John Mellencamp - Pink Houses

First performance: 09/12/2019

Coverinfo

Bruce performed the song 2 times:
 
Bruce makes a surprise appearance with John Mellencamp to duet on "Pink Houses". 
 
 
© All credits to the original photographer.  
 
 
 
Together with John Mellencamp during Sting's 30th Anniversary Rainforest Foundation Benefit. Among others were Lisa Fischer, Narada Michael Walden, John Mellencamp, D.M.C., Robert Downey, Jr., Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, Bob Geldof, Debbie Harry, Ricky Martin, MJ Rodriguez, Shaggy, Sting, Trudie Styler, Joe Sumner, James Taylor, Adrienne Warren, Zucchero . The benefit is hosted by Robert Downey, Jr. and has an 80s/90s theme. Bruce joins Mellencamp for a duet on "Pink Houses"; later, Mellencamp returns the favor on "Glory Days". "Don't Stop Believin'" is an all-star finale, with Bruce as part of the backing chorus and clapping along; at its conclusion, D.M.C. raps an original composition about protecting the rainforest. The song was probably also rehearsed the day before. It was a private rehearsel, so not confirmed.
 
  
 
 
© All credits to the original photographer.
 
  

Songinfo

"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on the 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records. Recorded in a farmhouse in Brownstown, Indiana, the song was inspired when Mellencamp was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana from the Indianapolis airport. There was an old black man sitting outside his little pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how 'Pink Houses' started."
 
 
 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

2024-04-24 Pollak Theatre, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
 
Bruce Springsteen appears at the second annual American Music Honors, a presentation of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center For American Music at Monmouth University. The 2024 honorees are John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne (inducted by Jon Landau), Mavis Staples (inducted by Darlene Love), and Dion DiMucci (inducted by Steven Van Zandt). Bruce himself inducts Mellencamp.
 
 
All credits to the original photographer
 
2021-06-09 SiriusXM Studio, New York City
During his From My Home To Yours show on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel, just before playing John Mellencamp's 'Don't need this body', Springsteen mentioned that he collaborated with his "good friend" Mellencamp. "I've played on a few of Johnny's tracks on his upcoming record," he said. "We had a great time out there in Bloomington, Indiana." The following day, during a phone call with host Jim Rotolo on Sirius XM's E Street Radio channel, Springsteen elaborated more. "I worked on three songs on John Mellencamp's album, and I spent some time in Indiana with him," he told Rotolo. "I love John a lot and he's a great songwriter, and we've actually become very close. And I've had a lot of fun with him. So I sang a little bit on his, his music... he's got a terrific record that I think is coming out in the fall, I think, you know, I'm not exactly sure."
 
 
 
Bruce performed 8 times live with John Mellencamp:
 
 
2024-04-24 Pollak Theatre, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, NJ
Bruce Springsteen appears at the second annual American Music Honors, a presentation of the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center For American Music at Monmouth University. The 2024 honorees are John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne (inducted by Jon Landau), Mavis Staples (inducted by Darlene Love), and Dion DiMucci (inducted by Steven Van Zandt). Bruce himself inducts Mellencamp, with the two duetting on Bruce's first ever performance of "Small Town", and returns to close the show with two of his own classics and for an all-performer rendition of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" led by Staples. Brian Williams serves as the evening's host and The Disciples Of Soul act as house band. 
 
 
2024-03-10 New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ
Bruce makes a surprise appearance with John Mellencamp to duet on "Pink Houses".
 
2023-11-06 David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City, NY
Bruce makes an unannounced appearance at the seventeenth annual Stand Up For Heroes Benefit, joining John Mellencamp for the live premiere of "Wasted Days". 
 
2022-11-05 Microsoft Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Bruce inducts Jimmy Iovine into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. He and John Mellencamp return to close the ceremony with a tribute to Jerry Lee Lewis, backed by the Zac Brown Band and Roy Bittan. 
 
2019-12-09 Beacon Theatre, New York City
At Sting's 30th Anniversary Rainforest Foundation Benefit
 
2009-05-03 Madison Square Garden, New York City
Clearwater Concert in honor of Pete Seeger's 90th birthday
 
2004-10-11 MCI Center, Washington, DC
Finale of the Vote For Change concert series
 
1988-05-26 Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA
Bruce makes a guest appearances on stage with John Mellencamp and performs ' Like a Rolling Stone'
  

Lyrics

There's a black man with a black cat
Living in a black neighborhood
He's got an interstate running' through his front yard
You know, he thinks, he's got it so good
And there's a woman in the kitchen cleaning' up evening slop
And he looks at her and says:
"Hey darling, I can remember when you could stop a clock"
Oh but ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, we're something to see baby
Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me
Well there's a young man in a T-shirt
Listenin' to a rock 'n' roll station
He's got a greasy hair, greasy smile
He says: "Lord, this must be my destination"
'Cause they told me, when I was younger
Sayin' "Boy, you're gonna be president"
But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went
Oh but ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, we're something to see baby
Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses, for you and me, oh baby for you and me
Well there's people and more people
What do they know, know, know
Go to work in some high rise
And vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico
Ooo yeah
And there's winners, and there's losers
But they ain't no big deal
'Cause the simple man baby pays the thrills,
The bills and the pills that kill
Oh but ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, we're something to see baby
Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah
Little pink houses for you and me, ooo, ooo yeah
Ain't that America, for you and me
Ain't that America, hey we're something to see baby
Ain't that America, oh the home of the free,
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Little pink houses babe for you and me, ooo yeah ooo yeah