Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXLIII--John Mellencamp: Scarecrow (Album)

In real danger of having not one, not two, but three late Friday Night Jukebox posts.  Jeez-louise...

For those familiar (all three of you), every year during my birthday week (first week of June--sixty-six years young if anybody cares) I feature one of my favorite albums of all-time.  This year it's John Mellencamp and his seminal, career changing LP, Scarecrow.  This week's post (technically the post from two weeks ago--but I quibble) will be the fourth time I've featured Mellencamp (first, second, and third), and as these albums posts can get quite long and I've written a bio paragraph before, I'll dispense with any career intro.  The album peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 and spawned three singles which hit the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100.

Just a quick note about Scarecrow:  it's impossible to overstate its importance to me and how stunned I was to find Mellencamp in such musical sociopolitical company as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty.  It turned me into a lifetime Mellencamp fan (I was warming to his music, but not yet a full-fledged fan when this album was released), and while it may seem as if the album came out of left field, if you listen to Mellencamp's prior output, virtually all of it was leading to this album.  It really isn't much of a stretch to say that from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties Mellencamp was the premier male vocalist when it came to delineating American values, and all that it did and didn't stand for.  It is an incredible portrait of America, a sociopolitical masterpiece, a much needed clapback at the Reagan, devolution, and as catchy of a serious album as you're likely to ever hear.

And away we go...

Rain on the Scarecrow--From the exploding drums to the ominous guitar, Mellencamp announces with authority that this isn't going to be just another pop album.  A scathing indictment of Ronald Reagan and the damage his economic policies did to American farms--and every other American, too.  One of the best songs Mellencamp has ever written--and with anger and angst, one of his best vocals.  One of the best opening songs on any album ever as well. Favorite Line:  "He said John it's just my job and I hope you understand/Hey calling it your job ol' hoss sure don't make it right..."

Grandma's Theme--A nice piece of Americana, a traditional song sung by Mellencamp's Grandma. Another proclamation that this isn't just another pop record.  The lyrics to the entire song (it's called "The Baggage Coach Ahead") are included at the link, and it tells another sad American tale.  Favorite Line:  "All the passengers had gone to bed/Except a young man with a baby in his arms/Who sat there with a bowed-down head..."

Small Town--While a few big city folks took exception to this song (listen to the lyrics, folks!), I've always thought it was just a song about home and the creature comforts therein.  One of the things Mellencamp has always done well is write a top forty song, and he nailed this one.  Catchy, joyous, rollicking--could have been released in any decade of the rock and roll era and been a hit.  Favorite Line--"Got nothing against a big town/Still hayseed enough to say/'Look who's in the big town...'

Minutes to Memories--This one is just a stunning song, a piece about advice, aging, and making the most of what life has to offer.  Chances are good you're not going to be one of the world's winners, but you can still have a good life just being the best you can be.  Thoughtful, and delivered with a steady vocal, and a lovely melody.  I'll sound like a broken record, but another of the best he's ever written.  Favorite Line:  "My family and friends are the best thing I've known/Through the eye of the needle I'll carry them home..."

Lonely Ol' Night--A friend in need is a friend indeed--or so the saying goes.  All about being lonely and having someone--anyone--to share that loneliness with.  A nice single (it went top ten) that tells us there's a big difference between the romance of loneliness and the romance of love.  Almost an antithesis to "Jack and Diane."  Favorite Line--"Nobody told us it was gonna work out this way/No, no, no, no, no/I guess they knew we'd work it out in our own way..."

The Face of the Nation--A stripped down and bare song (a mix of jazz and blues) that decries the coldness the nation was adopting in the face of the Me Decade and Reagan's dagger to the heart of middle America.  Short and bittersweet--another sign this isn't just another pop record.  Favorite Line:  "Some got it worse than me/Some got it worse than you/You see the people starvin' underneath the tree/And you wonder what happened to the golden rule..."

