What is John (Cougar) Mellancamp's best song?

also, i meant "check it out".

"chack it out" has not been recorded by anyone according to amg.

Even though he doesn't get played on the radio much outside of Indiana these days, Mellancamp still can write a good song every now and then. They really need to put together either a complete 70 minute CD best of or a two CD complete compliation. JCM is pretty much against greatest hits packages, so that is why he held out forever putting one out, even though I think a well chosen collection would probably help his profile more than anything.

good call on Jackie Brown - that's a great great very sad song!

When Avail played in Bloomington for the first time, the band insisted that my roommate who put on the show lead them out to see Mellancamp's house. On their next album they covered "Pink Houses".

"I think some douchebag like John Michael Montgomery would be considered Kentucky's Springstein"

Why not John Michael's brother Eddie, + his partner Troy Gentry?? (Lexington, right?) Whose new album rocks harder than anyother record to come out this year (not to mention harder than any album Bruce S. ever made), and has plenty of Mellencamp and Seger in it, to go with all the Allmans and Skynyrd. (On the other hand, MAYBE these two belong on that other thread about rocking Nazis, hard to tell...)

Anyway I really like Cherry Bomb and Small Town and think that pretty much every song I hear by the Coug on the radio sounds really good.

If you like The Panics, you should search out "The Fall of the House of Ruin" CD by the Walking Ruins, which is the later band by John Barge and Ian Brewer had from the early 80s till mid 90s. It is a hidden gem of punk rock.

The route I used to take to my (now ex-)band practice went right by John Michael Montgomery's house. I threw a beercan at it once.

http://scnc.britton.k12.mi.us/~vincentl/bmx/images/graphitetuffs.jpgig

No, not Aranoff himself. But definitely some drummer who's LISTENED to Kenny, and understands why Aranoff is a God Among Beatmaking Men. ('80s Melonhead sound is actually even more visible on the Chesney album, though. Not to mention the Petty sound. Seger's about equal.)

while i appreciate the shot of the rims, i believe the line was "that's when a smoke was a smoke".

"small town" is my favorite john mellencamp song despite -- or maybe because of -- the fact that i've never lived in one.

Alex is the Village's Jaz Coleman.

to solve hstencil's problem, meanwhile, we could call him queens county's springsteen.

the hold steady are spiritually from minneapolis, no matter where they reside geographically.

"'R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.' sucks!" *SOCK*

Yeah, Bob Seger (who also started totally indie label punk rock) is a MUCH closer comparison than Springsteen, anyway. I mean, to HELL with Springsteen, you know? Get a clue, Bruce! (Actually, that's mean; I really like Bruce's debut album, you know, the rap one where he was sorta like Beck but better, except for that one song that sounded like Thin Lizzy.) And he did some great stuff later, too, I suppose, at least in the '70s. But the E Street Band??? Get a drummer, guys...

Pittsburgh's Cougar, by the way, would be Iron City Houserockers. Cleveland's would be the Michael Staney Band. Delaware's would be George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers (excellent baseball jerseys, by the way.) Long Island's would be the Good Rats, who I heard a song by once. Ireland's would be the BOOMTOWN Rats, circa *Tonic for the Troops* anyway. (Unless you count Phil Lynott for the first 30 Thin Lizzy albums.) I forget where John Cafferty came from.

Indianapolis, IN.

Who do you think Coug grew up dancing to?? I mean, read the lyrics to "Rock in the USA"!! (Though the Young Rascals were just NY's poor man's version of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, near as I can tell.) (And Cougarcamp produced Ryder's '80s comeback album, so....)

The darkside.

they could use an arranger, too. perhaps the most overrated backing band in rock?

