JOHN MELLENCAMP - PINK HOUSES

PINK HOUSES

JOHN MELLENCAMP

SONGWRITER: ISLAND DEF JAM MUSIC GROUP

COUNTRY: U.S.A.

WHERE: LIVE AT FARM AID 2005

ALBUM: UH-HUH

LABEL: RIVA RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK AND ROLL

YEAR: 1983

"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Mellencamp. It was released on the 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1984. "Pink Houses" was ranked No. 439 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Recorded in a farmhouse in Brownstown, Indiana, the song was inspired when Mellencamp was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana from the Indianapolis airport. There was an old black man sitting outside his little Pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how 'Pink Houses' started."

Mellencamp has stated many times since the release of "Pink Houses" that he's unhappy with the song's final verse. At an October 2014 press conference, he stated: "A long time ago, I wrote a song called 'Pink Houses.' Now when I hear that song, all I can think is: 'Why didn't I do a better job on the last verse?' If I had written it today, the last verse would've had more meaning."

The song also served as a scathing critique of Yuppies and Reaganomics and the overall "Greed is good" atmosphere of the time.

There's a black man with a black cat

Living in a black neighborhood

He's got an interstate running' through his front yard

You know, he thinks, he's got it so good

And there's a woman in the kitchen cleaning' up evening slop

And he looks at her and says:

"Hey darling, I can remember when you could stop a clock"

Oh but 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, oh for you and me

Well there's a young man in a T-shirt

Listenin' to a rock 'n' roll station

He's got a greasy hair, greasy smile

He says: "Lord, this must be my destination"

'Cause they told me, when I was younger

Sayin' "Boy, you're gonna be president"

But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams

Just kinda came and went

Oh but 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, oh baby for you and me

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

Ooo yeah

And there's winners, and there's losers

But they ain't no big deal

'Cause the simple man baby pays the thrills,

The bills and the pills that kill

Oh but 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, ooo, ooo yeah

Ain't that America, for you and me

Ain't that America, hey we're something to see baby

Ain't that America, oh the home of the free,

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Little pink houses babe for you and me, ooo yeah ooo yeah.