I have the North Side High School girls volleyball team from the fall of 1983 to blame for my owning American Fool by the artist formerly known as John Cougar. I’ve tagged him as John Cougar Mellencamp so that it covers all the bases.
As you know i have two younger sisters. Barb is almost 3 years younger, Bethany is 6 years younger. One of the duties I had when I moved back home was to provide transportation for my little sisters. It wasn’t too bad and in fact it was kind of fun. Ask Bethany about doing donuts in the parking lot at Gateway Plaza.
On the night before I bought American Fool, I was asked to go to pick Barb up. She was attending a volleyball party. It was a sleepover but for some reason Barb had couldn’t stay there all night. It must have been around 11:00 pm or so when I went to pick her up. The house was in that fancy neighborhood just off State street between Crescent and Anthony. The homes reflect the upscale sensibilities of the 1930’s with striking architecture and manicured lawns. I parked in the driveway and went to the door. The mother of the house opened it. I told her that was there to collect my sister Barb. She tells me they are downstairs. I take the stairs down to an amazingly finished basement where there are at least two dozen high school girls is various degrees of skimpy night attire. The stereo is blasting Hurt So Good and they are all singing along and dancing about. It could have been one of those teen movies. Needless to say, I was impacted.
The next day I went to Wooden Nickel and bought American Fool and or a couple of weeks Hurt So Good was my favorite song. I had never heard of John Cougar but Hurt So Good is actually a pretty good song even without the visual.
Hurt So Good
Jack And Diane It is an interesting but sad notion that “life goes on long after the trill of living is gone.”
Hand To Hold On To