The 1985 album Scarecrow was a rebirth of sorts for John Cougar Mellencamp. Saddled with a silly stage name, Johnny Cougar was trying to redefine his career almost from the beginning. After a few years of playing clubs, the success of American Fool put him on the map. “Hurts so Good” and “Pink Houses” benefitted from heavy rotation on MTV. In a defiant move, his next album was released under “John Cougar Mellencamp.”
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Uh-Huh also sold well, but in Scarecrow, Mellencamp found his footing. He would go on to refine the vision on The Lonesome Jubilee in 1987.
As he prepared for Scarecrow, Mellencamp talked with his longtime co-writer George M. Green. They were wondering why the small towns were disappearing around them. They realized it was caused by factory farms, leading to the failure of small farms.
Let’s take a look at the meaning behind “Small Town” by John Cougar Mellencamp.
Well, I was born in a small town
And I live in a small town
Probably die in a small town
Oh, those small communities
Mellencamp grew up in Seymour, Indiana. He ventured to the big city to get a record deal but always wanted to keep his roots firmly planted in Southern Indiana.
He told MTV in 1985, “When I initially wrote the song, it was like, I didn’t really know I was gonna write a song. I just sat down, I was playing my guitar, and all of a sudden, it was like,’ I was born in a small town.’ And it was real simple.”
All my friends are so small town
My parents live in the same small town
My job is so small town
Provides little opportunity, hey
“I get enjoyment out of my old high school friends,” he continued. “I get enjoyment out of just hanging around in this place, and like I said in the song, I was born here. I’ll die here.”
Educated in a small town
Taught to fear of Jesus in a small town
Used to daydream in that small town
Another boring romantic, that’s me
In 2013, Mellencamp told Rolling Stone, “Small Town” reflected conversations that I heard in the music business. I had a stuttering problem, and my accent and people would say, ‘You talk funny.’ I would think, ‘You’re the one with the New York accent.’ In interviews, people would ask, ‘Do people in Bloomington [Indiana] even have MTV? Do they have CNN?’”
He added, “I wanted to write a song that said, ‘You don’t have to live in New York or Los Angeles to live a full life or enjoy your life.’ I was never one of those guys that grew up and thought, ‘I need to get out of here.’”
But I’ve seen it all in a small town
Had myself a ball in a small town
Married an L.A. Doll and brought her to this small town
Now she’s small town, just like me
In 2018, he shared a memory with Dan Rather, “It was impossible for anybody to read my lyrics except me because I have dyslexia and I can’t spell. I was given a typewriter that had a spell correct on it. It had a little computer chip in it, and whenever you misspelled a word, it would beep at you. Of course, it wouldn’t correct the spelling. It just identified the fact that you had misspelled a word.
“I was sitting downstairs typing out ‘Small Town,’ ding, ding, ding,” he continued. “And the woman, my aunt, who worked for me, I heard her upstairs laughing, and I walked upstairs, and I was teasing her. I go, ‘What do you think’s so damn funny?’ She goes, ‘That spell thing’s really working for you.’ I go, ‘Yeah, but listen to this.’ And I played her ‘Small Town.’ And she just went, ‘Wow!’”
No, I cannot forget from where it is that I come from
I cannot forget the people who love me
Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town
And people let me be just what I want to be
The 2022 reissue of Scarecrow includes Mellencamp’s further reflections. “You just need that one line that’s truthful,” he said. “You can make the rest of the stuff up. But, as long as you’ve got that one true line, then you can build off that. It’s just learning to let the song go where it wanted to go and not have me direct the song.”
Got nothing against a big town
Still hayseed enough to say
Look who’s in the big town
But my bed is in a small town
Oh, and that’s good enough for me
He continued, “I, logically, would never have written the song with ‘small town, small town, small town’ in it so many times, but emotionally, it worked. When I was growing up in Seymour, every weekend, my grandparents would take me into Seymour, and it was a place where you could see friends and talk, and the kids would run around, and the farmers would bring in stuff to sell over the weekends. You know, it was the 1950s, and small towns were all owned and operated, let’s just say, by the community. It all supported itself. We were all in it together. The same way that you and your friends today are all in it together. … When the artist is surprised. When you write something, or you paint something, and you go, ‘This is nothing what I intended to do. But, the song, or the painting, takes over,’ and it’s your job as the artist to keep up with that imagination.”
Well, I was born in a small town
And I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in a small town
Oh, and that’s probably where they’ll bury me, yeah
It’s an anthem for folks from rural communities, but it is also relatable to the people living in the cities. Mellencamp speaks for all of us.
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Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
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