Justice and Independence '85--A parable of sorts about what America had become under Reagan's leadership.  Yes, indeed, there was plenty to cry about, and Mellencamp lets his symbol flag fly pointing out the damage Reagan had done.  But he leaves us with a little hope at the end--just by singing this song....  Favorite Line:  "Roll a rock across the Country/Everybody come along/When you're feelin' down yeah yeah/Just sing this song yeah yeah..."

Between a Laugh and a Tear--Just another brilliant effort--musically, lyrically, and vocally. Featuring emaycee fave Rickie Lee Jones on backing vocals, this one is an ode to the travails of youth with a promise that the future is unwritten.  Most of us live our lives between a laugh and a tear, and the best advice is to keep on keeping on.  Favorite Line:  "Just try to live each and every precious moment/Don't be discouraged by the future forget the past/That's old advice but it'll be good to you..."

Rumbleseat--Sometimes when an album has so many great songs, you forget about one of the really good ones--and that would be this song.  As I listened while doing my half-assed research, I remembered how good this song was--story of a guy who thinks he's a loser and wakes up one day to say "Fuck that!" and start making his life better.  Another excellent pop tune, with a real fifties vibe.  (For those wondering, description of a rumbleseat here.)  Favorite Line:  "Still got some dreams left/Tomorrow is a new day/Gonna make these dreams come true..."

You've Got to Stand for Somethin'--This one's got a real bluesy seventies feel to it and gives a short history and pop culture lesson on its way to telling us that all isn't what it seems.  Stand for something or they'll take you for a ride--good advice even forty years later.  Favorite Line:  "We've got to start respectin' this world/Or it's gonna turn around and bite off our face..."

R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60's Rock)--And a balls out rocker to end it--Mellencamp had some trepidation about ending such a serious album with a fun ode to sixties rock, but in the end figured it was a high energy song and went with it.  It worked--it was the highest charting single from the album, and for the millionth time in this post, shows what a great pop hit writer Mellencamp is.  It shows the love of not just the players but also the fans.  Favorite Line:  "Some are black and some are white/Ain't too proud to sleep on the floor tonight/With the blind faith of Jesus you know that they just might..."

The Kind of Fella I Am [Bonus Track]--This one was a bonus track on the cassette and CD...and wouldn't you know it, I bought the LP.  No matter--I got it as the B-side to "Lonely Ol' Night."  Lyrics here.

Forgot how truly great this album was--and is just as relevant in the age of (fucking idiot) Trump as it was in the age of (fucking idiot) Reagan.  A stellar effort.

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXXVII--John Mellencamp featuring Bruce Springsteen: Did You Say Such a Thing

 Less than two weeks late?

I've noted a time or two that during the worst of the pandemic when I took my youngest son to Tae Kwon Do that there were several months where only the students were allowed in the school, and I'd sit in our car and listen to tunes while he had his lessons.  On one such evening, I came across this week's tune in my YouTube queue, and was taken aback because I had no idea John Mellencamp had a new album, let alone one with three songs featuring Bruce Springsteen.  I immediately gave it a listen--and literally immediately added it to my Friday Night Jukebox lineup.  It never ceases to amaze me that even fifty years into my musical journey I can still be absolutely blown away, thrilled and chilled, by a song just like this week's featured post....

This is the third time I've featured a song by John Mellencamp, which is a bit surprising since he's one-third of my Holy Trinity of Working Class Rock with Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty (first Mellencamp post here, second Mellencamp post here), which, as my pandemic comments above, I've noted before.  As I wrote about him just last February, there hasn't been anything of note in his career, though I would like to mention that he has now released twenty-four studio albums and seventy-one singles which makes for quite the musical output for the guy who started out as Johnny Cougar....

"Did You Say Such a Thing" was the third single from Mellencamp's 2022 album, the rather knavely entitled Strictly a One-Eyed Jack.  The single did not chart (should have!), while the album showed that Mellencamp's heyday is long gone, peaking at #196 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  There's a line in "Did You Say Such a Thing" where Mellencamp intones "You got your bird seed all wrong" which I though was some clever backwoods country witticism.  Nope, looked it up online and it's just a lyric in a song, though it sure seems like it could become some kind of hillbilly wisdom.

