On Ploughboy Poets

Randy and I went to see Tom Cochrane and Red Rider AND John Cougar Mellencamp on Tuesday night at Credit Union Center in Saskatoon.

Awesome show.

We were very disappointed in the sound quality for Cochrane’s performance, but it was crystal clear for Mellencamp’s.

Watching Cochrane brought back many memories of my early days as a teacher in Lampman, dating a farmboy and hanging out with a Big Six hockey team.

How closely have you listened to the lyrics of “Big League”? It’s not just a song about a father’s dreams for his son – the talented hockey player. It’s a Saskatchewan tragedy about a crushed spine – and crushed hopes. Like Cochrane says, “You never know what might come down.”

And what can I say about Mellencamp?

Mellencamp truly is the American poet of rockstars.  Just take his song “Human Wheels” for instance. What does Avril Lavigne have that could possibly compete against these lyrics?

This land today, shall draw its last breath

And take into its ancient depths

This frail reminder of its giant, dreaming self

While I, with human-hindered eyes

Unequal to the sweeping curve of life

Stand on this single print of time.

But in all fairness to Lavigne, she doesn’t have a half century of life experience. And she wasn’t a teenager in the USA during the 1960’s.

In its review of the concert, the Star Phoenix commented that – if there was to be something such as SaskAid — Mellencamp would be the perfect headliner. His leftist views find a sympathetic ear in the home province of Tommy Douglas. And what red-blooded Saskatchewan farmer isn’t moved by “Small Town” and “Rain on the Scarecrow”?

It was a great night watching two ploughboys from both sides of the border.

This entry was posted on February 15, 2008 at 1:47 am and is filed under On Music, On Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.