The Decay of the Midwest — Ronald Reagan & John Mellencamp — pt.2 of 4
John Cougar Mellencamp — Scarecrow (1985)
Music
John Cougar Mellencamp — Scarecrow (1985)
After a successful tour in support of the Multi-platinum Uh-huh, John Mellencamp returned home in 1985 to plan for a follow-up.
After a successful first term in the White House, Ronald Reagan was sworn in for a second term in January of 1985.
John Mellencamp walked into his Belmont, Indiana recording studio in March of 1985, watching the farm community he grew up in move closer to complete collapse.
Ronald Reagan returned to the White House, with his chest puffed out and a big smile as he reflected at the “successes” of his first term, including the implosion of the American agriculture industry.
From 1972 to 1981, federal farm programs, including the US Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency cost an average 3 billion a year; however, after Ronald Reagan’s first term, the USDA and the entire system had gone sideways. The cost of those same programs had ballooned to 34 billion.
By the mid-80s, American farmers were facing an economic crisis more severe than any since the Great Depression.
There are many reasons why this happened:
High interest rates
Mountains of farmers debt
Agricultural exports fell, due in part by the grain embargo against the Soviet Union.
Inflation
High oil prices
A drought in 1983 (and again in 1988)
Sky-rocketing real estate prices in the farming community
Agricultural bank collapse — there were 10 failures in 1981 and by 1985 the number had increased to 62; half of the national bank failures in 1985 were agricultural banks.
Obviously, many of these things were out of Reagan’s control.
But not all of them.
As a candidate in 1980, Ronald Reagan was the champion of the ‘free-market,” and campaigned to the American Midwest farmers that he would get the government out of agriculture. His stump speech included promises to “to make life in rural America prosperous again” and “to restore profitability to agriculture.”
However, once he got into office, he changed course. His policies ended up doing the exact opposite. In his attempt to get the Agriculture industry to abide by the rules of the “free-market” farmers grew crops to compete on the open market. And for many of the reasons above, the market did not respond as promised or predicted. Not at all.
Where the blame lands on the Reagan administrations doorstep is that they flatly refused to do what every previous administration had done — pay farmers to stop growing so much. That counterintuitive act of paying farmers to not grow, in addition to crop support loans, market controls, and a grain reserve had underwritten U.S. farming since FDR’s New Deal.
Unfortunately for farmers, the successful farm programs and subsidies of the past were anathema to Reagan’s fiscal agenda.
To be blunt, Ronald Reagan turned his back on the American farmer.
John Mellencamp was there to call bullshit on that.
Scarecrow, the singer songwriters eighth album, was released in August of 1985. With the album’s opener, “Rain on the Scarecrow,” Mellencamp, and co-writer George Green, waste no time in firing a shot across the bow:
Scarecrow on a wooden cross blackbird in the barn
Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm
I grew up like my daddy did my grandpa cleared this land
When I was five I walked the fence while grandpa held my hand
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow
This land fed a nation this land made me proud
And son I’m just sorry theres no legacy for you now
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow
Rain on the scarecrow blood on the plow
Six of Scarecrow’s eleven songs are charged anthems …and catchy as hell. Triple the number of the two charged songs on Uh-huh. These six songs paint a musical portrait of the struggle of various Midwestern characters. In particular, those feeling the wrath of Reagan’s policies.
As the first track paints a troubling picture of the plight of the American farmer, the next track, the traditional “Grandma’s Theme” (sung by John Mellencamp’s grandmother Laura Mellencamp) serves as an allegory for Mellencamp’s agenda at the time:
Was a dark stormy night
As the train rattled on
All the passengers had gone to bed
Except a young man with a baby in his arms
Who sat there with a bowed-down head
The innocent one began crying just then
As though its poor heart would break
One angry man said, “Make that child stop its noise
For it’s keeping all of us awake.
In this case, the passengers are the American public who “had gone to bed,” as many of Ronald Reagan’s policies, like his Agricultural one, ran ram shod over the American public.
And “the innocent one began crying” would be Mellencamp singing his songs about what he is witnessing, and the “one angry man” beseeching the young man to “Make that child stop its noise” would be those those who disagree with Mellencamp.
Dialing the politics down a little “Grandma’s Theme” segues into “Small Town.” A self-reflective song that would be one of the albums three Billboard Top Ten hit singles.
