Song(s) of the Day — August 8
“Don’t Misunderstand Me” — John Cougar & The Rossington Collins Band
“Don’t Misunderstand Me” — John Cougar & The Rossington Collins Band
The struggle for love and understanding is as integral to rock and roll as heartbreak. You can’t have one without the other.
“Don’t Misunderstand Me”
John Cougar
Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did
John Mellencamp (then known as John Cougar)had a minor hit in 1979 with “I Need A Lover” (Billboard #28). That same year, when Pat Benatar covered “I Need A Lover” off her debut album, he gained even more traction in the Heat of the Night.
Riding high from that, he took producer Steve Cropper — co-writer of “(Sitting On) the Dock of the Bay” with Otis Redding and guitarist for Stax Records house band Booker T & the MG’s— and holed up to record Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did.
While the album was able to capitalize on the momentum of “I Need A Lover” by scoring Mellencamp two Billboard top 40 hits, “This Time” (peaking at #27) and “Ain’t Even Done with the Night” (peaking at #17).
As a longtime Mellencamp fan, it’s that third track on Notin’ Matters … that remains one of my favorite Mellencamp songs — “Don’t Misunderstand Me.” The song traipses over well-worn territory. The never-ending struggle between men and women, and it plays into typical gender roles.
There is the charming yet irresponsible “man-child” and the rock-solid responsible woman who loves him.
On the one hand, you have the “renegade” narrator, who is “crazy and wild” while his partner looks on telling him he “lacks maturity” and to “stop acting like a child.”
“Don’t Misunderstand Me” is catchy and beats a tired subject, but Mellencamp’s simple writing adds a degree of authenticity to the song. It’s more than a song; it’s a plea for the woman to continue to hold on and have faith. All the battles and struggles that they encounter won’t be for naught. Our narrator knows that ultimately, it’s all going to work out.
As the songwriter himself and knowing a little about John Mellencamp’s life, in retrospect, “Don’t Misunderstand Me” sounds autobiographical. In 1980, Mellencamp wasn’t a huge star, so it was either naivete’ or brass balls that led him to write a song with such confidence … but, he proved to be right.
It would be his next album, American Fool, that would place him center-stage as a popular singer-songwriter and artist for the remainder of the ’80s, well into the ’90s, and up to today.
If only the real-life gender struggle between the “man-child” and the women who love them would work out as well as it did for Mellencamp.
Don’t Misunderstand Me
I bring you renegade stories
And you tell me I’m crazy and wild
You say that I lack maturity
Stop actin’ like a child
But you know I am a liar
And my promises only get in my way
You feel so good, when you’re in my arms
Ain’t there one right thing I can say
To make you want to stay
Chorus
Oh, oh baby, baby
Don’t misunderstand me
Oh, oh baby, baby
You tell me that you love me but
This ain’t no way for you to live
You hold so tight your fingers are broken
I take more than I care to give
But it’s heartbeat to heartbeat
It’s push and shove and steal and prove
It’s hand to mouth sometimes
If we run hard enough someday baby
Gonna find some room to move
Chorus x1
All of this showin’ and provin’
Is nothing but fear
Everybody can do what they want
But they just can’t do it here
Girl hold on to my childishness
I’m gonna break on through
Out of this mess
Critics were mixed, at best, but mostly dismissed Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did and Mellencamp … the critics would come to regret that.
“Don’t Misunderstand Me”
The Rossington Collins Band
Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere
By 1980, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins had decided that the plane crash that decimated their other band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, shouldn’t stop them from making music.
The two guitarists called up fellow Skynyrd alum Leon Wilkeson on bass and Billy Powell on keyboards, and pulled in former .38 Special back-up singer Dale Krantz (Rossington’s future wife), and third guitarist and singer Barry Lee Harwood and got to it!
Aside from drummer Artimus Pyle (who backed out because of a broken arm), this new Rossington Collins Band was all but a Lynyrd Skynyrd reunion; expectations were high.
Where Mellencamp’s “Don’t Misunderstand Me” was a plea — and to be clear, an entirely different song — this Rossington Collins Band “Don’t Misunderstand Me” is a back and forth between a man and woman.
Here there is no “man-child” for the woman to take care of or tolerate. But there is still the role of man as a hunter: “But you been hidin’, and I been ridin’ like the wind to find you.” Also, a man unafraid to dole out commands: “Well now lady get your dress on, grab them fancy shoes.”
Given the sound of Krantz’s gravely voice, the female here has a more substantial presence: “I don’t need no promises, just tell me the truth, Mister keep it honest that’s all I ask of you.” In the Rossington Collins Band song, the woman is not a passive observer but an active participant and companion: “Honey I’m ready, and waitin’ on you, Time is surely wastin’, we’ve so much to do.”
Don’t Misunderstand Me
MAN
Oh well I know where you’re goin’, I see where you’ve been
Don’t you know by now, you’ve got to take life on the chin
Still you sit and wonder, why the past is gone
Baby you’ll go under if you don’t carry on
Don’t misunderstand me, I realize it ain’t easy to take
But you been hidin’, and I been ridin’ like the wind to find you
Hey… just you
WOMAN
I don’t need no promises, just tell me the truth
Mister keep it honest that’s all I ask of you
Don’t be second guessin’ ‘bout where you gonna be
Baby count your blessin’s, ’cause you won’t find one like me
Don’t misunderstand me, I realize it ain’t easy to take
But you been hidin’, I been ridin’ like the wind to find you
MAN
Well now lady get your dress on, grab them fancy shoes
WOMAN
Honey I’m ready, and waitin’ on you
Time is surely wastin’, we’ve so much to do
BOTH
We’re both too smart to be fakin’
WOMAN
And I know it doesn’t matter which road you take
Or is it your way or my way
MAN
Well then lady let me tell you what we’re gonna do,
WOMAN
uh-huh
MAN
We’re gonna ride every highway
BOTH
Don’t misunderstand me, babe I realize it ain’t easy to take
But you been hidin’, and I been ridin’ like the wind to find you
To find you… to find you… to find you… to find you
Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere sold well and the band garnered decent reviews, but Allen Collins erratic behavior meant the group was only able to push out one more album before hanging up their dusters for good.
Where John Mellencamp played into more typical gender roles in his “Don’t Misunderstand Me”, the Rossington Collins Band tried a more balanced approach.
Using the personal pronoun “I” Mellencamp’s song has a more egocentric chauvinistic approach where the woman isn’t a part of the journey, but a passenger:
Girl hold on to my childishness
I’m gonna break on through
Out of this mess
With Mellencamp, it’s him asking her not to be misunderstood.
The Rossington Collins Band’s “Don’t Misunderstand Me” also uses a personal pronoun with “We” but in doing so, the song finds a more balanced tone. It also helps to have the back and forth between Krantz and Harwood:
BOTH
We’re both too smart to be fakin’
WOMAN
And I know it doesn’t matter which road you take
Or is it your way or my way
MAN
Well then lady let me tell you what we’re gonna do,
WOMAN
uh-huh
MAN
We’re gonna ride every highway
With The Rossington Collins Band, it’s the dialog of each asking the other to not be misunderstood.
In the cases of both songs, even in 1980, the love languages of Mars and Venus had trouble aligning.