5 Stars
Throughout his career, John Mellencamp has been known as John Cougar, Johnny Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp. But from 1991, the Cougar bit was dropped permanently and he has settled successfully on John Mellencamp.
Three famous American solo musicians have been rocking for the blue-collar worker since the eighties. Bruce Springsteen, John Eddie and John Mellencamp.
Since 1982, John Mellencamp has amassed twenty-two top twenty hits on the Billboard Charts. There have been seven number-ones on the mainstream charts. He has been nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards, winning once. He has sold thirty million albums in the United States of America and sixty million worldwide.
Scarecrow was released in 1985 and reached number two in the American Charts, producing three top ten singles and going 5x platinum sales in the United States of America alone.
Scarecrow marked a landmark in songwriting style for John Mellencamp. The songs of childhood sweethearts and dusky summer nights were replaced by more serious subjects of hometown America. Most have a bittersweet reflective tone and are the better for it.
Addressing the fading American dream in the face of corporate greed, songs like ‘Face the Nation,’ ‘Minutes to Memories’ and ‘Small Town’ all hit their targets.
‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,’ a celebration of American 60s rock’n’roll music, was only included on the album at the last moment as John Mellencamp did not think it fitted in with the grim subject matter of the other songs. In actual fact, it does, giving the album a little light.
The heartstring-pulling ‘Lonely Ol’ Night’ tells the story of a man’s strained relationship with his father. The lyrics were inspired by Paul Newman’s role in the film Hud.
‘You’ve Got to Stand for Something’ is a fist-pumping protest song name-checking Sylvester Stallone, Marlon Brando, The Who, and Johnny Rotten, amongst others.
Altogether a fine selection of songs worthy of being voted by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top hundred greatest albums of the eighties.
The second track, ‘Grandma’s Theme,’ sung by the artist’s grandmother, is relevant to the theme but certainly not musically. It is, however, less than a minute long.
Otherwise, this is a solid diamond of an album.
In the year of this album’s release, 1985, John Mellencamp was a founding member along with Willie Nelson and Neil Young of Farm Aid. Originally intended as one concert to raise money and awareness for the plight of American family-run farms, the first concert raised over nine million dollars.
But it soon became apparent that this did not solve the problem, so the concert has now turned into an annual event attracting artists from across the spectrum, but always featuring the three founding members. Rock stars doing good, showing politicians the way.
Written by Mott the Dog from his homestead on Pattaya’s Darkside.
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