John Mellencamp | Through the Shattered Lens

Depending on the source, the “paper in fire” that John Mellencamp sings about in this song either refers to the dreams of those looking to get out of living below the poverty line or a verse in the Bible in which Hell is called “paper in fire.” One thing that everyone agrees on is that the line “we keep no check on our appetites” is a reference to Hud, which is one of Mellencamp’s favorite movies.

The video was shot outside of a house on a dirt road near Savannah, Georgia. Mellencamp wanted to highlight the poverty that many Americans were living under. This video was also shot at a time when Mellencamp was still trying to escape from the “Johnny Cougar” persona that was forced on him early on in his career. (In fact, at the time this song was recorded, he was still officially known as John Cougar Mellencamp.)

Enjoy!

Today’s music video of the day is for John Mellencamp’s cover of Van Morrison’s Wild Night.

Back in the day, the opening of this video was the most popular 40 seconds on MTV. I have traveled in a lot of taxi cabs and I regularly use both Uber and Lyft. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some very good drivers but none of them appeared in the 1992 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. The driver, in this video, is played by Shana Zadrick, a model who was often compared to Cindy Crawford.

Back in 1994, if you enjoyed this video, you could go down to your friendly neighborhood Musicland (or Suncoast Motion Picture Company) and, for just $19.98, you could see even more of Shana in this commemorative video:

The other good thing about this video is that bassline, which was provided by Me’shell Ndegeocello. Wild Night was released at the same time that Ndegeocello had her biggest solo hit, If That’s Your Boyfriend (He Wasn’t Last Night).

This video was directed by Jonathan Kaplan. A former film school classmate of Martin Scorsese’s, Kaplan got his start directing films like Night Call Nurses and The Student Teachers for Roger Corman. He eventually became a mainstream film and television director. His most highly regarded film is probably 1988’s The Accused, for which Jodie Foster won her first Oscar.