Fun Size Bytes

August 20, 2010

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

John “Cougar” Mellencamp’s Scarecrow is one of my favorite albums of all-time. (Judge away, if you must, it won’t bother me.) It’s one of the few CDs that I’ve ever owned where I can just hit “Play” and not feel like skipping any of the songs (although Minutes To Memories is probably my favorite, so I’ll probably listen to that one a few times before moving on).

I’ve added very little to my musical knowledge, taste, or CD collection since the 80s, for the very simple reason of not liking most of the stuff that I’ve heard since then. It’s not that the 80s were so great (as we all know there was some horrible things done in the recording studio in the 80s which are best forgotten), as much as it is those where the years when music was most important to me, and a lot of the good music memories I have were formed around events and memories that I have improved on with the passing of time.

So it should come as no surprise to you that I was completely unaware that John Mellencamp had a new CD out, until Jelisa mentioned it. I read her description of it (see below) and listened to the song. Now, I suppose I ought to be one of the people who hates this new CD and the sound that doesn’t sound like the Mellencamp of my youth, but the song immediately appealed to me, and I ordered the CD from Amazon immediately after her post.

I’m listening to it right now for the first time, and so far I think it’s pretty great.

So, thanks, Jelisa, not only for the information about the CD’s release, but for your post which was compelling enough that I thought “This is something I need to hear.”

In case y’all missed it, here’s what she wrote about it the other day:

John Mellencamp: “Don’t Forget About Me”

Yesterday, Mister Mellencamp released No Better Than This, the album he recorded while literally standing in the dusty footprints of a handful of music legends. This time last year, he and producer T-Bone Burnett planted their boots firmly on the electrical tape X that marked the Sun Studios floor on the spot where Elvis poured his soul onto a slab of vinyl.

From there, they moved to Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel—late BluesGod Robert Johnson’s room—and the First African Baptist Church. Whether it’s because of Burnett’s production or because of the lingering ghosts of the recording locations, there’s a haunted quality to the entire album.

Look, this isn’t the same guy who spent the 1980s with feathered hair, a practiced scowl and a made-up name. At 58, he’s grown in to his Marlboro-enhanced rasp and has finally earned the dirt on his denim jacket. When he delivers lines like “Give me back my youth/And don’t let me waste it this time”, it sounds like he’s telling Jack and Diane to do something other than kill their afternoons at the Tastee Freez…but not until they go back one more time, just to savor it.

Mellencamp’s first album was called John Cougar and he recorded it while he was using the same name for himself. Thirty-one years later, he sounds more like John Steinbeck…and a lot less like who he used to be.