CENTERSTAGE
The last stadium rock concert I saw was the first Farm Aid benefit, back two years ago in Champaign, Illinois, just a week or so after John-Boy Mellencamp’s Scarecrow came out. It rained, and the Beach Boys were awful, but JCM won me over—he only sang four or five tunes, but he sang ’em bouncing off walls like a squash-ball wired on No-Doz.
CENTERSTAGE
SOME THINGS MATTER AND WHAT IF THEY DIDN’T?
JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, MI (November 7, 1987)
by Chuck Eddy
The last stadium rock concert I saw was the first Farm Aid benefit, back two years ago in Champaign, Illinois, just a week or so after John-Boy Mellencamp’s Scarecrow came out. It rained, and the Beach Boys were awful, but JCM won me over—he only sang four or five tunes, but he sang ’em bouncing off walls like a squash-ball wired on No-Doz. He owned the Midwest that day. I’d heard the tales of cockiness and vulgar abandon that’d followed the guy around since his first Cougar shows, but what I witnessed Farm Aid afternoon must’ve been some kind of zenith.