Mellencamp - A Top 50

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Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, John Mellencamp, or my favourite...John Cougar Mellencamp! - was one of my favourite artists as a kid. The Lonesome Jubilee was the first tape I ever bought. So lately I've been re-listening to those older albums, and also gone through his more recent stuff given I'd stopped following him about 20 yrs ago.

Most of his music holds up pretty well, except for his early work. I saw him as one of my first concerts I think about '92 at Rod Laver and it was fantastic, the band he had with him at that time had been together for ages and were so tight live.

Saw the local cover band a few times too - Scarecrow, had some (pretty successful!) nights at the Cherry Hill and The Mitcham back in the days when most pubs had bands not pokies.

He's always oscillated between Rock and Folk music. His earlier hits were mainly about getting into women's pants - something he resorted to even in the 90s to get a hit, but he also became a bloody good songwriter and storyteller pretty quickly, Scarecrow and Lonesome Jubilee in the mid 80s his absolute prime. A strong activist as well all the way through for various causes for the less privileged.

This countdown was easier to do than the Pumpkins. Most, but not all, of his best songs are his hits. Only the obvious 2 albums plus Whenever We Wanted were consistent all the way through, the rest have a few good songs then filler.

Top 50:
1. Check it Out
2. Minutes to Memories
3. Theo and Weird Henry
4. Pink Houses
5. Rain on The Scarecrow
6. Paper N Fire
7. Cherry Bomb
8. Get a Leg Up
9. Jackie Brown
10. Crumblin Down
11. Love and Happiness
12. Jack N Diane
13. Authority Song
14. Small Town
15. Lonely Ol' Night
16. Key West Intermezzo
17. Whenever We Wanted
18 Hurts So Good
19 When Jesus Left Birmingham
20 The Real Life
21 Martha say
22 Without a shot
23 Just another day
24* Wild night *Van Morrison Cover
24 If I die sudden
25 Rumbleseat
26 R.OCK in the USA
27 Pop Singer
28 Thundering Hearts
29 The Breakout
30 Crazy Ones
31 Sweet Evening breeze
32 Hotdogs and Hamburgers
33 Junior
34 I need a lover
35 Play Guitar
36 We are the people
37 What if I came knocking?
38 Freedom's Road
39 Again Tonight
40 Ghost Towns on the Highway
41 Your life is now
42 John Cockers
43 Another Sunny Day 12/25
44 Jerry
45 Miami
46 You've got to Stand for something
47 Grandview
48 This time
49 Our Country
50 Dance Naked
 
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MELLENCAMP ALBUMS

I didn't realise til I started this, just how many records he has now. I'll talk about some of these more as we go.

Chestnut Street Incident (1976) - rubbish

A Biography - rubbish

John Cougar - mostly crap but did launch his first big hit in "I need a lover" which had success in Australia before anywhere else. He's always appeared to us as a bit of a working class hero. A little bit Cold Chisel-ish imo.

Nothin' Matters and What If It Did - mostly crap

American Fool (1982) - the start of his golden run with Jack n Diane and Hurts So Good.

The Kid Inside - the studios famously had him over a barrel in his earliest days, with his forced name change etc (they thought "Mellencamp" sounded like a hillbilly name even tho it's German, so called him Johnny Cougar on those records without telling him). By this time, he'd changed studios, but an earlier one still had the rights to this unreleased record which they put out after the success of American Fool to try and cash in, even though it was terrible and years older.

Uh-Huh - good

Scarecrow - a classic

The Lonesome Jubilee - a classic

Big Daddy - pretty good

Whenever We Wanted (1991) - great, his most pure rock album

Human Wheels - a mix of terrific songs and bland ones.

Dance Naked (he does have some creative album titles!) - a very stripped back album recorded in about 2 weeks, came out pretty good.

Mr Happy Go Lucky - heavily produced, rock-pop, first half is terrific but then falls away.

John Mellencamp - ordinary, quite boring

The rest of his albums I'd never heard before now:

Rough Harvest - this is a set of acoustic covers of some of his own songs and also some covers including Under the boardwalk, it's not great.

Cuttin Heads (2001) - Pretty stock standard Mellencamp record, easy enough to listen to but others are better.

Trouble No More - A bluesy folky record, i don't like it much

Freedoms Road - back to form here: one of his stronger albums this century, was very successful in the states.

Life, Death, Love and Freedom - one of his more interesting albums, it's like he's a cranky old man facing his looming mortality. This and Freedoms Road are his best albums since the '90s.

