Trivia Question

[sheilafarmer]

I was listening to older songs of John's and I was wondering, did any of John's former wives have any nicknames?
I was told that Missy was Elaine's nickname. I heard that Susan was Vicky's middle name. There other names in his songs, were they nicknames?

Just wondering?
Sheila
 

[jeffreyjack]

Great questions!

And who the heck was "M.G."

And for a few questions completely impossible to answer:
1.  Who was John writing about in "Whenever We Wanted"?
2.  Who was John writing about in "Crazy Ones"?
3.  The "Taxi Dancer" girl?
4.  Sugar Marie?
5.  The "Welcome To Chinatown" girl?
6.  Was "Wang-Foo" completely made up?
7.  Better to not even ask about "Can You Take It"  (-;

[Maradona10]

LOL...I think there's an interview where JM states that "Whenever We Wanted" was about Priscilla and thinking back about the marriage/recent divorce.

As for the others, who knows...

I have to say that " Whenever We Wanted" is one song that has really, really grown on me over the last 21 years. It seems to get better and better as the years go by; it's rock hard and edgy as hell. The guitars from Grissom and Wanchic are just great and Kenny's percussion/drums....words fail me, man...it's outta this world.

[sheilafarmer]

Great Questions too Jefferyjack.
I think on the "Whenever We Wanted" album, it was about Vicky his 2nd wife. On the song "Crazy Ones" you were asking about, there is a reference on some of the lyrics:
"She's got tights on her legs
 She's got a floppy French hat
 Voodoo in her eyes
 An endangered species on her back"
Vicky wore a floppy hat on Rooty Toot Toot and also you can see a tatoo on her back, it looked like a dolphin not really sure on the tatoo.
MG was a girl John knew in his younger days.
Not sure on the others songs could be about Priscilla.

[geegee]

found an old interview clip on "whenever we wanted" very interesting, enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMXa0SrVoHs

[Maradona10]

Great Questions too Jefferyjack.
I think on the "Whenever We Wanted" album, it was about Vicky his 2nd wife. On the song "Crazy Ones" you were asking about, there is a reference on some of the lyrics:
"She's got tights on her legs
 She's got a floppy French hat
 Voodoo in her eyes
 An endangered species on her back"
Vicky wore a floppy hat on Rooty Toot Toot and also you can see a tatoo on her back, it looked like a dolphin not really sure on the tatoo.
MG was a girl John knew in his younger days.
Not sure on the others songs could be about Priscilla.

You're right, sorry; I got the wives' names mixed up. WWW definitely refers to the late 80's divorce.

[sheilafarmer]

Geegee that was a cool video. I never seen that one before. I hope he is still keeps a close relationship with all his kids, divorce is hard especially on the kids no matter what age.

[geegee]

thanks shiela, i thot that one portrait he did of vicky was nice, but its too bad he painted her looking sad. the short brown haired gal, i dont know who that is priscilla maybe? it was nice to go back in time, and also see elaine. she definitely is a positive role model for young women. i admire her a lot. she is one great lady.  yeah divorce is hard on kids. im just hopin hud and speck are holding up well.

[JesseJoe]

Great interview @ 40, always interesting to hear what he has to say. My fav interview of him was  on the program West 57 when he talked about that "Statue Of Liberty." 

Tks for posting this one geegee ! 

[jeffreyjack]

      Very interesting insights, everybody.  I respect all of your opinions but let me give you my two cents:
      By the time of “Whenever We Wanted”, John had likely been “on his own” (i.e. estranged) from Vicky for a good long while.  He had blown up his marriage to Vicky even before “Big Daddy” (as least as I recall).  Of course John wrote about Elaine in the mid-90’s, but I frankly believe John never wrote much about either of his previous wives in his earlier albums. 
     All of us enjoy his home movies with Vicky in his “Jack and Diane” video.  But let’s face it, for the most part, prior to “Human Wheels”, John wrote about gals he “encountered” in the 70’s and 80’s.  In my opinion, none of his songs were about Priscilla and there was very little about Vicky either.  Now, very few of us have the charisma or star power to “encounter” the quantity or quality of potential partners that John did, either before, during, or after, his marriages.  I believe John captured a lot about these encounters in his early (John Cougar and after) albums.   And those songs are all very enjoyable, both musically and lyrically.
   I think only John can clarify his early career and I know nothing more about his personal life than any of you – most likely much less.  But I feel strongly that John was always meeting, getting to know, and writing about, relationships that most of us know nothing about.  And since John was married essentially continuously from before he “made it” up through his divorce from Vicky, all of his “encounters” that made it – in whatever fashion – into his songs, were about “other women”. 
       If I am right (and I could very well be wrong), then most of his early songs are about women that none of us will ever know anything about.  Hence, my original questions.  I believe even John would have trouble explaining most of his writing from his early albums.  To me, that makes them especially interesting and mysterious.  But of course we will never know. 
       I love his early albums because he explored territory, and musical styles, that he never came back to in his later career.  Listen to “Taxi Dancer” – with the strings and piano accompaniment.  John never ever did that kind of stuff again.  And his “slice of life” human portraits are represented especially well in his early albums.  Yes, I love the hits from “American Fool” and the amazing hit “I Need A Lover”, but it was his less-well-known stuff – the music and lyrics from “Sugar Marie”, to “A Little Night Dancing”, to “The Great Midwest”, to “Do You Think That’s Fair”, to “Tonight”, to “Wild Angel” that really hooked me.  In fact, now that we have the “additional” songs from those early days like: “Latest Game” and “American Fool” (the song), I think it is even more clear that John was writing about life on the road, and doing it from a very personal perspective.  That is frankly my favorite part about him as a songwriter.
   If we know anything about the “Whenever We Wanted” period, it is that John was a big time rock star during that period – and single – and was basically living the “cliché” lifestyle of a male rock star with his male-dominated rock band.  His songs about women on that album are unabashedly about the vicarious life of a single male rock star.  But as Tim White said about the song “Key West Intermezzo” -- after John met Elaine, everything changed.  But before that, John was living it up like “Lucky Pierre” in “Get A Leg Up”.  It is likely that John lived that way basically his whole career, up to Elaine. 
   Now that Christmas is upon us, I of course am enjoying John’s amazing single “I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus” (especially the video) and “Teddi’s Song” (When Christmas Comes) again.  John may not have written all that much about his early wives, but he wrote wonderfully about his girls with Vicky (as he would later about his boys) and Teddi Jo’s appearance in his Christmas video is as memorable, to me, as “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or the kids in Albert Finney’s “Scrooge” or the boys in “A Christmas Story”. 
       Merry Christmas, everyone!

[geegee]

jefferyjack wow you sure have some insight there. very interesting.

[Maradona10]

Cool post, Jeffrey Jack, I like your style!

Love the username as well. Sugar Marie is one of my favourites.