"Pink Houses" is a song written and performed by John Cougar Mellencamp. It was released on 23 October, 1983 album Uh-Huh on Riva Records. It reached No. 8 on the USBillboardHot 100 in early 1984 and No. 15 in Canada. "Pink Houses" was ranked No. 447 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Origins
Recorded in a farmhouse in Brownstown, Indiana, the song was inspired when Mellencamp was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana from the Indianapolis airport. There was an old black man sitting outside his little pinkshotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how 'Pink Houses' started." Mellencamp has stated many times since the release of "Pink Houses" that he's unhappy with the song's final verse. At an October 2014 press conference, he stated: "A long time ago, I wrote a song called 'Pink Houses.' Now when I hear that song, all I can think is: 'Why didn't I do a better job on the last verse?' If I had written it today, the last verse would've had more meaning."
Use in politics
In 2004, the song was played at events for Senator John Edwards' presidential campaign. The song was also used at events for Edwards' 2008 presidential campaign. "Pink Houses" along with "Our Country" was played by Senator John McCain at political events for his 2008 presidential campaign. Mellencamp contacted the McCain campaign pointing out Mellencamp's support for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and questioning McCain's use of his music; in response, the McCain campaign ceased using Mellencamp's songs. In January 2009, Mellencamp played "Pink Houses" at. In 2010, "Pink Houses" was used by the National Organization for Marriage at events opposing same-sex marriage. At Mellencamp's instruction, his publicist sent a cease and desist letter to NOM stating "that Mr. Mellencamp's views on same sex marriage and equal rights for people of all sexual orientations are at odds with NOM's stated agenda" and requesting that NOM "find music from a source more in harmony with your views than Mr. Mellencamp in the future."
Shot in Southern Indiana locations such as Seymour, Austin, and Bloomington in August 1983. The house appearing near the beginning is located at 530 York Road in Austin, Indiana. The white, two-story gas station, bedecked in patriotic buntings and an American flag, was located on the SE corner at the intersection of Indiana State Road 250 and U.S. Highway 31 in Uniontown, Indiana. The man with no shirt on and a straw hat who dances near the end of the video was Harvey Goodin, the mayor of Austin, Indiana in 1983 when the video was shot.
In the TV seriesGlee, glee club member Kurt Hummel discusses the meaning of the song with his father, and then covers it at the glee club. The 2009 book Little Pink House: A True Story of Defiance and Courage by Jeff Benedict uses Mellencamp's phrase to describe a "historic battle against eminent domain" from a right-libertarian perspective.
