[at-l] John Mellencamp

[AThiker at smithville.net (Felix)]

Jan Leitschuh wrote:

> Felix, This is Sparrow who sells the AT pins.  I have a quick
>
>> question for you...Why did John drop his middle name
>> "Cougar"?  That's what a girl here where I work in
>> Virginia keeps calling him...John "Cougar" Mellencamp.
>>  Just curious.
>
>
> Well, I'm not Felix, nor do I play him on DVD, 


Is that a hint for me to send  you a DVD of the movie Curtis and I are 
doing?  ( http://felixhikes.tripod.com/movie.jpg )


> but I saw "Johhny Cougar" back in 1978 or '79 at a small club in 
> Madison, WI. 


Hmmm...based on the info we received about your age on your most recent 
birthday, you would have been 6 years old in '79. I don't think there 
were any 6 year olds in Madison, WI in '79. 


>
>
> He (Johnny, not Felix) was an up and comer on the rock 'n roll scene, 
> and his handlers had him packed into tight red spandex pants, very 
> David Bowie-meets-punk-ish. I mean, REALLY tight panys (use your 
> imaginations here).


Hmmm...I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that John's 
manager was also Bowie's manager....the same guy who came up with the 
'Cougar' thing. 


>
>  It was a good hot show. Not long after that, the Mellencamp part got 
> tacked back on, Mellencamp being his real name (Johnny's, not Felix's). 


My name was Felix Cougar McGillicampy for a while...but, I got tired of 
it taking so long to sign things.

>
>
> I later read an interview about this name transition, where he (JCM, 
> not FM) said he was just a regular guy ...(cue..."I was born in a 
> small town..."), and felt like the labels/PR machines were presurring 
> him into a persona that didn't fit his reality. 


There is a bit more to it all than that...and, I don't know that I'd 
ever....EVER...call John a 'regular guy'. During the show there is a 
minute and a half break for the band to de-sweatify and get 
drinks...during which they play snippets of interviews and videos and 
what-not from way back in the day. It was interesting to see (last 
night's show in Nashville was the first time I'd seen this 
presentation).  There's a funny little story that really isn't that 
funny, or a story. I'll tell it to you now. Way back in 1980, when I was 
still known as Roscoe P. Coltrane...I worked 2nd shift at a Union76 in 
Bridgeport, MI. I was a senior in high school living about 400 miles 
from my family in Bloomington, IN. When I'd get back to my rented-room 
after work at 11 p.m., I'd call WHNN-96.7 FM in Saginaw and request "I 
Need a Lover" by John Cougar and I'd listen to it before I'd go to bed. 
Who'da thunk back then that some of the shit that's happened between me 
and "John Cougar"  woulda happened between me and "John Cougar"??   
Shirley, not me.


>
> As he was gaining some popularity and clout, he (JCM, but FM too) 
> exercised his freeborn right to select his own name. Mellencamp kept 
> the "Cougar" in for transitional recognition. 


Basically, though a bit more lawyerfied than that.