Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 237 - John Mellencamp (2)

The Lonesome Jubilee - John Cougar Mellencamp

Mercury

Produced by John Mellencamp and Don Gehman

Released 24th August 1987

US Charts #6

UK Charts #31

Personnel
    John Mellencamp – vocal, guitar
    Kenny Aronoff – drums, percussion, backing vocals
    Larry Crane – guitars, mandolin, harmonica, autoharp, banjo, backing vocals
    John Cascella – accordion, keyboards, saxophone, melodica, penny whistle, claves
    Lisa Germano – fiddle
    Toby Myers – bass guitar, banjo, backing vocals
    Pat Peterson – backing vocals, cowbell, tambourine
    Crystal Taliefero – backing vocals
    Mike Wanchic – guitars, dobro, banjo, dulcimer, backing vocals
 

Singles from The Lonesome Jubilee

Paper In Fire / Never Too Old

August 1987

US Chart #9

Cherry Bomb / Shama Lama Ding Dong

October 1987

US Chart #8

Check It Out / We Are The People

January 1988

US Chart #14

Rooty Toot Toot / Check It Out (Live)

May 1988

US Chart #61

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The Lonesome Jubilee was the ninth studio album from John Mellencamp and one of his most successful worldwide as it charted in ten countries.

After the success of Scarecrow the band had been on the road a long time and had begun talking about a new project rather than just turn up at the studio and letting it happen. 

Mellencamp said in a 1987 Creem Magazine feature. "For the first time ever, we talked about the record before we started. We had a very distinct vision of what should be happening here. At one point, The Lonesome Jubilee was supposed to be a double album, but at least 10 of the songs I'd written just didn't stick together with the idea and the sound we had in mind. So I just put those songs on a shelf, and cut it back down to a single record. Now, in the past, it was always 'Let's make it up as we go along' – and we did make some of The Lonesome Jubilee up as we went along. But we had a very clear idea of what we wanted it to sound like, even before it was written, right through to the day it was mastered."

Over a period of nine months in which the album was recorded Mellencamp took a risk to steer the music in a new direction to the normal rock and roll as he and the band added instrumentation that was more in line with what folk and country musicians would be using to make a record. The risk paid off of course as the album became his fourth Top Ten record in a row.

In my first post on John Mellencamp earlier in the year, where I was looking at his American Fool Album I had said in closing "People have a habit of seeing John Mellencamp as some sort of poor man's Bruce Springsteen and I think that is terribly unfair. He should be recognised as a great songwriter and performer in his own right." I still stand by that. Interestingly during the 1987–88 Lonesome Jubilee Tour, Mellencamp was joined onstage by surprise guest Bruce Springsteen at the end of his May 26, 1988 gig in Irvine, California, for a duet of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," which Mellencamp performed as the penultimate song during each show on that tour.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

The Soundtrack4Life Concert Series: John Mellencamp

I've been meaning for ages to post some concert footage of John Mellencamp and so today here's a triple shot. Firstly a performance from Phoenix, Arizona earlier this year, secondly a TV Live Request special from 2004, and finishing up with a live performance from his own studio in 2014 with a small audience in conjunction with axsTV that features songs from his Plain Spoken album.

10th January 2016

Phoenix, Arizona

Setlist:
Lawless Times
Small Town
Stones in My Passway (Robert Johnson cover)
Check It Out
Jack and Diane
Rain on the Scarecrow
Paper in Fire
Crumblin' Down
Authority Song
Pink Houses
Cherry Bomb

Live By Request

12th November 2004

Bloomington, Indiana 

 Setlist:
Small Town
Minutes to Memories
Peaceful World
Jack and Diane
Walk Tall
Thank You
Paper in Fire
Authority Song
Jackie Brown
Rain On the Scarecrow
Check It Out
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
Lonely 'Ol Night
Hurts So Good
Pink Houses

Bellmont Mall Studio

Bloomington, Indiana
27th September 2014

For axs TV

Set List

Authority Song

Troubled Man

Minutes to Memories

Sometimes There's God

Check It Out

The Isolation of Mister

Longest Days

Small Town

Tears in Vain

Lawless Times

Pink Houses

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 103 - John Mellencamp

American Fool is the fifth Studio Album from John Mellencamp (but released under his stage name John Cougar, more about that in a moment).

