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

Great album, although I prefer Scarecrow by a small margin.

 

I can't really listen to Pop Singer (mainly because of those awful backup vocals. That chick is practically screeching!), but it's theme fits the overall record perfectly. The one song that doesn't belong, but is a great song anyway, is the unlisted Let It All Hang Out.

 

How many of you remember this video ''how could you forget''.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP3OJUk001k

 

Hi all,
My first post and wow, do I love The Lonesome Jubilee. I own it on (far too) many copies on both vinyl and CD. Superb music and lyrics that, as others have noted, resonate today as much as they did back in '87 (and yeah, where have all the yrs gone?!).

Big fan of Springsteen too, for me, whilst on the surface they have both written songs about the same/similar themes, I just regard them as two superb songwriters, and their respective songs can be enjoyed without holding a polarised opinion about one/both.
Enjoy the music
Alan

 

A factor of only being 15 or so when Big Daddy came out, but I didn't know that Let It All Hang Out was a cover until quite recently. Had the same issue with the Liquor Giants' hidden track covering Fire Brigade by the Move. At least I knew Pictures of Matchstick Men was not a Camper Van Beethoven original...

 

Someone told me that he deliberately put the exact same number of seconds of silence before Let It All Hang Out as between The End and Her Majesty--has anyone ever compared?

 

Just saw this on thread again now, and had to put in my best of mellencamp cd as i read the forums lol

 

The whole band was great, Larry Crane's guitar work was missed IMO after he left.

 

Has he toured lately or had a new album recently?

 

I never thought there was much ambiguity to it's meaning, however I think it comes across as unintentionally campy and can only enjoy it on those terms.

I totally agree with the overall sentiment here that Mellencamp was putting out some of the greatest American music during this era. These records still sound great today.

 

Curses, I meant Cherry Bomb and not Check It Out in my earlier post. Doesn't matter though - they're both kickass songs and Jubilee is one of my favorite albums of all time.

 

He just finished a Canadian tour with Cowboy Junkies opening, his last two albums 2008's ''Life, Death, Love And Freedom'' and 2010's ''No Better Than This'' are probably his two most critically aclaimed albums, both made RS's top ten for their respective years.

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=154402&highlight=life+death+love+freedom

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=192452&highlight=better+than+this

Also there's an upcoming soundtrack of original songs he wrote for the play ''Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County'' which are performed by other artists including Roseanne Cash and Elvis Costello, the play was co-written by Mellencamp and Stephen King.

 

Seattle, hipsters and John Mellencamp.

Great read, and spot on.


http://jasons-jukebox.com/2012/07/19/john-mellencamp-the-lonesome-jubilee/

 

A criminally underrated record in my opinion - Mellencamp's best. Thanks for the link.

 

Haven't listened to that one in years but reading the review makes me wonder why. The track list is superb. A very under appreciated album and not my favorite Mellencamp album.

 

I like Springsteen, but I'll take Mellencamp.

For me he has a more authentic rural/country/roots vibe ("Jubilee" is a great example), as well as a higher funk quotient.

His best stuff sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released.

 

25 years ?

Geez I'm getting old.
I would have guessed 15, 20 max.
I need to buy this CD one of these days.
Mellencamp always has 2 or 3 really memorable tracks per album.

 

Best Mellencamp record, with Scarecrow the second best.

I saw him at the Meadowlands Arena on this tour, and that band was every bit as smokin' hot as the E-Street Band, who I saw a dozen times between '78-'84.

"Check It Out" was, and is still my favorite song on the record, and was even better live.

 

I didn't like John Mellencamp until "Scarecrow" and "Lonesome Jubilee". This in a time when you were shot for not loving him where I live. He was our local boy done good, with family who lived in the area.

I always speculated that, around the time of these two albums, and in addition to his regular fixation on Bob Dylan, he must have listened to a lot of "Fables of the Reconstruction" and "Life's Rich Pageant". Probably met the band through Don Gehman during the recording of the latter (Remember how he started wearing his FFA jacket again after Peter Buck adopted one from a thrift store into his wardrobe?). During this time, his ordinarily Stonesy music often gave way to beautiful folk melodies.

I wish that he'd revisit this era for another album. He really is a good songwriter with considerable integrity.

 

This is when i started to like his music ''liking him came much later'', i bought Scarecrow then caught one of his shows on the LJ tour and was hooked, i think i actually owe my love for music to that period of John's career.

I'm curious, have you listened to his last two albums, his songwriting has never been stronger.

 

Only casually. I admit that the Sun Records experiment was compelling as far as arranging goes. I was sort of saying that I wish he'd write some more of the folk melody-influenced songs.