, heading home to Bloomington, Ind., from Indianapolis' airport. He stared out the car window on the overpass on I-65 and saw the inspiration -- an older African-American man sitting on the front porch of his small, pink house stroking his cat in his arms. Mellencamp said he waved at the man and the man waved back at him, all the while unassuming to the fact that this overpass was literally on his front yard!
Thus the genesis of "Pink Houses." What Mellencamp saw heading back from the airport is the basis of the first verse in which he describes what he sees and the older man "thinking he's got it so good." Then in the same verse, he sees a woman in the kitchen cleaning up the "evening slop." That black man turns to her and says he can remember when she could "stop a clock."
And thus began the chorus of contention among party lines alike for the next couple of generations: "Ain't that America, for you and me. Ain't that America, we're something to see, baby. Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah. Little pink houses for you and me."
The second verse of the song talks about a young man with "greasy hair, greasy smile" who believes he's found his "destination." Then he talks about when he was younger that older folks said "Boy, you're going to be president." But comes to the realization in the next line, "But just like everything else those ol' crazy dreams, just kinda came and went."
However, for as fine as Mellencamp was with the first two verses of "Pink Houses," he said he was never too thrilled with the third verse. In a 2014 interview he did with the Orlando Sentinel, Mellencamp said, "Now when I hear that song, all I can think is, 'Why didn't I do a better job on the third verse?' If I had written it today, the last verse would've had more meaning."
The verse goes: "Well there's people ... and more people. What do they know, know, know? Go to work in some high rise, and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico. And there's winners, and there's losers. But that ain't no big deal. 'Cause the simple man, baby, pays the bills, the thrills, the pills that kill."
Whether he liked the last verse he crafted or not, Mellencamp's song about the dissolving of the American dream hit a chord with middle-class America. As the second release to his album "Uh-Huh," his first in which he was allowed to use his real last name after going by John Cougar on his first three albums, "Pink Houses" made its Hot 100 debut on December 10, 1983, at No. 45. The next week, "Pink Houses" jumped into the Top 40 at No. 32, the highest Top 40 debut of the week, and began its climb up the countdown. On January 21, 1984, "Pink Houses" leaped into the Top 20 from No. 22 to No. 13. Two weeks later, it was in the Top 10 at No. 10. The week of February 11, 1984, it jumped up from No. 10 to No. 8. That would be the last week of moving up the chart for "Pink Houses" would drop to No. 16 and eventually head off the countdown after 11 weeks.
During the summer of '84, Mellencamp was part of an MTV promotion of buying a house for a fan and his family to move into in Mellencamp's home state of Indiana. But according to Rolling Stone, there was one problem -- MTV purchased the house for $20,000 and it was immediately across the street from a toxic waste dump. Scrambling, MTV bought a new house for the promotion, painted it pink along with Mellencamp and other helpers like it intended with the first house and had the family who won the contest move in ... and that one was far away from the toxic waste site. The other house that was across the street from that site was still on the books for MTV until 1992 since the network couldn't get rid of it.
The promotion may have been a near disaster, and since its release, the song had its own misadventure. Like in other situations (most notably President Reagan's misinterpreting the meaning of Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A."), "Pink Houses" was made into a patriotic song about this country, but was far from that in real life. And when politicians began to look to use the song for their campaigns, Mellencamp had to put his foot down. In 2008, Republican Presidential nominee John McCain used the song at his stops along his campaign. One problem, though -- Mellencamp is a proud progressive Democrat. His representatives contacted McCain's staffers and told them to stop using the song it. Then in another event, "Pink Houses" was used by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) at events opposing same-sex marriage. Again, being the progressive he is, Mellencamp asked his representatives to have NOM stop using the song and that they "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."
"Pink Houses" remains a lightning rod politically, specifically with those who disagree with Mellencamp over his views of Reagan's America in that time period. But there's no denying that "Pink Houses" is also one of Mellencamp's greatest songs and still a favorite when he does it in concert.
Like in many of Mellencamp's songs, he writes what he witnesses.
Even the black man with a black cat outside his pink house with "interstate running through his front yard."
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