http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/23/john-mellencamp-jack-and-diane-interracial-_n_5868650.html
Little ditty about “Jack & Diane”: those two American kids growing up in the heartland were originally an interracial couple.
John Mellencamp’s 1982 hit — which he released under the name John Cougar — has since become iconic, along with its two characters, the football star and the debutante who spend their time “suckin’ on chili dogs outside the Tastee Freez.” But Jack was originally supposed to be a much different character, Mellencamp told HuffPost Live on Monday.
“Originally the line was Jack was not a football star, Jack was an African American,” Mellencamp said. “In 1982, when I turned the song in to the record company, they went, ‘Whoa, can’t you make him something other than that?’”
The singer-songwriter tried to stick with his original vision at first, but he was eventually persuaded otherwise, he told host Marc Lamont Hill.
“I said, ‘Well, I don’t really want to [change it]. I mean, that’s the whole point. This is really a song about race relationships and a white girl being with a black guy, and that’s what the song’s about.’ And they said, ‘No, no, no, no,’” Mellencamp said of the conversation with his record label. “So, anyway, through much debate and me being young, I said, ‘Okay, we’ll make him a football star.’”
A 2012 Vulture piece quoted a hardcore Mellencamp fan as saying the singer “abandoned that idea because he thought it was a little much for the early eighties.” Whether changing Jack’s race was ultimately Mellencamp’s decision or his record label’s, he told HuffPost Live that he doesn’t regret it because of how long the song has remained relevant.
“I think Jack and Diane became, as near as I could tell, the most popular couple in music, in that genre of music,” he said.
Listen to the lyrics and they take a different meaning.
Then you realize why the record company panicked
Lyrics
Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two American kids growin' up in the heartland
Jackie gonna be a football star
Diane debutante backseat of Jackie's car
Suckin' on chili dogs outside the tastee freeze
Diane's sittin' on Jackie's lap
He's got his hand between her knees
Jackie say, hey, Diane
Let's run off behind a shady trees
Dribble off those Bobby Brooks
Let me do what I please
Say a
Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
Say a
Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
They walk on
Jackie sits back
Reflects his thoughts for the moment
Scratches his head
And does his best James Dean
Well you know, Diane
We oughta run off to the city
Diane says, baby
You ain't missin' nuth-in
Jackie, say-a
Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
Oh yeah, I say, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
Gonna let it rock
Let it roll
Let the Bible Belt come
And save my soul
Hold on to sixteen as long as you can
Changes come around real soon
Make us women and men
Oh yeah, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
Oh yeah, I say, life goes on
Long after the thrill of livin' is gone
Little ditty about Jack and Diane
Two American kids done the best they can
Always liked that song. Now I have another reason to.
