As I've written in the past, John Mellencamp is at the top of my favorite list if anything because he was one of the first artists I came into contact with when I was 10 years old. Since then, my musical travels have taken me beyond Mellencamp. I now sit on a diverse bedrock of musical knowledge. Or something like that.
Every now and then I get back to Mellencamp and each time I get a better sense of his place in music. Back when I brought home The Lonesome Jubilee, we were just a couple of teens too ignorant to decipher what was real, good and shit. I still struggle with that. Once the needle hit the vinyl record, all I knew is I wasn't listening to any run of the mill album. It was different.
Not just different from his preceding smash LP Scarecrow (another gem of his) but different from what was being recorded at the time. Remember, these were the 1980s. New wave, heavy metal, nouveau-punk, rock Americana or Hearland rock and alternative and, gulp, dance music, competed for air wave supremacy. Diverse act such as Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Bryan Adams, Billy Joel, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Echo and the Bunnymen, Morrisey, The Smiths, The Cure, The Cult, Duran Duran, U2, Huey Lewis and the News, The Cars, Talking Heads, The Go-Go's, Genesis, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, The Minutemen (I know, commercial success eluded them), Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Rush, Metallica, Eurythmics, Motley Crue, Husker Du, Tracy Chapman, The Police and a host of others graced the music world in which Mellencamp managed to carve his own niche.
And that was solidified with The Lonesome Jubilee.
No one was using the accordion, fiddle, hammond organ and lap-steel guitar in the manner employed by Mellencamp. It was raw, energetic and a Mellencamp-sound on to its own. I've always felt that record never really got the props it deserved. I own many albums from the era and it's easily one of the most influential for me. Not only that, The Lonesome Jubilee concert tour was perhaps the best concert I've ever seen. Man, I can't even explain how unbelievable it was. The arrangements, tributes, reinterpretations of songs, energy of the group have left a lasting impression. They were like the E Stree Band without a name.
Speaking of which, Mellencamp is no longer Bruce Springsteen jr.
Come to think of it, this blog is like a lonesome jubilee.
Neat video:
Ugh, growing up in Indiana, I got real sick of this guy real quick. Mellencamp and Vonnegut are ruined for me forever.
ReplyDeleteFamiliarity breeds contempt.
ReplyDeleteThat's all it takes, huh?
And why is it always about you anyway? Don't MY feelings count?
ReplyDeleteI have to admit his relentless attacks (mostly about the war) about Bush/Reagan (Reaganomics) are annoying. Obamanomics may still have equally negative consequences albeit in a different light.
ReplyDeleteDepends on what part of the fence and which side of the grass your reside that determines your perception I reckon.
Somehow Clinton's attacks in Somalia, Libya and Kosovo were all ok? Greed was present during his watch no? To say nothing of low morals.
What, didn't Kennedy kick start Vietnam and Johnson expand it? Wasn't it Truman who dropped the bomb?
Where are the songs for that? Or how Clinton (with the help of the GOP) signed off on repealing Glass-Stegall? Do the GOP get any credit for their role during the Civil Rights era?
Seems to me if you're really truly, really truly looking for truth you'd try and be a tad more balanced.
It's over bias in my view. Picking a side in politics is futile sometimes.
Nonetheless, he makes his case and makes it with solid music. I have no problems with it.