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[robot_god]

Well the thrill is certainly gone from Mellencamp's new material.

[V-Adore]

I really like how this video comes from the Extremely Literal Age of music-video production, such that when Mellencamp is singing about suckin' on a chili dog outside the Tastee Freeze, Diane's sittin' on Jackie's lap, got his hands between her knees, this is literally what the video portrays. I've gotten so used to the "grainy sepia footage of a pig's head spinning on a turntable"/"just footage of the band wandering through nightmare landscapes singing" school that this is kind of odd.

Never mind the boxes.

[Enkidu]

I really like how this video comes from the Extremely Literal Age of music-video production, such that when Mellencamp is singing about suckin' on a chili dog outside the Tastee Freeze, Diane's sittin' on Jackie's lap, got his hands between her knees, this is literally what the video portrays. I've gotten so used to the "grainy sepia footage of a pig's head spinning on a turntable"/"just footage of the band wandering through nightmare landscapes singing" school that this is kind of odd.

Never mind the boxes.

Yes.  Parts of this REO Speedwagon song come to mind - specifically the "candle in the window" and "running 'round in circles in my mind" parts.

[pmcd9]

this REO Speedwagon song

They looked as bored playing this song as I felt listening to it.

~Paul

[pmcd9]

I guess those dickbag Chevy commercials are not out of character. 

Dickbag Chevy Commercial

No, it's not out of character, he's been doing the whole rust belt rocker from the farm state thing his entire career.  When he sings about "running off to the big city" in that song he's talking about Terre Haute.  He's a poor mans Bruce Springsteen is what he is.  Very poor.

~Paul

[Drastic Action]

Yes.  Parts of this REO Speedwagon song come to mind - specifically the "candle in the window" and "running 'round in circles in my mind" parts.

There should definitely be some middle grown between stark replication of lyrics into reality and inane nonsense.  I just feel awkward when the video is portraying precisely what the lyrics are saying.  Something vaguely unsettling about it.

And That reo speedwagon video..  it seems to do both, given that the "candle in the window" thing got repeated twice, while there was also the moment of there being people with fuzzy blue faces outside another window.

[theinevitable]

I read somewhere that people think the first movie to use the techniques of modern music videos was Un Chien Andalou.

So I guess we can blame Dali for that... asshole. What a fuck*ng prick. Making me write a paper about his goddamn movie, all having too many cuts in it for me to possibly explain in 4 pages...

also: I now always think of the punk band John Cougar Concentration Camp when I hear of this man. Heh.

final: what a cad of a man.

[V-Adore]

Yeah, that Speedwagon video manages to get the worst of both worlds: extreme literalism on things like the candle in the window (and the inclusion of the ship for no reason), nonsense on most else. The thing is that, to ramble a bit, I don't even mind the literalism as a stylistic choice on the "Jack and Diane" video; the song is basically a narrative, and the video depicts that narrative reasonably realistically, which strikes me as a logical choice even if it surprises me. The Speedwagon video, on the other hand, is bizarrely literal and doesn't even depict the song's narrative, choosing instead to portray one where a great deal of surrealist things related the the lyrics happen to a guy, who eventually dies alone. Feel-good!

So, who wants to have a "Can't Fight This Feeling" party? I'll be the extremely apathetic, mildly peeved piano player!

[SpeedyG]

C'mon we all know "Love is a Battlefield" parties are the best. Who don't love dressing like pimps and whores and shimmying to freedom?

[linnea]

Oh you kids, all not knowin' Jack & Diane.

Suckin' on chili dogs, outside the Tastee Freez.

Diane's sittin' on Jackie's lap, got his hands a'tween her knees.

CLAP! CLAP CLAP!

*shudder* I hate that song...

[Drastic Action]

That song was one of the first MP3s I got once I got a computer that was (gasp!) fast enough to decode/play MP3s.  I remember playing Quake or Daggerfall to that song, on a loop with other decidedly random selections.  Hey, it was the early days of the internet (at least, to me) and I was taking whatever I could get.  I get flashbacks of that whole time period whenever I listen to any of those songs.  As a result, I could never love or hate them -- they just exist, and feel like a bit of history.

[Carlos del Vaca]

The thing is that, to ramble a bit, I don't even mind the literalism as a stylistic choice on the "Jack and Diane" video; the song is basically a narrative, and the video depicts that narrative reasonably realistically, which strikes me as a logical choice even if it surprises me.

Aren't the visuals in that song actually old home movies of Johnny Cougar and his girlfriend, which pre-dated the song?  And since the song is also based on that time in his life, they just found bits of the movie that matched up to the song.  They didn't actually go out and film it for purposes of the video.  Maybe I'm talking out of my ass, but I seem to recall that being the case.

[Sub_Topical]

No, it's not out of character, he's been doing the whole rust belt rocker from the farm state thing his entire career.  When he sings about "running off to the big city" in that song he's talking about Terre Haute.  He's a poor mans Bruce Springsteen is what he is.  Very poor.

Ditto'd except for maybe the last two words. But give dude a break, it's hard to shill to the level of 'Like A Rock'.

Hey pmcdguy: The phrase Mustachiod Fourflusher comes to mind everytime you pop up in a thread here. I bet you're pretty much the opposite of that, but my brain likes the phrase.

[pmcd9]

Ditto'd except for maybe the last two words. But give dude a break, it's hard to shill to the level of 'Like A Rock'.

Yeah, your right.  I actually liked his stuff during the 80's when he got really popular.  And he helped create Farm Aid and that ain't no bad thing.

However, that new song of his really sucks big time.  He played it live before one of the world series games.  A couple of thoughts ran through my head (just like in that REO song).  I was thinkinging this is the World Series, can't they get someone more relevant, someone whose had a hit in this decade, or at least the last?  Then I thought, this is the world series when did they start having concerts before the game?  15 minutes later that commercial premiered and I was like oh Ok, I get it now.

Hey pmcdguy: The phrase Mustachiod Fourflusher comes to mind everytime you pop up in a thread here. I bet you're pretty much the opposite of that, but my brain likes the phrase.

I hope so, and you can call me Paul.

~Paul

[Sub_Topical]

See, now we're basically on the same page, especially regarding the game concert/commercial premier nexus. I remember feeling...vast disappointment.

rain on the scarecrow
Blood on the plow

I'll help sell Chevy's
To crap tunes now