The next song, “Minutes to Memories,” again co-written with childhood friend George Green, spans three generations capturing the core of what are considered “Midwestern values.” The song tells the story of a young protagonist (presumably Mellencamp) going home on a bus, and sitting next to an 77-year-old man who lays down real life lessons to the young man riding next to him:
The rain hit the old dog in the twilight’s last gleaming
He said “son it sounds like rattling old bones”
This highway is long but I know some that are longer
By sunup tomorrow I guess I’ll be home
Through the hills of Kentucky ‘cross the Ohio river
The old man kept talking ‘bout his life and his times
He fell asleep with his head against the window
He said an honest man’s pillow is his peace of mind
This world offers riches and riches will grow wings
I don’t take stock in those uncertain things
The older man foreshadows a quote from Ted Lasso: “You know how they say that youth is wasted on the young? Well, I say don’t let the wisdom of age be wasted.”
By the songs third and final verse, the protagonist has aged and come to realize that much of what the old man said is true:
The old man had a vision but it was hard for me to follow
I do things my way and I pay a high price
When I think back on the old man and the bus ride
Now that I’m older I can see he was right
Another hot one out on highway eleven
This is my life It’s what I’ve chosen to do
There are no free rides, no one said it’d be easy
The old man told me this my son I’m telling it to you
Days turn to minutes
And minutes to memories
Life sweeps away the dreams
That we have planned
You are young and you are the future
So suck it up and tough it out
And be the best you can
“Minutes to Memories” is one of Mellencamp’s most cinematic and reflective songs.
On “Lonely Ol’ Night,” Mellencamp channels the age old “booty call” — a rock and roll tradition that dates back to The Big Booper’s “Chantilly Lace,” to The Beatles “Any Time At All,” to Blondies “Call Me,” etc.
She calls me up, and she says baby
It’s a lonely ol’ night
Radio’s playin’ softly
Some singer’s sad sad song
He’s singin’ about standin’ in the shadows of love
I guess he feels awfully alone
She says I know exactly what he means
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
And it’s a sad, sad, sad, sad feelin’
When you’re livin’ on those in-betweens
The double whammy of “The Face of the Nation” and “Justice and Independence ‘85” provide two of Scarecrow’s most pointed songs.
The face of the modern republican party may currently be orange, but ground zero for its current state can be found in the whitest of white faces — Ronald Reagan.
It was Reagan’s agenda that set America in this direction by his embrace of “trickle-down” economics. The horrendously flawed economic theory that believes that the more the wealthy have, the more it will trickle down to everyone else. It’s proven time and time again to be wildly ineffective, and yet, every couple of years it’s trotted out as a viable economic policy.
Now, one could argue whether this agenda was really of his making. After all, Reagan was an actor and actors aren’t always known for their ideological resolve. So to say that the radical change to the face of the nation that Reagan’s agenda brought was his vision, is dubious.
Let’s be honest, Ronald Reagan was a B-grade actor whose most famous film had him sharing above the title credits with a chimpanzee.
That being said, by 1985, Ronald Reagan had survived an assassination attempt and was being referred to as “the great communicator.” Riding high as he was sworn in for his second term, it was true that the face of the nation had changed. And depending on your political or cultural beliefs and economic status, exactly how the face of your nation changed was wildly different.
By 1985:
Under Ronald Reagan, the federal deficit had doubled from about 990 billion in 1981 to almost 2 trillion in 1985.
More people were diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 than in all earlier years combined.
The poverty rate in 1985 was 14%. By way of comparison, the poverty rate for 2021 is projected to be 13.7% …and we’re still battling a pandemic.
Benefits provided to families under the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program had fallen 43%.
US high incomes took off in 1985, leading to the current chasm between highest and lowest household incomes.
As the face of the nation was changing, John Mellencamp took note:
As I run through this life
Sometimes it breaks my heart
Seein’ old people goin’ downtown
Stumblin’ their way through the dark
And the little babies cry
For their mothers’ warmth
Sometimes I feel so helpless
I don’t know where to start
And the face of the nation
Keeps changin’ and changin’
The face of the nation
I don’t recognize it no more
The face of the nation
The face of the nation
So many lonely people
Damn those broken dreams
Oh yes it could be better
You can say that about anything
Some got it worse than me
Some got it worse than you
You see the people starvin’ underneath the tree
And you wonder what happened to the golden rule
Also in 1985, the Cold War was still very much a part of geopolitics. The fear mongering of the Reagan administration did little to assuage the public on the threat of nuclear war. It was this fear mongering that led Reagan to preside “over the biggest peacetime defense buildup in history.”
Just because nuclear bomb drills may not have been a part of American’s daily routine, the idea was never far from anyone’s mind. Culturally, Hollywood produced movies like The Day After and Testament — which didn’t do much to lessen the worry of nuclear annihilation.
It’s a thin line between the narcissism of actors and politicians.
Using a policy that became known as the Reagan Doctrine, the Reagan administration provided overt and covert aid to anti-communist resistance movements in an effort to “rollback” Soviet-backed communist governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Under the auspices of stopping the spread of communism, all Ronald Reagan really did was bolster the idea of American exceptionalism and broaden our imperialistic approach to countries. All of those things are what make “Justice and Independence ‘85” one of Mellencamp’s most politically fueled songs. It’s also a 3:30 American history course …with a good beat you can dance to.
