Mellencamp Unveils Anti-War Song (More Musical Idiots Join the Dixie Chicks & Sheryl Crow)

Billboard Magazine ^

[Recovering_Democrat]

John Mellencamp has made a new anti-war-themed song, "To Washington," available for free download on his official Web site. The cut, inspired by Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family but penned by Mellencamp, questions President George W. Bush's motives at waging war against Iraq: "He wants to fight with many / And he says it's not for oil / He sent out the National Guard / To police the world."

"To Washington" will appear on Mellencamp's next studio album, a collection of covers he is recording in his Bloomington, Ind., homebase with his touring band. The set, tentatively titled "Trouble No More," is due in late May on Columbia. Despite Mellencamp's announcement last summer that he had parted ways with the label, the artist tells Billboard, "Our divorce failed."

Other songs set for inclusion on the new album are "Stones in My Passway" (Robert Johnson), "Death Letter" (Son House), "Johnny Hart" (Woody Guthrie), "Baltimore Oriole" (Hoagy Carmichael), "Teardrops Will Fall" (Dickie Do and the Don'ts), "Diamond Joe" (traditional, recorded by Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Tom Rush), "End of the World" (Skeeter Davis), "Joliet Bound" (Joe McCoy), "Lafayette" (Lucinda Williams), "John the Revelator" (traditional), and "Down at the Bottom" (Willie Dixon).

A spokesperson says Mellencamp, Billboard's 2001 Century Award winner, is not planning to tour in the next few months. But, he will appear April 9 in New York at a 70th birthday tribute to Willie Nelson, with whom he is a partner in the yearly Farm Aid benefit concert.

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

[Recovering_Democrat]

John Mellencamp: He fights Intelligence, and intelligence always wins.

[Argus]

Dylan For Dummies.

[NeoCaveman]

Little ditty 'bout John Mellencamp
A washed up old has-been with his head up his arse.....

[AdA$tra]

I don't have a problem with anti-war anthems as long as they are not anti-American, anti-Bush or anti-soldier. Almost nobody likes war, not even the guys that do it for a living.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Mellancamp's been a hippie for years. This is no surprise.

The Dixie Chicks are more of a shock.

[NWOhioGirl7O7]

I don't listen to mellon head's music anyway!

[swarthyguy]

Hit me with your best shot -- Pat Benatar.

When the Bullet hits the bone -- Golden Earring.

You dropped a bomb on me -- ????

[SerpentDove]

I hate that unhip little monkey-faced putz.

[Xenalyte]

Wow. Unattractive, pretentious in the name department, AND irrelevant. We have a three-fer.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Who? Oh, you mean John Cougar!

[MizSterious]

John Mellonhead is just trying to appear relevant. Has-beens often do that.

[Hacksaw]

For good warfare music, listen to Slayer. Warning: It can permanently alter your brain.

[Arkinsaw]

He was a good lookin' guy.
Stood about six foot three,
Long brown hair
As nice as he could be.
Everybody liked him
But he didn't have a clue,
He looked silly as hell
In those funny French shoes.

A self portrait by the artist - French Shoes by J. Cougar Mellenhead

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Friday, 20 December, 2002, 18:04 GMT
Fonda joins Jerusalem demo


Fonda is on a week-long visit to the Middle East

US film star Jane Fonda has joined pacifists protesting against Israel's 35-year occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Fonda, a veteran of Vietnam anti-war campaigns, demonstrated with the group Women In Black, who protest about the occupation every Friday in Jerusalem.

She stayed with the banner-wielding demonstrators for about 10 minutes, standing in heavy rain outside the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the west of the disputed city.


Fonda will visit Yasser Arafat's headquarters

The 64-year-old actress is on a week-long trip to the region and plans to attend meetings of Israeli and Palestinian women organised by a global movement to stop violence against women.

The movement, called V-Day, was inspired by the off-Broadway hit The Vagina Monologues and the woman who wrote it, Eve Ensler, who is also in Israel.

Fonda and Ensler visited Jewish and Arab doctors and patients at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital on Thursday after a performance of selected passages from Monologues, put on by a group of Israeli women.

Earlier, Fonda visited Israelis recovering from chronic injuries at the hospital's rehabilitation centre.

She appeared moved when she met 23-year-old Sharon Maman, who suffered brain damage after two suicide bombers blew up simultaneously in Jerusalem on 1 December, 2001.

On Saturday, Fonda is due to visit the West Bank town of Ramallah to see a physical rehabilitation centre, a Palestinian refugee camp and Yasser Arafat's headquarters complex, most of which Israeli troops have destroyed.

[skeeter]

Gap Band.

[Rastus]

This story doesn't mention how he is desperate to get the song out for fear the war will be over by the time his album is released. Imagine that. "No one will be in the mood for my tune when the Iraqis are dancing in the streets." What a jerk.

[hellinahandcart]

"Stones in My Passway"

So that's his problem...

[Indiana Girl]

Johnny, you old, washed up, has-been, you should have stopped with "Scarecrow". You've outlived your usefullness.

[rhombus]

Yawn... ever since Viet Naam every musician seems to think they can make hay with a protest song. Of course young people who are in their rebellious, "protest anything" years buy them up with their parent's money and "...the seasons go round and round and the painted ponies go up and down..." Same old, same old. These old capitalist musicians make their living biting the hand that feeds them.

[BansheeBill]

I have some friends who work for the production (stage/sound system/lighting system) companies that manage/produce/transport major rock tours in the US. According to them, Mellencamp is right near the top of the Top 5 list of Primmadonna A-Hole "Rock Stars" that a lot of their long time crews no longer want to go out on tour with. He is supposedly a major league pain in the ass, who cannot be spoken to...you have to ask questions through an intermediary.