I forget where John Cafferty came from.

rhode island.

even if Coug grew up dancing to the good rats (and "I grew up dancing to The Good Rats" does sound like a real Coug lyric) it doesn't make The Good Rats the Long Island Coug - but i think i'm lost here

For me, it is a tie between "Lonley Ol' Night" and "Cherry Bomb." In second place, his cover of "I Saw Mamma Kising Santa Claus"

And voices from the larger towns
Filled our head full of dreams
Turned the world upside down
There was Frankie Lyman-Bobby Fuller-Mitch Ryder
(They were Rockin')
Jackie Wilson-Shangra-las-YOUNG RASCALS
(They were Rockin')
Spotlight on Martha Reeves
Let's don't forget James Brown
Rockin' in the U.S.A.
Rockin' in the U.S.A.
Hey!
Chorus

Well, he didn't really. His parents were part of some fundamentalist church where dancing was forbidden.

yeah, good call positing Cougar/Bloomington as = Loverboy/Vancouver, and telling the EStreetBand that they forgot to hire a Kenny Aaronoff, or any kind of drummer at all. (remember that Coug had to take away kenny's "12 fucking tom toms, one by one," and teach KA what "rock drumming" was about during the teeth-pulling recording sessions of American Fool...oh, doofus me, i forgot that Springsteen's music guy was the eternally clueless Jon Landau...if dennis thompson and michael davis actually agree on one thing in their life--that they wanted to stuff landau into a trash can--i figure they must be right). i would agree that Lonesome Jubilee is/was a "tipping point," because that's where the catalog lost me (i can't speak for the rest of the "hit song" audience lost, becasue that's usually just a function of the hit songs). i think POP SINGER (or whatever it's called) is an excellent album until the crap lead-vocals which neutralize all of it as a listening experience. i brought home a 95-cent bin copy of the album with "Peaceful World" and remember thinking, "man, i hope John Cougar never asks me what i think of this album." (i moved it to a half-size CD-single case, if that's a tipoff...that's where "oddities" or "big deal" stuff goes that are nonetheless "keep it" CDs).

i'd vote for "This Time" (#27 pop, 1980) as his best pop song, just to hear it again for the first time in ten years. ha ha, two of my very favorite 70's/80's rock acts both wrote a "rod stewart" song that doughboy Rod didn't spring for. ("Hard Luck Woman" the other notable Rod-reject). i'm probaby getting the "Time Time"/Rod connection wrong though...i'd have to look it up in his bio.

otherwise, "Hurts So Good," "Jackie Brown," and "Jack and Diane." "Thundering Hearts" is probably Top 5.

there's a couple 1982 live TV clips where Coug Unleashed is certainly the punkiest thing the 80's ever produced, hardcore bands to the contrary. he really channels the Jani Lane (= fucking with the band, esp the sole glitter-coug and "chestnut street" veteran Larry Crane).

Coug defintely MC'd that Gizmos/MX-80 show at the Bloomington Public Library 1976. eddie flowers hated the Coug bigtime ever since, for being made fun of. Kenne (Highland) had a different take on it, said it was pretty hilarious. in kenne's version Coug was all but taking notes because Kenne (says ken) had a real good night on stage. (KH being a bonafide Marine and all, remember...a real life big muscle guy to coug's tough guy short wannabe-bigger). if you compare the smartass "review" in Gulcher (by Coog) to the Buddy Holly "legends" half-page short in last month's Rolling Stone "legends" issue, the prose more or less matches up. plus nobody in their right mind, post-Chestnut Street Incident, would have ghost written something with Cooga's name (on it).

altho only a dork would put fucking Buddy Holly songs into an IPod...that is SO gay. new tech should have "new" music in it, if it has to be used at all. and certainly nothing preceding the Spice Girls.

i'm gonna dub the Skye Sweetnam SWITCHED show sometime soon because I have to re-watch it anyway. it was pretty surreal (skye i mean).

did the yeah yeah yeahs break up yet?

And I'd forgotten all about that "Pop Singer" thing. When the heck was that, anyway?? Early '90s?? "I don't wanna be Bob Seger/I don't wanna sing Bob's songs..."

totally agreed (see beginning of thread). the structure of it is awesome. every time i hear it while i'm driving (which is pretty much the only time i hear it), i think -- this blue collar midwestern prog is my kind of prog.

also, i just listened to american fool the whole way through for the first time since last listened to my sister's original pressing (oooooh). i'm impressed that "hurts so good" appears later in asian-styled reprise that goes by the name "china girl".