He was born on the fourth day of July
So his parents called him Independence Day
He married a girl named Justice who gave birth to a son called the Nation
And she walked away
Independence would daydream and he’d pretend
That some day him and Justice and Nation’d be together again
But Justice held up in a shotgun shack
Wouldn’t let nobody in
So a Nation cried…
CHORUS:
Oh, Oh
When a Nation cries
His tears fall down like missiles from the skies
Justice look into Independence’s eyes
Can you make everything alright?
And can you keep your old Nation warm tonight?
Well, Nation grew up and got himself a big reputation
Couldn’t keep the boy at home, no no
He just kept running ‘round and around and around and around
Independence and Justice well they felt so ashamed
When the Nation fell down they argued who was to blame
And Nation if you’ll just come home we’ll have this family again
Oh, Nation don’t cry
CHORUS
Roll a rock around the Country, yeah, yeah
Everybody come along
When you’re feelin’ down, yeah, yeah
Just sing this song, yeah, yeah
I’m not really sure about that last verse, but the song does contain some of Kenny Aronoff’s best playing.
The rest of Scarecrow is far from a throwaway, but it finds John Mellencamp in familiar territory and firing on all cylinders.
“Between a Laugh and a Tear” — Mellencamp tackles relationships and even taps Rickie Lee Jones to sing back-up.
Between a laugh and a tear
That’s as good as it can get for us
But that ain’t no reason to stop tryin’
“Rumbleseat” — a thing not many of the post-boomer generations would be familiar with. I suspect it’s closest parallel would the “way back” of a station wagon or SUV. A song mostly about insecurity and being overlooked.
Well, I could have a nervous breakdown
But I don’t believe in shrinks
I should be drunker than a monkey
But I don’t like to drink
Call up some girls
But I’m afraid of the phone
I’m always talkin’ to myself
I guess I’m never alone
“You Gotta Stand For Somethin’” — it’s worth reminding you that John Mellencamp’s nickname was Little Bastard. This song is part braggadocio, part philosophy, but all Mellencamp:
You gotta stand for somethin’
Or you’re gonna fall for anything
“R.O.C.K in the U.S.A” — Scarecrow’s biggest hit, and deservedly so. Where “Justice and Independence ‘85” provide a three-minute history lesson, here Mellencamp gives listeners a world-class lesson in rock and roll — name-checking everyone from Frankie Lyman, to Mitch Ryder, to Martha Reeves (of Martha and the Vandella’s.)
As great of an album as Scarecrow is, and remains, the albums legacy is closely tied to one thing in particular — Farm Aid.
In the 80s musicians gained an overwhelming degree of self-importance and began trying to save the world. That phenomenon reached its apogee in July of ’85 with the Live Aid concerts in Philadelphia and London. The proceeds of the converts were to benefit African nations.
[Fun Fact: Speaking of Martha Reeves and the Vandella’s, it’s rumored that Mick Jagger and David Bowie stayed up all night to record a cover of “Dancin’ in the Streets” and shoot a video for the Live Aid event. I suspect it was just a reason for them to get together and snort half of Bolivia because the resulting cover is the largest piece of tripe in either artists catalog. And in a era of insanely crappy and ridiculous video’s, their video for this song remains among the worst.]
And think what you may about Bob Dylan, but the man has never been known to hold back. In an off handed comment during his (awful) set at Live Aid, Dylan said the organizers should take some of the money and give it to the American farmers.
Live Aid founder Bob Geldof may have not been listening, but John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, and Neil Young were.
Two months later, the three men had rounded up a group of artists and began Farm Aid on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois. This time the goal was to raise money for family farmers in the United States.
By all accounts, including the three founders, Farm Aid was never intended to be more than a one-off event.
If you don’t think that the Agricultural policies that began with Ronald Reagan had a lasting impact, on Saturday September 25, 2021, the 36th Farm Aid event will take place in Hartford, CT and be headlined by its three founding members — Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp.
With Uh-huh, we saw how John Mellencamp was just beginning to dip his toe into politically active songs. With Scarecrow, he goes all in. And while the most politically charged songs on the record may not have been the hits, those hits were sandwiched between the more charged songs.
With worldwide sales of over 15 million albums, and coupled with the foundation of Farm Aid, Scarecrow has done a lot to shine a light on the plight of the American farmer; however, not enough to reverse Ronald Reagan’s legacy on American agriculture.
The Decay of the Midwest — Ronald Reagan & John Mellencamp — pt. 1 of 4.
John Cougar Mellencamp — Uh-huh (1983)medium.com