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John Mellencamp
Words & Music: The Greatest Hits of John Mellencamp
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I’ve almost always considered John Mellencamp to be a personal friend. Well, admittedly, I didn’t really get to know him during his MainMan, DeFries-led years and otherwise, as Johnny Cougar, which yielded several albums under the moniker of Cougar with variations of his first name. His style was much too singular than I was accepting at the time. But as it turned out, Mellencamp, as he soon came to be known, replacing Cougar, although cautiously with a starting hybrid of John Cougar Mellencamp, had a desire to express himself. It was that desire as well as a chameleonic approach that won my respect just as it had so many other people with different perspectives and aspects of appreciation and tastes.
With Mellencamp’s emergence as a socially conscious, and on a deeper level, a man of conviction, he began to create enduring songs that spoke to the common man. He did so with common appearance and thereby girded himself to the ‘everyman’ of the listening public. While stardom allows the excess of dress and onstage behaviours, it also has a tendency to separate those expected to connect. John Mellencamp never fell into that trap and therefore had a rapport with his audience that was more than connective, it became understanding.
This collection brings together a multitude of songs from every area in Mellencamp’s including valuable unreleased cuts. Disc one yields an unreleased cut on the first track that is a winner right out of the box. The song, “Walk On”, is a direct observation of belief and actions sung and played in the vein of his Scarecrow / The Lonesome Jubilee sessions. The other new song, " Thank You" reveals an equally strong composition with both showing that John Mellencamp still speaks for a generation.
With excellent songs like “
Small
Town
”, an intimation that small towns allow room to “breathe”, a sentiment that I concur with having been raised in one myself. The social commentaries of “Rain on the Scarecrow”, a missive on the farm crisis of the 80s, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”, a tribute to some of our earlier stars, and “Peaceful World” are an element of Mellencamp’s importance as were the insightful qualities of “”Paper in Fire”, “Cherry Bomb”, “Jack and Diane”, and a more fiery “Crumblin’ Down.” Many of these songs have a timeless charm to them that are not only deeply respectful of the musical legacy of rock but are also parts of that same composite; a thread in the quilt.
Not every great Mellencamp song, like "Small Paradise" for example, made it to this set. But with 37 songs, this 2CD collection fills the gap quite well. The bonus is in the warmth of the songs, like an old friend that sits and laughs with you about old times. Ok...so I didn't know John Mellencamp personally, but I feel as if I did through his songs. That's the legacy of Words & Music; it's a nice long visit with a friend, one that you feel that you know personally. And with good reason. He's been there, he's done that. And he remembers.
Release Date: October 19, 2004
Tracks: 37 - Time: 142:50 - 2CD
Produced by: Various
Format: CD
Website: www.mellencamp.com
Track Listing:
Disc One:
Walk Tall / Pink Houses / Lonely 'Ol Night / Jackie Brown / Rain on the Scarecrow / Love and Happiness / Check It Out / Peaceful World / Paper in Fire / Your Life is Now / Human Wheels / When Jesus Left Birmingham / Authority Song / What If I Came Looking / Crumblin' Down / Small Town / R.O.C.K in the U.S.A. / Cherry Bomb.
Disc Two:
Pop Singer / Thank You / Martha Say / Key West Intermezzo ( I Saw You First) / Hand to Hold Onto / I Need a Lover / Hurts So Good / Get a Leg Up / Wild Night / Dance Naked / Teardrops Will Fall / Ain't even Done With the Night / Just Another Day / Jack & Diane / Rumble Seat / I'm Not Running Anymore / Again Tonight / This Time / Now More Than Ever.
John Mellencamp:
John Mellencamp - Lead Vocals / Guitar
Various
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