The Coog >>>>>>> Bruce. BIG time

that said, i believe I'm the first to nominate "Ain't Even Done with the Night" as his best tune.

A great performer, but apparently an absolute MONSTER to deal with personally or professionally

Chuck OTM regarding everything through Lonesome Jubilee being ace. And also for nodding at "Trouble No More", one of my favorite albums of last year. The "making of" video that ran on Trio was also very good.

Exactly why it's is my kind of prog rock.

On another topic which has entered this thread, the Good Rats were NOT "mean" -- I met & interviewed the Marchello brothers in the '70s in the course of my rockcrit duties, and they were swell guys. In recent years, I've realized that the Magliozzi brothers of "Car Talk" fame are almost exact duplicates of the Marchellos in sarcastic skills, looks, the whole pizza pie. Have both sets of brothers ever been seen in the same studio at the same time? And don't forget, the hottest song on the Good Rats' 1968 debut album on Kapp is the car-sounding "Joey Ferrari," no less! A Puzzler for the ages . . .

http://www.slippytown.com/gizmos3.htm

BTW, I choose either "Authority Song" or "Play Guitar." I prefer The Runaways' "Cherry Bomb" to John's.

Not to mention the Romantics' "What I Like About You"

This is one of the fucking funniest things I've read in a while, Metal Mike scores again. (I do have older songs on my iPod though, so I must be gay.)

Yes, Dimaggio - his debut 7" was Gulcher 005:

http://www.raw-tcsd.com/Cougar.jpg

And hey, I LIKE "Boring (part 1)"! You can really hear the Bobby Fuller influence. Plus I'm always a sucker for songs that refer to themselves. (There was a thread devoted to this topic a few weeks ago.) Wonder what Chuck thinks of it, assuming he's heard it. Are you there, Chuck?

If you ever get to see JC(M)'s performance of "I Need a Lover" on "American Bandstand," watch closely. On the chorus, he's actually mouthing the words "I need a lover who'll sit on my face." (Which I think he used to sing in concert, if my memory of a really old Creem article is correct.)

"Play Guitar" seconded.

As for favorite J(C)M numbers, I'm partial to "Authority Song," especially because of the lyric about how "growin' up leads to growin' old and then to dyin'/and dyin' to me don't sound like all that much fun." (Of course, he could be repudiating one of his earlier little ditties: "growin' up leads to growin' onld and then to Diane/and Diane to me don't sound like all that much fun.") The runner-up favorites are "Scarecrow" and "Crumblin' Down" (which features my other favorite lyric: "some people say I'm obnoxious and lazy/I'm uneducated/my opinion means nothing/But I know/I'm a real good dancer"). And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "R. Gang" from "The Kid Inside" -- the "gang" whooping it up in the background is definitely worth the price of admission.

One of those moments when I was a kid where I delighted in swearing because my parents had no idea there were curses on any albums I owned.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/j/john-mellencamp/74508.html

A google search of "cherry bomb lyrics sport" turns up 1710 results, while "cherry bomb lyrics smoke" turns up 3220.

my high school graduation song was almost 'the authority song,' but we went with 'footloose' instead, in an attempt to be positive.

I fear you.

'Course, that was 1984, when "I Want A New Drug" became a hit single twice, the second time under the name "Ghostbusters."

Speaking of which, I would much rather have the James Gang represent Cleveland than (ugh) the Michael Stanley Band.

Hrmph. I mean, I agree, the live Adore set I have, which is a radio broadcast source, is quite fantastic, but the drum machine/loop restraint of the album is its own particular duty, and I find both work fantastically in different ways.