No matter how hard I try, I will not be able to do this week's song justice.  Every time I've played it this week while doing my half-assed research it shakes me to my core with how good it is.  From Springsteen's ominous guitar at its outset to Mellencamp's gravelly vocals, from the defiant lyrics to Springsteen's fiery guitars and his devil may care backing vocals, "Did You Say Such a Thing" hits every right note and shows us that rock and roll will never die, that at its finest it can say so much about the human experience and our participation in it.  A stunning, stunning piece of work from two artists showing us how to not only age gracefully, but purposefully.  Just beautiful.

Lyric Sheet:  "I guess I'll see you tomorrow/Unless you'd be gone/Never too soon for me/You got your bird seed all wrong..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDLXXV--John Mellencamp: It Don't Scare Me None

Once again we have A Week and a Day Late Jukebox....

My introduction to this week's tune came when it was included on the soundtrack to the movie Falling from Grace which starred, and was directed by (both were debuts), John Mellencamp.  For a novice, Mellencamp did a credible job both as an actor and a director, putting together a fine little movie (I've seen it twice and both times enjoyed it thoroughly).  He also put together one hell of a soundtrack--I listened to it for months when it was first released and will still put it on the stereo on occasion....

I wrote about John Mellencamp in Vol. CLXXIX, and like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty from my early posts this year, it's hard to believe I've only written about one of his songs prior to this one.  I'm sure that will be corrected over the next few years, good Lord willing.  Since I wrote about Mellencamp in 2018, he has released two albums (his Strictly a One-Eyed Jack was actually a pretty nice record) and had a 78-date tour last year.

"It Don't Scare Me None" was included, as noted above, on the 1991 soundtrack to Falling from Grace.  The song was not released as a single, and try as I might, I was unable to find any chart info for the album.  

Written by Larry Crane (backing guitarist for Mellencamp from 1976-91), "It Don't Scare Me None" is a song about an older man who is full of piss and vinegar, sung by a younger man who is full of...piss and vinegar.  Mellencamp delivers a rollicking performance, capturing not only the protagonist's fearlessness, but also his joie de vivre.  Mellencamp produced it, and you can hear where he was at musically with this one, with its Americana vibe (lots of fiddle in the instrumental break).  Great chorus, a fine pop groove, and my favorite part, right before the instrumental break when Mellencamp tells the band to "Take it."  A great song from a man who was at the height of his musical powers.

Lyric Sheet:  "Woke up blurry-eyed/Wonderin' where I've been/I've wrestled with my conscience/But my conscience never wins..."

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLXXIX--John Mellencamp: Mansions in Heaven

As I was putting together my list of songs for this year, I noticed that, in the three plus (!) years I'd been writing a weekly post about music, there were a shitload of artists whose work I had spent countless hours listening to that had yet to have a mention here on FNJ.  Tom Petty got a holler a few weeks back, and in the coming weeks I'll be featuring songs by Van Morrison, the Band, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Johnny Cash, and a host of others.  This week it's John Mellencamp, who was the final piece of my Holy Trinity of working class rockers--along with the aforementioned Petty and Bruce Springsteen.

Whereas Springsteen was the Power and the Glory, and Petty was the Reverend of Laid Back
Wisdom, Mellencamp has been the Minister of Pissed Off--though he had a a much better knack than either of them for writing hit singles.  Originally Johnny Cougar, then John Cougar, then onto John Cougar Mellencamp, before finally being allowed to use his given name, Mellencamp started out with a few catchy singles about life in the Midwest, before graduating to writing songs that went much deeper into our nation's psyche.  His Scarecrow LP is probably one of the ten best ever made, and he followed it up with years of releases full of smart songs about our world.  For his troubles Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008 and will be inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame this year.  Mellencamp was one of the original founders of Farm Aid, which has raised over $50 million to help keep family farms afloat and has been a frequent critic of our enemies on the right, including their pseudo-God, Ronald Reagan.  Not bad for a kid from Seymour, Indiana.

