Lyrics to
American Dream

This version of American Dream was released by John Cougar Mellencamp in 1976.

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I had a face so cute made a young girl cry
And I could blow ’em away with just a wink of my eye
I got all dolled up on a Saturday night
Can’t find a lady so I’ll start a fight
Hey but ain’t that the American Dream

But at School the young boys would assemble down in the parking lot
And we spoke of the homecoming queen and all the goodies she’s got
Well those stories would choke a semi
And every dare was do or die
Hey but ain’t that the American Dream

Well I grew up believin’ I could do what I wanted to do
When I got a little older I found that it just wasn’t true
There’s gotta be a place for me
Where I can out-be just what I want to be
Hey but ain’t that the American Dream

Some of the girls are out teaching high school biology
And all of my boyfriends they work down at Cummmins factory
But me I’m still out on the streets trying to locate some destiny
Hey but ain’t that the American Dream

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Want more lyrics and songs by John Cougar Mellencamp?

John Cougar Mellencamp has released many songs over the years besides American Dream. John Cougar Mellencamp released songs from 1976 to 2007 spanning across albums like Chestnut Street Incident, A Biography, John Cougar, Nothin' Matters And What If It Did, American Fool, The Kid Inside, Uh-Huh, Scarecrow, The Lonesome Jubilee, Big Daddy, Whenever We Wanted, Human Wheels, Dance Naked, Mr. Happy Go Lucky, John Mellencamp, Rough Harvest, Cuttin' Heads, Trouble No More, and Freedom's Road. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by John Cougar Mellencamp.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and American Dream by John Cougar Mellencamp

The lyrics for American Dream are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1976 song by John Cougar Mellencamp. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to American Dream have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for American Dream - John Cougar Mellencamp and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to American Dream by John Cougar Mellencamp in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to American Dream" means the words set to the music of American Dream, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by John Cougar Mellencamp. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to American Dream and the lyrics to American Dream are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of John Cougar Mellencamp who came here looking just for the lyrics to American Dream, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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