Don't Need This Body

Album: Life, Death, Love and Freedom (2008)
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Songfacts®:

  • When Mellencamp played this song about impending mortality to his wife and children, such are the starkness of the lyrics, they burst into tears. He commented to Rolling Stone magazine: "It's just a song! They took it so personally."
  • Explaining to Rolling Stone contributor Anthony DeCurtis why he penned a song about death, Mellencamp said. "I'm not a kid any more, and I have to accept the responsibility that comes with getting older and what that leads to. And if I'm having these thoughts, every boomer in the world probably is. Death is not exclusive to me."

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