Released in 1989 on his Big Daddy LP, "Mansions in Heaven" was never released as a single, so again this week there will be no shout outs to Billboard's charts.  It is, however, a chance to do something that I originally wanted to do a lot more of with Friday Night Jukebox, which is to feature hidden gems from artists that get lost amongst the glittery hits.  And this one certainly got lost--in the Wikipedia entry on Big Daddy, it's the only song that didn't get a recap, and on this week's YouTube video, it's the first one I ever recall having zero comments.

When I was still a young man at thirty years of age, I thought "Mansions in Heaven" was a song about the hope for better days.  Now that I'm an old man of almost sixty years; after listening to it numerous times in preparation for this post, I'm convinced the song is about a man at peace with his small lot in life.  Whether or not that's art imitating my stages of life, "Mansions in Heaven" is sparse in its instrumentation, featuring only a lightly strummed acoustic guitar before the band kicks in on the chorus.  Mellencamp delivers a fine performance, at times almost speak singing (or is it sing speaking?) the protagonists wizened story.  But the creme de la creme, that tiny small moment that makes the song so much more than just more filler for the hits, is the "oh-oh"s that are seamlessly inserted in the middle of the two lines of the chorus, both of which lead you to believe that the angels really are descending to take him to his mansions in heaven.  All in all, "Mansions in Heaven" is a subtle Mellencamp masterpiece that showcases the human touch of one of pop music's best songwriters.

Lyric Sheet:  "Withstood the heartache/Kept on believing/It ain't winning or losing/Just the singing of the song..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CXXIX--Herman's Hermits: The End of the World

Contrary to what you might be thinking, this week's tune is not a commentary on the effects of the Trump Presidency....

Though it was originally released in 1963 (more on that later), I didn't come to know "The End of the World" until John Mellencamp released a cover version (to show you the popularity of the song, there are literally hundreds of cover versions--I'm sure that somewhere a group of monks recorded it as a Gregorian chant) on his Trouble No More LP in 2003 (I spent months listening to the song again and again).  Fast forward many, many moons and I was at work one night listening to a sampling of Sixties Folk on Pandora and lo and behold, the song came on and it was decidedly not John Mellencamp singing, so I rushed to the office computer and found it was Herman's Hermits, which started a months long lovefest with Herman's Hermits and their greatest hits (a great sampling of sixties pop).

Herman's Hermits were formed in 1964 in Manchester, England, and had a hell of a run over the next seven years.  Initially they were more popular in the states--from '64 through '67 they had eleven top ten hits in the U.S., including two number ones ("Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" and "Henry the VIII, I Am") and two Grammy nominations.  By 1967 they were essentially done commercially in the States, though from '67 through '71 they managed to have more top ten hits in Britain than they'd had while they were storming the American airwaves.  In 1971 the bandmates went their separate ways, though Herman's Hermits keep touring.  Due to acrimony among the surviving members (and like that never happens), there are two separate incarnations of the band still touring, one featuring lead singer Peter Noone, and the other featuring the only other surviving member, Barry Whitwam.

Fun Fact:  "The End of the World" was originally a hit in 1963 for country music star Skeeter Davis--she took the song to #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard country charts, #1 on the easy listening chart, and #4 on the rhythm and blues chart, the only time in the history of the Billboard charts that an artist had a song in the top ten on all four charts.  Pretty impressive charting....

With all due respect to Ms. Davis (and John Mellencamp), though, my favorite version is by far and away the Herman's Hermits cover released on their debut album in 1964, the oh so cleverly named Herman's Hermits.  Like last week's FNJ featured tune, "The End of the World" was originally released as a B side (to "Henry the VIII, I Am") by Herman's Hermits, and never had any chart success as a single on its own merits.  The song is as simple as simple gets:  a lovely melody, forlorn vocals, and heartfelt lyrics questioning just why the world goes on despite having lost the love of one's life.  Without hyperbole, I tell you that I'm not sure a perfect pop song has ever been written, but for my taste, this one is about as close as an artist can get.  It's a wonderful look at the sorrow that is a broken heart and a pop gem if ever there was one.

Liner Notes:  "Why do the birds go on singing?/Why do the stars shine above?/Don't they know it's the end of the world?/It ended when I lost your love...."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee