Don't you just love how music can not only make us dance, sing, laugh and cry ? it can also make us understand the world around us in a much deeper reflective way .I was brought up listening to Bowie and loved how his characters seemed to travel through the songs , sometimes even across albums.
There has been quite a few artists who have owned characters over the years but its quite rare to find a song from different artists that show the perspective from two defined sides yet still keeping true to the one story so although this covers two songs it may as well be one song "in my opinion", viewed from both sides of the main characters viewpoint .
By being able to see both views it gives the chance to evaluate what is happening beyond the tune so when we truly understand the lyrics of any given song and also understand the perspective of the songwriter .Or in this particular case the songwriters,Once we realise it we find it actually educates us on life in general !
John Mellencamp and Tracy Chapman are artists who have made their careers by writing and performing songs that relate to the struggles of the perceived lower classes of society and this has meant that their songs actually mean something as opposed to the bubble gum trendy pop that we sometimes get force fed on radio stations up and down the country.
In 1982 John wrote and recorded Jack and Diane which I feel is a song that comes from the perspective of Jack as he is portrayed to be a budding future football star whereas Dianes potential seems to be simply being the object of Jacks desire .
The song is basically about the couple being together and heading off to the city as they are looking to experience life out of the watchful eye of the community which appears to be filled with disaproval from the religious section of their community , Which , as Jacks aim is to get Diane out of her "Bobby Brookes" suggests that the urges of youth are uppermost in his mind ,
In fact John Cougar Mellencamp eloped in real life with his 18 year old pregnant girlfriend in his youth so its easy to see where the inspiration for this 1982 classic comes from whilst Tracy was brought up in a Baptist family from a poor background and only managed to follow her dreams because of being accepted onto a "Better Chance charity Project" so her interpretation also seems to be one she could relate to . I feel if you were to listen to these two songs and try and view them as one story from two viewpoints you would actually feel a definite link between them tho I have never personally read or heard of the artists claiming this to be true I feel the evidence almost certainly shows this to be the case.
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Moving onto Tracy Chapmans 1988 song Fast car we see the unmistakeable music that is identical in parts to Cougars song but the lyrics show a different side of the same story !
In this scenario we see the female character whose life seems to be going in ever decreasing circles and her wanting to escape from the torment that is her day to day existence and seeing the boyfriend as a means of escaping her situation although as the song progresses it shows her to be equally disapointed as although she does seem to mature , he seems to have stayed in the mindset of following his base desires as he ends up ultimately cheating on her , mainly I suppose because they followed their respective dreams for the wrong reasons.
I invite readers to take ten minutes and listen to both of these songs and try to view them from an overall narrative of one story from two sides . you may think I am looking too deeply into two seperate songs tho I would argue that by doing so it gives a lesson in life from more than one angle and as we are interested in music in general it can only aid our enjoyment of it.