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97.1Fm the drive presents the behind the Song podcast, taking you deeper into classic rock's most timeless tunes.

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Here's your host, Janda By 1983, John Mellencamp had finally gotten the upper hand on his career. After the success of his breakthrough album, 1982's American fool, he had all the cards right in his deck to change the game when it came to his relationship with the music business executives that had tried to change him from the start over six years earlier. For his seventh studio album, Aha, he did just that. He reclaimed his real last name for starters, and let those bigwigs and everybody else know that from then on his music would be exactly as he wanted it with uh huh. He then released another collection of songs that would include more hits, shutting up those doubters entirely. One of those songs could be viewed as his mission statement, a song that encapsulates not only his battle with the folks in the corner offices who tried to dictate his career, but the very spirit of the man himself. Let's get into the story of Authority Song in this episode of the behind the Song podcast. If you like it, you know what to do. Give it a thumbs up and hit. Subscribe and let us know what you think in the comments. Now. Mellencamp had been through it all by the early 80s. He moved from his home in Indiana to New York City and got signed to a record deal where he was told to change his name to Johnny Cougar in a music business play to chase pop star success. He went along with that, even though it was so far from who he actually was. So much was just out of his control in those early years. But all that changed after Jack and Diane became a big hit in 1982, and along with it, Mellencamp became an MTV darling. He was ready to finally record his music his way for the follow up to American Fool. Just one little glitch In a move that really confused fans, Tony De Frise, his former manager and the guy who came up with the whole Johnny Cougar moniker, released an album that was shelved back in 1977 by Mellencamp's then label, MCA. That album, the Kid Inside, under the name John Cougar, was hastily released by Defries on his own Main man Records in 1983 in order to capitalize on the success of American Fool. So fans thought it was the follow up to Mellencamp's breakthrough. Even though it had been recorded years earlier, it was the last album released under John Cooger. Decades later, Mellencamp told Rolling Stone magazine of his early years as he was struggling to make it as a former telephone repair guy who'd gone to the big city to pursue music, that he would have signed the bottom of a shoe if it would have helped make his career happen. Onwards and upwards, though the true follow up to American fool, uh huh was released in October of 1983 and it represents a demarcation point. It was the first album to include his last name as he transitioned to John Cougar Mellencamp. He would of course eventually drop the Cougar altogether. That was a construct of an earlier time, fabricated by someone else's vision of him and his music. The next thing he did, with his newfound power and the clout he suddenly had in terms of sales success, was to forgo any big recording studio setup for the uh huh album. He chose instead to record it at a friend's house in the good old Hoosier state, a house which was only partially built at the time. On the album's liner notes it says uh huh was written, arranged and recorded during a 16 day blowout at the Shack, which is what they called it. He got his way all down the line on making a huh and straight up told the record execs that it was his job to make his album and their job to sell it and to basically stay in their lane when it came to his music from then on out. The first two singles from uh huh were top 10 hits. Crumblin down went to number nine and Pink Houses went to number eight. For the third single, he released a song that could be thought of as his modus operandi, very much like Tom Petty's I Won't Be Back Down. It speaks to his worldview in general. Authority song swims in the same waters as I Fought the Law, which was written by Sonny Curtis when he took over as lead guitarist for the Crickets after Buddy Holly passed away. The Crickets first recorded that song and it was then made famous, of course as a cover by the Bobby Fuller 4 and then by the Clash, among others. In both I Fought the Law and Authority song, rebellion is tempered with a sense of humor and a self aw. In Mellencamp's case, authority always wins, but yet he's grinning through it. And he certainly got the last laugh. Because while Authority's song leans into an underdog character, in real life, Mellencamp was absolutely calling the shots at this point. It's a song that barrels towards you right from the start and it goes like they like to get you in A compromising position. They like to get you there and smile in your face. They think they're so cute when they got you in that condition, but I think it's a total disgrace. They are the folks in the music business that Mellencamp had so completely clashed with making his previous albums. He'd been embroiled in fight after fight, even during the making of American fool, that at one point he literally kicked an executive out of the recording studio and onto the street. So when he sings about how they like to get you in a compromised position and then smile in your face while they're doing it, he was singing about his own experience with the business end of the entertainment machine. But that kind of treatment doesn't just happen in the music business, and the attitude of the song resonates with anybody who's ever worked for a living, really. We've all been there. The big sing along chorus of the song interjects the humor that makes the whole thing go when he sings, I fight authority, authority always wins. I've been doing it since I was a young kid and I've come out grinning. I fight authority, authority always wins. He comes out grinning after every battle. That's the key to why this song is so very quintessentially John Mellencamp. The fight in him is just a part of who he is as a person. Been doing it all his life since he was a young kid. And from the perspective of where he was in his career when this song was recorded and released, which is to say, finally at the top of the heap calling the shots, he certainly had a lot to grin about. And then it's on to the next verse, gearing up for round five in a proverbial boxing match. So I call up my preacher, I say, give me strength for round five. 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. There's a stubbornness there that runs through every bit of his artistic output from this point on. In real life, fighting authority, even when the odds seem too high to guarantee a win. But the fight is the point for Mellencamp, even down to the inevitability of growing old, which doesn't sound like a lot of fun. Still something to buck against. Never mind the fact that it's the one thing we can't control. When he decided to really be himself musically, everything clicked into place. John Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame by his friend Billy Joel in 2008 and into the Songwriters hall of Fame in 2018. He sold over 30 million albums in the US alone. He co founded Farm Aid with Willie Nelson in the 80s to keep farmers on their land, which has now raised over $78 million to support family farmers. He now splits his time largely between his home in Indiana and New York City, where he bought a place to use as a studio for his other talent, painting. His paintings are wonderful, a visual extension of the art that lives inside his best songs. Sad, funny and with a lot to say. Just like the man himself, John Mellencamp is so much more than a heartland rocker. When Billy Joel inducted him into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, he gave a rousing speech asking Mellencamp to stay. Exactly the same part of the speech says stay ornery people need to know that somewhere out there somebody feels the way that they do in the small towns and in the big cities. They need to hear it. I don't think Mellencamp would have it any other way. I'm Janda and this has been behind the song. If you like this episode, give it a like and subscribe to the channel. And check it out on TikTok too. Special thanks as always to Christian Lane for the music you hear on these podcast episodes. You can find me on the air at 97.1fm the drive in Chicago and at wdrv.com on the way. Much more classic rock and.