No better than this (2010) - awful. Well maybe it's ok for those who like folk but this is by far the most American folk record he's done and I just can't stand that genre in its purest form like this.

Plain Spoken - hasn't grabbed me, a bit bland.

Sad Clowns and Hillbillies (2017) - features duets with Carlene Carter. The best of this album is not bad
 

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50. Dance Naked (Dance Naked - 1994)

This was lucky to make the cut. It just sounds creepy to me now!



49. Our Country (Freedoms Road - 2007)

Radio stations aren't much interested in playing old rockers so he gave this over-patriotic song to Chevy for use in tv commercials, which got it some chart success in the States. I don't mind it but I am scraping the barrel a little, this deep in the countdown.

 
48 - This Time (Nothing Matters and What If It Did - 1980)

This album was the last of his first chapter. He finally ditched his shitty keyboards after this album. The guy he used on this album was later a convicted paedophile!

"Ain't even done with the night" didn't make the top 50 but there's something simultaneously cringeworthy and irresistibly catchy about "This Time".

Mellencamp himself hates this song but from the comments under this vid some fans absolutely love it:



47. Grandview (Sad Clowns and Hillbillies - 2017
)

The best song on his latest album has a pretty good feel to it live. It was written in the 90s by his cousin, glorifying trailer life in tongue-in-cheek and Mellencamp finally got around to giving it a decent arrangement. Both appear here. JM moves like such an old man now.

 
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46 - You've Got To Stand For Something (Scarecrow - 1985)

45- Miami (John Cougar - 1979)

"I know you're nowhere near 20. But I ain't the kind to kiss and tell, or tell lies"

Can't get away with those lyrics these days!

This album and song was a hit in Australia thanks largely to Molly Meldrum and countdown. It was pretty catchy.

 
44 - Jerry (Mr Happy Go Lucky - 1996)

Jerry's yelling at the man in the moon
He's right outside of my window
He acts like a madman from time to time
I hope he brings it to a crescendo soon


I like the Mr Happy Go Lucky album, it feels alive with a lot of funky beats, percussion, and catchy little melodies. The first 4 songs make it.

It starts with an overture of his violinist putting together all the melodies of the album into one track, before launching into Jerry, one of his more ominous sounding songs, about a guy who can't or won't grow up.



43 - Another Sunny Day 12/25 (Dance Naked - 1994)

Well this earth is a graveyard it will swallow our bones
It was here long before us it will be here when we're gone
And it's a vain generation that looks for a sign
Don't you think we could make better use of our time
Yeah, the air could be cleaner and the water could be too
But what we do to each other are the worst things that we do
And we can treasure our freedoms behind our locked doors
But God speed the day when we´re lonely no more


JM kept things simple with this album and even though it was quite hit and miss, 4 songs made it into the countdown.



I'll get to more of the songs ppl have actually heard of eventually!
 

Bennett.

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Great storyteller. Still have Pink Houses as one of my absolute favourite songs.
 
42. John Cockers (Life, Death, Love and Freedom - 2008)

41. Your Life is Now (John Mellencamp - 1998)

I don't mind this song but the rest of this album did little for me, feels empty. 1998-2006 was his weakest era before he came back in 2007-2008 with Freedom's Road and Life, Death, Love and Freedom back to back, his two most solid albums since.

40. Ghost Towns Along The Highway (Freedom's Road - 2007)

39. Again Tonight (Whenever We Wanted - 1991)

Hump the moon, again tonight!

 
38. Freedom's Road (Freedom's Road - 2007)

37. What if I came Knocking? (Human Wheels - 1993)

Human wheels was let down by several bland songs including the title track, but there's still 4 songs that made this countdown and I like them all a lot. This is the first one and is the most rock song on the album, some if you may remember it.



36. We are the people (The Lonesome Jubilee - 1987)
 
35. Play Guitar (Uh-Huh - 1983)

I don't love this song like I used to when I was a kid but it still kinda rocks, and the guitar solo is great.



34. I Need A Lover (John Cougar - 1979)


His breakthrough hit would probably be a lot higher on most people's lists but jeez I dunno, just sounds a bit cheesy now. Still it came in at 34, the long instrumental at the start is pretty unusual.

