I always heard it as “sport” on the radio before I ever bought the album anyway. The lyric sheet just confirmed how I heard it as far as I was concerned.
It’s good to know that you heard it that way before learning what the lyric sheet said. I’ve never had particularly acute hearing anyway. Even in my teens it seemed that many of the people I knew could understand certain words in songs that I couldn’t make out. Thanks for the clarification.
SongMeanings | Lyrics
That’s when a sport was a sport
And grooving was grooving
And dancing meant everything
We were young and we were improving
Laughing, laughing with our friends
Holding hands meant something, baby
Outside the club “Cherry Bomb”
Our hearts were really thumping
Say yeah yeah yeah
Say yeah yeah yeah
Okay, I just picked up my Jasmine, looked up the chords and played and sang it.
Bert looked at me funny and asked me, “Dad? What’s a spote?”
(Bert is my domestic long hair kitty)
So I sang it the way I heard it originally.
Y’all don’t think ol’ Johnny “Cougar” 
will mind, do ya? 
Quasi
Back in the day, a “sport” was someone who dressed in a flashy manner, played the ladies, and had money in his pocket.
Uh, you’re just cottoning on to the fact the Bruce Cougar Mellensteen is a poseur retard?
Very near the top of my list of most violently overrated “artists” of all time. When I’m dictator, all traces of him will be expunged from the planet. He’s up there with Phil Collins and Stevie Nicks for me as far as total wastes of carbon.
Not to belabor the point, Quasi, but I just looked at the video on Mellancamp’s website here, and you can see a little more clearly (assuming you’ve only been looking at Youtube versions like I have) that he is saying sport…especially at about -2.33 of the video. You can even hear a hint of an ‘r’ in there sometimes which makes it a little less ‘spote’ like. 
Hope that helps.
Yeah, I know it’s “sport” but sing it as “smoke” when the song pops up on my iPod. I also know the correct line is “outside the Club Cherry Bomb” but sing that one as “outside the curb, my cherry bomb.” I always thought the cherry bomb was his car waiting out on the street.
Good song – I listened to it a bit too much when it was new and my appreciation of it has waned, but the tempo is just right for long-stride, medium-paced walking.
Y’all crack me up, I swear!:D:D:D
I know, it’s “sport”, and I ain’t gonna argue except on the Phil Collins thing: I go a little nuts on my Pearls when I’m playing along with that one song In The Air Tonight. Otherwise I agree about the carbonic waste thing.
Okay, I’ll sing “sport”, but not “spote” and I will alternate with “sport” and “smoke”.
Oh and one other thing: I love my guitars, but I’m a better drummer, and also I’m no lead player. “I’m strictly rhythm and don’t wanna make it cry or sing”.
And one other thing (mush alert): I’m very glad to have y’all to talk to.
Quasi
And we you, my friend.
I’d have loved to have been a drummer, but I would never have been able to get past the pat-your-head-and-rub-your-stomach aspects of it.
Well, when I searched for ‘thats when a smoke was a smoke’ I got this:
I wonder if in order to be politcally correct the record label changed the ‘official’ lyrics?
OK. I found a “Contact Us” link on his website and did just that. Of course chances are a zillion to one that he or anyone else will actually respond. Hang tight.
I hope you provided a link to this thread. He might be more inclined to answer if he could witness all this good faith speculation first hand.
I did!
ETA: Well, ya’ good apart from threadshitter lissener.
This reminds me of the lyrics to the song “Ana Ng” by They Might Be Giants. It contains the lines “All alone at the '64 World’s Fair/Eighty dolls yelling ‘small girl after all’”. Which makes no sense. The dolls at that exhibit were actually singing “It’s a Small World After All” and that fits in much better with the theme of the song (which is about a guy whose perfect woman lives on the other side of the world so they never meet).
Sport was a sport? You’ve got to be kiddin’ me.
[lalalalalalalalala-I never opened this thread-lalalalalalalala]
Great! Here’s hoping you hear back.
Seconded.
I know John Mellencamp; he lives here in Bloomington, IN. My parents were at one point friends with him and his very attractive wife, and though I don’t think they’ve hung out recently, they still know each other. Actually, I was in the music video for “Your Life Is Now” when I was 12. Mellencamp is a good guy; he is also an epic smoker, so I suspect that he is saying “smoke” in the song. Smoking seems to be a passion of his. If I run into him, I will definitely ask him about this.
Great! Thanks.
((We are not worthy))
((We are not worthy))