John Mellencamp didn't have an easy ride to get where he is today. Right from the start he was forced to use the name Johnny Cougar as it was deemed that Mellencamp sounded too clunky and impossible to market to anyone! His first album Chestnut Street Incident was produced by his then manager Tony Defries who had suggested the name change and Mellencamp reluctantly agreed, but the album (of Cover Versions) was a complete failure, selling only 12,000 copies. Mellencamp confessed in a 2005 interview: "That (name) was put on me by some manager. I went to New York and everybody said, 'You sound like a hillbilly.' And I said, 'Well, I am.' So that's where he came up with that name. I was totally unaware of it until it showed up on the album jacket. When I objected to it, he said, 'Well, either you're going to go for it, or we’re not going to put the record out.' So that was what I had to do... but I thought the name was pretty silly."

He was dumped by MCA after they rejected his second album The Kid Inside. So his second album ended up being released  by his then former manager Defries in 1983 as he tried to cash in on the success from the American Fool album!

His second album (in 1978) ended up as A Biography released by Riva Records but it did not get a release in the US but only in the UK and Australia! Indeed he got his first #1 hit in Australian with I Need A Lover.

The Self-Titled John Cougar followed in 1979 (though in Australia the album was called Miami) and finally got him on the charts in the USA (#64). Nothing Matters and What If It Did (produced by Steve Cropper) followed in 1980, reaching #34 and he did have a couple of hit singles from it. Mellencamp is quite dismissive of it though."The singles were stupid little pop songs," Mellencamp told Record Magazine in 1983. "I take no credit for that record. It wasn't like the title was made up – it wasn't supposed to be punky or cocky like some people thought. Toward the end, I didn't even go to the studio. Me and the guys in the band thought we were finished, anyway. It was the most expensive record I ever made. It cost $280,000, do you believe that? The worst thing was that I could have gone on making records like that for hundreds of years. Hell, as long as you sell a few records and the record company isn't putting a lot of money into promotion, you're making money for 'em and that's all they care about. PolyGram loved Nothin' Matters. They thought I was going to turn into the next Neil Diamond."

The next Neil Diamond he certainly wasn't! And then came the breakthrough album American Fool making it to the top spot on the Billboard Charts, not bad for an album that John Mellencamp reckons, "To be real honest, there's three good songs on that record, and the rest is just sort of filler. It was too labored over, too thought about, and it wasn't organic enough. The record company thought it would bomb, but I think the reason it took off was – not that the songs were better than my others – but people liked the sound of it, the 'bam-bam-bam' drums. It was a different sound."

Following the success of American Fool Mellencamp had enough clout with the label to be able to at least add his surname to the John Cougar for the release of his next album released in 1983 Uh-huh, which contained three of his finest singles to date (Crumblin' Down, Pink Houses, and Authority Song) and he would eventually dismiss the use of the name Cougar come the time for his 1991 album Whenever We Wanted.

People have a habit of seeing John Mellencamp as some sort of poor man's Bruce Springsteen and I think that is terribly unfair. He should be recognised as a great songwriter and performer in his own right. I have a lot of time for his music and he's still putting out some great stuff, 2014's  Plain Spoken is fantastic. There's a good interview looking back over his career and talking about Plain Spoken here that's worth checking out.

American Fool - John Cougar

Riva

Produced by Don Gehman and John Mellencamp

Released 12th April 1982

US Chart #1

UK Chart #37

Personnel
    John Cougar – lead vocals
    Larry Crane – guitar, background vocals
    Mike Wanchic – guitar, background vocals
    Kenny Aronoff – drums
    George "Chocolate" Perry – bass
    Mick Ronson – guitar, background vocals
    Robert "Ferd" Frank – bass, background vocals
    Eric Rosser – keyboards
    Dave Parman – background vocals

Singles From American Fool

Hurts So Good

April 1982

US Chart #2

Jack and Diane

July 1982

US Chart #1

UK Chart #25

Hand To Hold On To

October 1982

US Chart #19

UK Chart #89

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Happy Birthday John Mellencamp

Happy Birthday

John Mellencamp

Born on this day in 1951

John Mellencamp Live at Farm Aid

19th September 2015

Setlist

1. Lawless Times
2. Small Town
3. Stones In My Passway
4. Check It Out
5. Overture
6. Rain on the Scarecrow
7. Paper In Fire
8. Crumblin' Down
9. Authority Song
10. Pink Houses