Beyond Pink Houses

John Mellencamp on the Road

Jun. 04, 2012

11:31 a.m.

He grew each time he changed his name. As Johnny Cougar turned into John Cougar Mellencamp before finally becoming John Mellencamp, the callowness of his early tunes dissipated. The singer gradually found his voice in American roots music and not just because his front line often included fiddle and accordion alongside bass and guitar. As shown by the documentary John Mellencamp: It's About You, he has burrowed among the blueprints of blues, rockabilly and urban folk to find a comfortably edgy groove. His newer songs encompass mortality and longevity. He's gotten better with age. It's About You was filmed by still photographer Kurt Marcus (with his son Ian) during Mellencamp's 2009 tour with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan. As Kurt readily admits, he had never shot a movie before and for the first minutes one is temped to snicker and say: “It sure looks like you're new to filmmaking!” It's About You is the antithesis of the slick, predictable rockumentary and Mellencamp can be commended for encouraging its idiosyncrasy. It's a patchwork composed in black and white as well as color and taken with various film stock; color scenes sometimes resemble grainy, fading '60s home movies. The form fits the content. Mellencamp was less interested in documentary the hits in concert (though there is some of that) than in capturing some of the sessions he cut on tour at historic locations for his 2010 album No Better Than This. He arranged to record in the basement of the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia, where runaway were hidden from the slave patrols before the Civil War, finding the enduring strength of community and history. Mellencamp recorded in Memphis' tiny Sun Studio and conjured up the ghosts of rockabilly. Venturing into San Antonio hotel room where Robert Johnson cut his classic sides, Mellencamp drew the window blinds and emerged from the long-since updated room dissatisfied. Marcus spins the patchwork of footage into a rambling yet pointed epic of visually as well as narrative poetry. The filmmaker provides the ongoing voiceover and can't help but see the country darkly as the tour caravan passes through small towns reduced to heaps of faded dreams and downtown business districts crumbling into rubble. “The decay of America is original and massive in scale,” he says. “Instead of the rest of the world becoming more like us, we've become more like the rest of the world.” It's About You contains no salacious revealing moments. Marcus made no effort to penetrate the privacy of Mellencamp's trailer. “This isn't a reality TV show we're doing,” he gently chides his son. Thankfully, It's About You is the rare rock documentary that opens a window onto the larger world where the music has its roots. It's out on Blu-ray and DVD.