Rhythm and Blues

I fight authority, authority always wins...

"Authority Song" was released in 1983. The song probably represents a turning point in John Mellencamp's personal life as well as his career. Early-on, the artist recorded under the name John Cougar, then John Cougar Mellencamp and then simply his given name. "Authority Song" appears on the album "Uh Huh" during the era when John Mellencamp was using all three names.

I fight authority... is repeated 16 times during the song. Apart from the refrain, there are only two verses to the song. The first is a clever commentary on what it feels like to have aspects of your life in the hands of other people. Most of us have known this feeling at one time or another. It is not a good feeling and our response to it often takes one of two avenues. Either we force ourselves to ignore the frustration and try to get along. Or we rage against the circumstances--usually in vain. The latter is, of course, the subject matter of Mellencamp's song.

The image that comes to mind here is that of a salmon swimming upstream...straining against all odds... willing itself to some distant destination. But the metaphor is not entirely congruent. While the salmon is struggling with purpose, seeking intently to return to a specific place in order to spawn, sometimes our fights are more like a flailing against the universe in general. The energy for the rebellion is there but the cause is largely undefined.

The second verse of Mellencamp's song is a picture of this. It is the singer poking fun at himself. He can see the source of his pain and frustration but he is not quite ready to accept the antidote:
So I call up my preacher
I say: gimme strength for round 5
He said: you don't need no strength, you need to grow up, son
I said: growing up leads to growing old and then to dying,
And dying to me don't sound like all that much fun

How true...When we are raging against the world in general, we really don't want to be bothered by the facts.

The good news here is that at some point Mellencamp moves beyond his vain struggle with everything that is not right with the world. Officially dropping "Cougar" from his name, sort of marks a moment of maturity in his life. Though many of his most successful songs came early in his career when he was perhaps a bit angrier, Mellencamp has nonetheless continued to release meaningful music throughout his life. I have more than once heard people say that their lives actually parallel the stories that the artist has told of the course of his career. The same is often said in regard to Bob Seger and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Growing up is not always linear. Even now, I sometimes just want to flail. One of the playlists on my Ipod is simply called "Blue." I even have one called "Black" to match those poignant moments of rage that still run through the veins from time to time.

But happily it is not that often. And it is not a matter of caving-in or giving-up. At least I hope it is not. I rather like to think that there is a rhythm that invites us. If we are willing... It is a rhythm that transcends the limited options that children are so easily drawn to. It is a way of living and being that is something other than mere caving-in or raging-on.