I'm thinking this might be the Coug's hardest rocking song, though maybe there's competition I'm not thinking of at the moment. (Like, "Rain On The Scarecrow" maybe. Or "Thundering Hearts". Or "Authority Song." Or something else.). Anyway, it's either my first or second or third favorite song on his self-titled album from 1979 (the other two top-threes being "I Need A Lover" and "Miami." I love the idea of "The Great Midwest," but its music's not all that musical):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rre3LspKC8&feature=PlayList&p=B3778D2DB1CE62B2&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=73

Also scrawled some stuff about 1980's Nothing Matters And What If It Did on another thread a couple weeks ago, starting with the post below (keep scrolling down for more on other songs on the album):

Rolling Past Expiry Hard Rock 2009

(If that youtube link is fucked, the song in question is "Pray For Me.")

(And maybe by his "hardest rocking" I just mean his "heaviest," in the sense that say "Adam Raised A Cain" is Springsteen's heaviest song. But I'd say the Coug song is less an immobile slab than that Bruce one is.)

He's ended up with a career kind of like Mark Knopfler and Tom Petty, where he gets to write some great songs and great albums (Trouble No More) without shooting for the Top 40.

That Springsteen vocal is mad overwrought too.

I'd like to hear Will Oldham do a late-night cover of "Rain on the Scarecrow."

Ha ha, just realized that "Pray For Me" and "Adam Raised A Cain" also both have Old Testament-inspired lyrics. (Coug even mentions Cain! Swear I hadn't made that connection when I made that comparison above.)

I Need a Lover Who Won't Drive Me Crazy is really pretty great...
I also like Ain't Even Done with the Night, Authority Song, Paper & Fire, Rumbleseat, Cherry Bomb.

Other good'uns: "Get a Leg Up," "Jackie Brown," "Check It Out." The two-disc comp released a few years ago has dull patches, but it's the only place to find the minor charting singles.

?? Well, you can also find them on the original albums! (Or in "Jackie Brown"'s case, the 45, I guess, since the album was boring, plus you get the probably even better acoustic version on the B-side. Hey, hunt down the "Let It All Hang Out" 45 while you're at it. Never had much use for "Get A Leg Up" myself.)

Btw, also just occurred to me that it's kinda weird how Pat Benatar's (inferior, though still good) cover of "I Need a Lover" came out only two months after Coug's original (or at least that's when the LPs charted -- October 1979 compared to August.)

?? Well, you can also find them on the original albums!

I thought this went without saying!

i remember liking this when i was a kid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblFpDkAUnM

co-written by John Prine

"Let It All Hang Out" was a single? It was a hidden track on Big Daddy.

Yep, I've got one. Looks like this:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s1562774.jpg

Okay, so, The Kid Inside. My copy is on MainMan (his manager Tony DeFries' label), distributed by IDS London, 1982. Cover looks pretty darn bath-house porny. Recorded in 1977 (when Coug was 25) for MCA, supposedly, but never came out then; was going to be the followup to The Chestnut Street Incident from '76, which I've never heard. (I've also never heard his third album, Biography, which came out in the UK and Australia in 1978 -- has anybody?) Anyway, Kid's Wiki page lists two tracks at the end that aren't on my vinyl copy, "The Whore" (1:21) and a cover of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World" (maybe on the CD?) And the sound quality on mine is extremely muddy -- sounds like a demo tape recorded in a garage, so it takes several listens for the songs to sink in. I'm still not quite there yet, I don't think. But the best and fastest of it -- "Cheap Shot," "R. Gang," "American Son," maybe "Take What You Want" -- sounds like mid '70s Midwestern garage punk, period, as in bands (usually from Northern Ohio) who liked ripping off the Stones and Dolls and other stuff that got written about in Creem; slower saxed one "Young Genocides" apes Lou Reed not so much different than somebody like Peter Laughner would. (Not saying it's as great as Laughner, but it's on the same backstreet.) Not a lot of Springsteen or Seger, as far as I can tell. Though the interminable segued closing twofer (7:44 "Too Young To Live" then 4:07 "Survive") is some kind of failed street opera; a precursor of "I Need A Lover"'s garage prog maybe, but unlike that song it never gets a groove going. Bat Out Of Hell didn't come out until October 1977, probably too late to have been an influence, so maybe they were both going for the same sort of Born To Run epic there. Coug's a way better singer than Meat, but Meat was funnier about it. Still, overall, it's pretty clear John had has own sound already, and it's not mistakable for anybody else's. Good album. I'm surprised that it's not some kinda cult item (unless it is, somewhere.)

http://images.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drd100/d117/d11753f4f61.jpg

(Btw, not saying I like Bat Out Of Hell more than this whole album -- just more than that hard-to-get-through 12 minutes at the end.)

