John Mellencamp reflects on a world estranged on new album 'Strictly a One-Eyed Jack'

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John Mellencamp reflects on a world estranged¹ on new album 'Strictly² a One-Eyed Jack³'

Transcript⁴

John Mellencamp's music has captured the moods of several eras — and at the start of 2022, his new album dwells on loneliness and lying.

The songs on Strictly a One-eyed Jack are narrated⁵ by a character whose soul seems as battered⁶ as Mellencamp's cigarette-darkened voice. When we spoke⁷ this week, he said the lyrics⁸ distill⁹ something he's learned across 70 years of life. "What I've discovered at my ancient age is that we are all in solitary¹⁰ confinement¹¹ inside our own skins, and we don't really get to know anybody."

He was paraphrasing¹² a line from a play by Tennessee Williams, another student of American tragedy and longing¹³. But having borrowed the words, the singer made the thought his own. Three divorces and decades of fame have led him to the conclusion that all of us hide our true selves from other people — that each of us is alone. The first line of the first song on the album is: "I always lie to strangers."

"I don't see it as dark at all," he said. "I just see it as looking for the truth of life." If you disagree, that's all right with him: "I'm not for everybody."

There was a time when it seemed that he was for everybody, or at least that everybody knew his name. I rarely bought a Mellencamp album when I was growing up in his native Indiana, but I didn't have to. He was on the radio constantly in the 1980's, and I mean constantly — replays only partly driven by state pride. His concert tours filled football stadiums across the country. He'd started out with a stage name, John Cougar¹⁴, but before long had the power to drop the name and become himself.

His early hits drew listeners into stories. "Ain't Even Done With the Night" is the tale of a young man who doesn't know how to behave on a date. "Jack and Diane" tells of a young couple's teenage romance — but the narrator knows where the story is headed. "Life goes on / long after the thrill of living is gone."

Like his contemporary Bruce Springsteen, his observations could be political. "Rain on the Scarecrow" describes the 1980's economy that drove small farmers off their land. "Pink Houses" comments on twentieth-century urban renewal¹⁵: a Black man has an "interstate running through his front yard." Many cities routed highways through Black neighborhoods without much regard for the people in them. "Pink Houses" is also just an awesome¹⁶ song, filled with such exuberance¹⁷ that you can almost miss the outrage¹⁸.

His later songs also captured something of their times. In the boom years of the 1990's, he urged people to seize the day — "Your Life is Now." In the hard times of the Great Recession he advised listeners to "save some time to dream, 'cause your dreams can save us all."

Yet on that 2010 album, one character fallen on hard times declares "I'm sick of life," and adds, "It's not a graceful¹⁹ fall from dreams to the truth." Strictly a One-eyed Jack continues that fall toward one particular truth — Mellencamp's awareness²⁰ of lies.

"They lied to us in the churches. They lied to us in the schools. The government's always lying to us," he said, speaking from his home in Bloomington, Ind. He said people lie to those they love, too.

"During those moments of crisis in a relationship, the person that you're involved with, who you thought you knew, always surprises you. It's been that way with everything that I've done. The people at the record company would always surprise me. The audience would always surprise me. I was always surprised. I thought I knew what was going on. But as I got older, I found out that I don't have a clue what the f***'s going on. And I think that none of us do ... We don't really get to know anybody in the world except ourselves, and we don't even know ourselves."

On the album he sings that he is "a man that worries" and "a man of low degree," but adds that "the world is run by men much more crooked²¹ than me."

Mellencamp sings in a raspy voice altered by decades of smoking, which he insists he prefers. "I wrote a song once a long, long, long, long time ago called 'I Just Want to Be Black.' I grew up singing in soul bands," he said. He'd like to sound like Louis Armstrong, and here and there perhaps he does. He has no plan to quit smoking even though "it will surely kill me." His breathing was audible in our interview.

He's probably right that the album is "not for everybody." But the tight musicianship and sharply cut lyrics do reflect these disillusioned²² and distrustful times. He may also send listeners back along the arc of his story, to the music of past times, when his darkness was always present but the optimism lived too. And he wasn't even done with the night.

1 estranged   

adj.疏远的，分离的

参考例句：

• He became estranged from his family after the argument.那场争吵后他便与家人疏远了。
• The argument estranged him from his brother.争吵使他同他的兄弟之间的关系疏远了。

2 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

3 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 narrated   

v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Some of the story was narrated in the film. 该电影叙述了这个故事的部分情节。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Defoe skilfully narrated the adventures of Robinson Crusoe on his desert island. 笛福生动地叙述了鲁滨逊·克鲁索在荒岛上的冒险故事。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

9 distill   

vt.蒸馏，用蒸馏法提取，吸取，提炼

参考例句：

• This standard set determine the method of petroleum products distill.本标准规定了测定石油产品蒸馏的方法。
• Distill the crucial points of the book.从书中提炼出关键的几点。

10 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

11 confinement   

n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限

参考例句：

• He spent eleven years in solitary confinement.他度过了11年的单独监禁。
• The date for my wife's confinement was approaching closer and closer.妻子分娩的日子越来越近了。

12 paraphrasing   

v.释义，意译( paraphrase的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I'm paraphrasing but this is honestly what he said. 我是在转述，但这的确是他说的意思。 来自柯林斯例句

13 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

14 cougar   

n.美洲狮；美洲豹

参考例句：

• I saw a cougar slinking toward its prey.我看到一只美洲狮正在潜随猎物。
• I have never seen a cougar.我从未见过美洲豹。

15 renewal   

adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来

参考例句：

• Her contract is coming up for renewal in the autumn.她的合同秋天就应该续签了。
• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。

16 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

17 exuberance   

n.丰富；繁荣

参考例句：

• Her burst of exuberance and her brightness overwhelmed me.她勃发的热情和阳光的性格征服了我。
• The sheer exuberance of the sculpture was exhilarating.那尊雕塑表现出的勃勃生机让人振奋。

18 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

19 graceful   

adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的

参考例句：

• His movements on the parallel bars were very graceful.他的双杠动作可帅了!
• The ballet dancer is so graceful.芭蕾舞演员的姿态是如此的优美。

20 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

21 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

22 disillusioned   

a.不再抱幻想的，大失所望的，幻想破灭的

参考例句：

• I soon became disillusioned with the job. 我不久便对这个工作不再抱幻想了。
• Many people who are disillusioned in reality assimilate life to a dream. 许多对现实失望的人把人生比作一场梦。