 
33. Junior (Human Wheels - 1993)

32. Hotdogs and Hamburgers (The Lonesome Jubilee - 1987)

31. Sweet Evening Breeze (Human Wheels - 1993)


Time holds the winning hand
I can tell by the lines on our faces
And the young can't understand
That they look at me
When they look at themselves


This is just a beautiful, sad and nostalgic ballad.

 
30. Crazy Ones (Whenever We Wanted - 1991)

Whenever We Wanted is one of my favourite Mellencamp albums. He said he was basically trying to re-do American Fool with this album, wrote a heap of good songs, but then became far more interested in his painting than in actually recording.

Fortunately they nailed the production on this one and it became his most rock album and unusually for him, consistent all the way through.

Crazy Ones is another one of his catchy pop rock songs.



29. The Breakout (Dance Naked - 1994)

28. Thundering Hearts (American Fool - 1982).
For some reason I never get tired of this dated, cheesy song...
 

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27. Pop Singer (Big Daddy - 1989)

Never wanted to be no pop singer,
Never wanted to write no pop song
.

Big Daddy was a bit of a commercial let-down after the huge success of the previous 2 albums. It was more folk than Lonesome, but quieter and quite serious - not the sort of album you feel like listening to over and over.

Its best songs (4 of which made this countdown) weren't very radio friendly except this one, which was also the most rock song on the record, I like the deliberately off-key notes and driving guitar riff. On a different album it could've been quite heavier and he often played it heavier alive and swore his head off during it - really has had some issues with his producers over the years!

 

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27. Pop Singer (Big Daddy - 1989)

Never wanted to be no pop singer,
Never wanted to write no pop song
.

Big Daddy was a bit of a commercial let-down after the huge success of the previous 2 albums. It was more folk than Lonesome, but quieter and quite serious - not the sort of album you feel like listening to over and over.

Its best songs (4 of which made this countdown) weren't very radio friendly except this one, which was also the most rock song on the record, I like the deliberately off-key notes and driving guitar riff. On a different album it could've been quite heavier and he often played it heavier alive and swore his head off during it - really has had some issues with his producers over the years!


One of my favourite Johnny Cougar songs.
I'll be interested to see if and where you have a few of my other favourites,
  • Key West Intermezzo
  • Jackie Brown
 
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34. I Need A Lover (John Cougar - 1979)

His breakthrough hit would probably be a lot higher on most people's lists but jeez I dunno, just sounds a bit cheesy now. Still it came in at 34, the long instrumental at the start is pretty unusual.


The intro is ******* kickass. Love this track.
 
24. If I die sudden (Life, Death, Love and Freedom - 2008)

Just put me in a pine box
Six feet underground
Don't be calling no minister,
I don't need one around
.

Mellencamp's normally pretty humble but he said this album was as good as any album made my anyone, ever. I don't agree with that! But i do think it's his best complete album in the last 20 years, maybe even since Whenever We Wanted. It's striking in the way it tackles impending death head on from an old man's perspective, particularly in songs like this one, I like the confronting lyrics and the way the drums don't even kick in til halfway.

 
So...I realised yesterday that i had 26 songs left to fit into 25 spaces.

BUT this one arguably shouldn't be there, so I'm going to make it:

Equal 24?! Wild Night (Dance Naked - 1994)

I love Van Morrison's music, but i actually prefer this cover.

The second reason this song probably shouldn't be in the countdown is that
Meshell Ndegeocello makes the song with both her singing but MOSTLY her bass riff which is just a killer as seen in this clip. If I was a bassist this would be great one to learn.

 

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23. Just Another Day (Mr Happy Go Lucky - 1996)

I didn't care for this song much when I was younger, the chorus bored me, but now I really like it.

Like Wild Night is all about the bass, Just Another Day is all about the guitars, i love its duelling riff and the relaxing vibe of the song.


yep, really like this song as well.
 
22. Without A Shot (Life, Death, Love Freedom - 2008)

So the hole gets dug deeper
With every wedding bell
And we sell each other down the road
Until there's nothing left to sell
And slowly but surely
We disappear without a trace
We point our fingers at each other
And say what the hell happened to this place


The last of his modern songs to make the countdown this is a striking, ominous song which builds and builds even abandoning all instruments but his voice at one point.

Would be at home in an old Western soundtrack about a place being taken "without a shot". But he seems to be talking about how America
self-destructed from the GFC.

 

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i need a lover still his best track for mine.
I saw you first i've always liked too, probably his 2nd favourite for me.
Good guy with a genuine empathy for the working man and woman.
 

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