Also guessing that, at almost eight minutes, "Too Young To Live" is probably Cougarcamp's longest song ever. Also quite possibly his worst -- at least up through 1987. After that, all bets are off.

I've always liked "Minutes to Memories" from Scarecrow. Not his best song, but as an album track, forgotten good one.

The Kid Inside, hey? Yowch - more like "Inside The Kid." Bathhouse porn indeed.

I always liked "Cherry Bomb" and "Lonely Ol' Night" - just sonically, really. And I adore his version of Jimmie Rodgers' "Gambling Barroom Blues".

Can we get toward a consensus CD-80 of Da Best Of JCM?

Big fan of "Minutes to Memories" here fwiw.

xhuxk, I won't argue the 87 cutoff but I am curious. imo "Love and Happiness" is as vicious a musical gutpunch as Mellencamp ever delivered, and Human Wheels is nearly impeccable front to back.

Great cover.

The Lonesome Jubilee is a useful border, but, of course, he recorded lots of good songs afterwards, most of which are on that near-essential double disc comp released in 2004: "Jackie Brown," "Get a Leg Up," "Again Tonight," "Love and Happiness" (hmm...is Whenever We Wanted worth buying? Most of my favorite post-1987 tracks are from that) the "Wild Night" cover."

I do like "Get a Leg Up". Funny video - he has all his paintings in the background there.

Ha ha, I like "Jackie Brown" and "Let It All Hang Out" and "Peaceful World" post '87, and that's about it. Didn't mind Trouble No More for about a year or so when it came out, then I came to my senses. But I am an old crank.

Also, upthread I say "its been decades since I listened to *Chestnut Street Incident* or *The Kid Inside*," but I swear I've never actually heard the former. Unless my younger sister (also a big Bryan Adams and Helix fan back then) played her cassette copy in the background once.

http://images.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drd100/d117/d11753f4f61.jpg http://images.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drl100/l159/l15974o0dkv.jpg

Since nobody's mentioned them yet, let me throw in "We Are the People" and "Martha Say."

Me on his new album, his new box set, and his new The Early Years (guess which one I like most):

http://blog.rhapsody.com/2010/08/mellencamp.html

huh, yeah, that box set sounds pretty revisionary. would be interested in hearing that early years comp -- and that Gulcher EP you mention!

"What If I Came Knocking" has superb drumming, no surprise because it's Kenny Aronoff, but for a ballad it rocks awfully hard.

I love those early '90s performances; they often hoodwink me into overrating the material.

I understand what you're saying but I think "What If I Came Knocking" is worth a high rating.

The current incarnation of J(C)M - dark suits, string ties, old-timey acoustic bands - is getting a lot of love from the streaming services for some reason. I've watched two separate folk-rockumentaries about him in as many months. (And I watch ALL the music documentaries, even if I don't particularly like the artist.)

There may never come a day where anyone says that Springsteen is New Jersey's Mellencamp, but... he might be out-Springsteening Springsteen at the present moment.

Almost every good Mellensong has something very right about it; but they also usually have at least one clunky bit in there too. If pressed I'd go with "Check it Out" or "Scarecrow."

I only know the hits. Have typically always favored Pink Houses, but Small Town probably tops it, as may Paper in Fire, which I used to find a little annoying but nowhere near as much as Jack and Diane. Whatever floor of the tower of song Springsteen may inhabit, Mellencamp's somewhere in the annex.

I like someone's youtube comment on Lonely Ol' Night: "the genius of this song is putting the melody in the percussion"

I love this song and this performance of it in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CHvDPRWgJ4

that is very nice!

I love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7eve-kJHSA

It's a toss up between Check It Out or Lonely Ol' Night for me.

suckin' on a chilidog