John Cougar Mellencamp ''The Lonesome Jubilee'' turns 25.

Nice piece on one of the best albums of the last three decades, this album sounds as fresh and different today as it did when i first heard it, definitely has stood the test of time, the record that helped put Americana on the map, something for which John's never fully gotten credit for, any rock mag's best albums of all time list ''which is most or all of them'' that doesn't include it is **** in my opinion.



http://ultimateclassicrock.com/john-cougar-mellencamp-the-lonesome-jubilee-turns-25/

 

Great album. Hotdogs & Hamburgers my fav tune. Great snare sound.

 

A vey fine album. I prefer almost all albums of JCM to that of Bruce Springsteen. The first musician is so much better!

 

I remember someone succinctly describing John Mellencamp's sound as "Rolling Stones riffs played on Bob Dylan DESIRE-era instruments." I thought that was pretty perceptive and accurate!

I doubt the violin or accordion player ever thought they'd be playing arenas . . .

 

That's a fun tune, i've always liked ''Empty Hands'' and think it's one of John's finest tunes, the lyrics are as relevant ''if not more so'' today as they were back then, the chorus ''set to a haunting melody '' gives me chills.


''Across the cities, across this land
Through the valleys, and across the sand
Too many people standin' in line
Too many people with nothing planned
There's too many people with empty hands''

 

Yeah its a great one, especially Paper in Fire, but Big Daddy is better.

 

I would say that's pretty accurate, John has stated on more than one occasion that his main musical influences were Dylan, The Stones and Woody Guthrie.

 

Funny, I just played the paper-sleeved SHM-CD a couple of days ago ...

 

I'd like to see a DVD of the 12/11/87 show @ Market Square Arena in Indianapolis...the show was filmed/recorded and footage was used for the video "Check It Out".

 

Great record from a great artist.

 

"The Lonesome Jubilee" is a great LP... I played "Human Wheels" this AM it's another good one.

 

This is the 2nd CD I ever bought. Very good album.

Pat

 

I didn't know they filmed the whole concert, good to know, would love to see it as well, hopefully it gets a release.

 

First cd I ever bought and a brilliant album to boot. Maybe we might get a Deluxe version sometime soon.

 

This and Scarecrow are my two favorite albums by him. This, I think, is the better of the two.

 

Agreed. But, for whatever reason, The Lonesome Jubilee was curiously underrated at the time of its release, and remains so today. At least that's how I see it.

 

Thanks to you Jackson, I pulled it out this AM. Great listen & poignant lyrics. JM certainly was a favorite of mine 25 years ago. My favorite lyric from "Check it Out": "You can't tell your best buddy that you love him" because it struck a cord of truth to a teenage boy.

 

I don't think it was considered cool or hip to like John ''Cougar'' Mellencamp , probably still isn't in some circles, i think part of it has to do with radio and MTV overplay, there's a quote attributed to Neil Young when asked why John's work wasn't taken more seriously, he basically said that ''John's problem was that he had too many hits''.

 

I think that the "poor man's Springsteen" label got slapped on John early in his career, and he never escaped it, even though by the mid-80s he was making better records than Springsteen.

 

I agree, and that's something i've stated before, i just thought this time i'd leave all that Bruce stuff to you guys.

 

Down and Out in Paradise, Check it Out and Real Life are great tunes here. I agree that I enjoy Big Daddy a bit more. I also didn't like the Springsteen comparisons. I would be interested to see a poll between Scarecrow and Nebraska.

 

That's hard to believe! Wow, time flies. I remember clearly the world premiere of "Paper In Fire" on MTV, back when it was actually Music Television. The Lonesome Jubilee is a great album that holds up well.

 

Lonesome Jubilee is one of very few of his albums i have lstened to all the way through and like it. It also has my all time favorite Mellencamp song, it became my all time fav of his when i first heard it and it still is " Cherry Bomb". Most of his albums i only like a few songs. some albums none. But lonesome Jubilee, love it all the way through.

 

"Cherry Bomb" is my fave Mellencamp tune as well.

 

There's an interesting comment from John from about the time that the next album (Big Daddy) came out in Musician magazine. He was very disenchanted with the music business at the time and didn't even tour for that album only doing stuff like SNL. The whole interview is fascinating as you can plainly see him trying to cope with success, but here's that excerpt:


Musician: The only time in the past five years I've listened to one of your records and thought I was hearing something false was on the second side of Lonesome Jubilee. It seemed like you were trying to write a particular kind of populist anthem for your fans, but your heart wasn't in it.

Mellencamp: "Hot Dogs and Hamburgers" was one of my least favorite songs that I ever wrote. Somebody told me when I was making it, "John, you're not gonna like this song in a year." Course that set me off. I said, "Oh yeah?" That was enough to make me put it on the record. I'm just like that. (...) That song was completely made up. There's not one thread of reality in it. Only words that I thought sounded good together. So it taught me a lesson: You need a model. You can lie about it and change certain parts of the story, but you gotta have an experience to start from. I have got to learn to write for myself more, and forget about the audience. Get that baggage about how it's going to sell and what they're going to think out fo the way.


He's pretty harsh on it. I wonder if he was just down in a rut that day or if he'd still offer the same opinion on that song today. John doesn't seem to like dwelling into his past too much as it is.

Ha, I still have the CD-Video for this, and was thrilled with that live version. I hope that they did go ahead and record that whole show to have in the vault. There is also at least one radio broadcast from that tour that could be another potential release.

It'd be interesting to see a re-release of this. Some things to include might be:
- remastered album (by our host, naturally )
- b-sides (Never Too Old, Cold Sweat, Shama Lama Ding Dong, there must be more)
- That above mentioned concert on DVD/Blu-ray(if the entire show exists)
- radio broadcast from the Lonesome Jubilee tour (Dallas)