I don't think I've done a John Mellencamp song yet.
Of his 128 albums, I'm sure you could get one really good disk out, if you pulled individual songs from those. He's not a go-to favourite, but he has his moments.
And I am talking Mellencamp and not Cougar.
If I never have to heard "Pink Houses" or "Jack and Diane" again, I'd be just fine. I do like his take on "I Need a Lover" better than Pat Benatar though.
I took issue with songs like "the Authority Song". I never saw anyone call him a thief for that. "I fight authority / authority always wins". How is that different than, "I fought the law / and the law won"? Maybe he tried to pass it off as an homage.
But Mellencamp really came into his own when he took back his name and had enough clout to go up against the record company and not be a stooge for the suits.
He did a nice job on a cover of Van Morrison's "Wild Nights" with Me'Shell Ndegeocello, but I think I'll have to go back to the '80s or '90s for my choice.
That said, it turns out I like about seven or eight of his songs (ok, maybe I couldn't get a full album out off all his material); and today's choice came down to three: "Paper in Fire", "Rain on the Scarecrow", but "Human Wheels" won out. There isn't any defining reason for how it won, it just did.
I will say, I'm interested in Mellencamp's next project - Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration with Stephen King and T. Bone Burnette. I've heard a few tracks that are really good. Some of the others are sung by Sheryl Crow, so..............there's that. They can't all be winners.
1 comment:
Good Choice
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