Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Crumblin' Down

In a 2016 Mellencamp-dedicated exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a display was emblazoned with the following quote from Mellencamp: "Crumblin' Down is a very political song that I wrote with my childhood friend George Green. Reagan was president - he was deregulating everything and the walls were crumbling down on the poor.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumblin%27_Down

Single by John Cougar Mellencamp


from the album Uh-Huh


B-side
"Golden Gates"

Released
October 1983

Recorded
1983

"Crumblin' Down" is a rock song co-written and performed by John Mellencamp, released as the lead single from his 1983 album Uh-Huh. It was a top-ten hit on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian pop charts, and it reached #2 on the US Mainstream Rock charts.

Background?[edit]

"Crumblin' Down" was written by Mellencamp and longtime writing partner George Green. It was the last song recorded for Uh-Huh; after listening to the masters for the other tracks recorded, Mellencamp decided that the album needed a song that would work as the album's lead single. He contacted Green, with whom he had previously written "Hurts So Good," to solicit ideas. Green had begun a song with lines about walls crumbling down; he and Mellencamp then built the song by trading lines, attempting to top one another.[1]:?64?

According to Green, the song attempts to answer the question of what to do when success eventually fades, and "the big-time deal falls through."[1]:?64? The song touches on Mellencamp's fame as well as the frustrations of losing one's livelihood: the lyrics were inspired, in part, by Mellencamp's cousin losing his job as an electrical engineer.[1]:?65?

In a 2016 Mellencamp-dedicated exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a display was emblazoned with the following quote from Mellencamp: "Crumblin' Down is a very political song that I wrote with my childhood friend George Green. Reagan was president - he was deregulating everything and the walls were crumbling down on the poor. The song was the last one recorded and the first single. It was a hit immediately. I felt like I was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes."

The video for "Crumblin' Down" received heavy play on MTV. It featured a chain-smoking Mellencamp in intentionally ripped denim jeans, dancing and kicking over chairs.[1]:?65? "Crumblin' Down" was the first single released by Mellencamp to include his real last name: previous releases were credited to "John Cougar."[2]