John Cougar - John Cougar
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CD Details
Artist: John CougarEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-03-29
Music Label: Island / Mercury
Soundtracks:
- Little Night Dancin'
- Small Paradise
- Miami
- Great Mid-West
- Do You Think That's Fair
- I Need a Lover
- Welcome to Chinatown
- Sugar Marie
- Pray for Me
- Taxi Dancer
- Take Home Pay [#][*]
Music reviews of John Cougar
Music Review: Classic American Rock and Roll from Sodom and Gomorrah's Roadhouse
Rating: 5 Stars
You probably know John Mellencamp as the quintessential heartland rocker who penned such anthems as "Small Town" or "Jack and Diane". Maybe you know him as the tough guy who was a part of a motorcycle gang in the video for "Hurts So Good" or the sensitive balladeer on such tunes as "Your Life As Now". You may even know him as a troubadour who has spent much of his career writing political and topical songs with a strong sense of compassion for the working class.
I know and love all of these facets of Mellencamp and his music, but there is one which is not as well-known: the young rocker looking for his big break. Perhaps the reason this part of his catalog is not as well known is that Mellencamp himself has disowned most of his early work.
But just for a moment, forget that this is a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer and Grammy-winner who had nearly as many hits in the 1980s as Michael Jackson. Forget that this is one of the best poets living today. Forget it because it's 1979 and you have no idea who John Cougar is. Probably some talentless wannabe teen idol. The name even sounds fake, like Fabian or something. But still you put the record on and hear a young man who has spent the better part of a decade playing in various bar bands and has to this point made three forgettable albums (including one that would not be released in America for another 30 years). Listen to the urgency in the man's voice. There is a strange undercurrent in which you sense that their must be some level of success in this recording or this guy will be back in Seymour, Indiana within a year working for the telephone company again.
Mellencamp would later be called the Midwestern Springsteen and whether or not this was intentional on his part or not, the comparison is a good one. Mellencamp represented the Midwest in the same way that Springsteen represented the Jersey Shore. Sure, Bob Seger was also from the Midwest (and has also been compared to Springsteen), but Seger's work was much more urban. Mellencamp was the definition of small town and rural and this was his first album to explore those themes. On his earlier albums, his lyrics were full of tough guy cliches and explorations of city life that it was evident he knew nothing about. While the tough guy persona has still not completely disappeared from Mellencamp's music even now, this album showed that he was maturing and mixing this persona with things he did know about.
"Well west of Zion they got a hot spot brewin'/Handcuffs and kisses for the people who live there" he sings to open up the album with the midtempo rocker "A Little Night Dancin'". Lyrics are wonderful with the kind of oblique Biblical references that would become his signature: "Sodom and Gomorrah/they run the roadhouse". Close your eyes and you are in a small town bar on a Saturday night in the late '70s, a town unaffected by punk, disco and other trends of the era.
"Small Paradise" continues this theme but takes a slower, power ballad approach and a darkness right beneath the surface.
"Miami" is one of the great tracks on the album. Unlike earlier albums where John tried to write about city life from a realist perspective that he frankly did not have, this is a total fantasy and both he and the listener know it. This midtempo rocker with a catchy chorus sounds a bit like some of Billy Joel's work from the same period.
"The Great Midwest" is something of a precursor to "Small Town" and other such songs, but with less of a sense of pride for his background. Some of the lyrics are clumsy (he was nowhere near the songwriter he would become), but it really doesn't matter. He gets his point across and anybody from "the great midwest" will know what he is trying to say. One verse in the song is among the best lines he has written in his career: "Well I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth/So I can't talk about the big city high life/But if you wanna talk about bein' bored and runnin' away from yourself/Hell, I can talk to you all night".
"Do You Think That's Fair" is a good mid-tempo ballad, but not one of my favorites on the album.
You have probably all heard "I Need a Lover". It was John's first hit and was also a hit for Pat Benatar who covered it. The long intro sets the mood for one of the finest pure rock songs of his career.
"Welcome to Chinatown" kind of reminds me of his 1982 album American Fool (the album that transformed him from an obscure rocker with a few pop hits into a legitimate superstar), in particular the songs "Can You Take It" and "Thundering Hearts". It is wordier than either though, and the piano and strings add a level of sound that the others do not have.
"Sugar Marie" is the blueprint for future Mellencamp songs like 1991's "Again Tonight": a tale of a night on the (small) town. This one is more of a story song, though: "I got this cowboy comin' with me/This guy's name is Jeffrey Jack/He can shoot the eyes out of a pool ball/He can get those young girls into the sack". But the song's real star is Sugar Marie who is "the only girl I know who can make me forget about me". This song is fun on the surface, but like "The Great Midwest" it also has a sense of disillusionment and boredom with the life it describes.
"Pray for Me" is a good rocker with some great humorous lines, but like other tracks on the album it is somewhat clumsy due to Mellencamp's inexperience at songwriting.
"Taxi Dancer", on the other hand, should have definitely been a single. If it had, I have no doubt that Mellencamp (or rather, "Cougar") would have been a superstar three years before "Jack & Diane". However, in a way I'm glad it wasn't because it is more in the Elton John or Neil Diamond mold. Nothing wrong with that. I'm a fan of both. But if this song had hit number one (and it would have) Mellencamp would have spent his entire career as a singer of soft rock ballads. There would have been no Uh-Huh or Scarecrow and that would have been a loss I couldn't live with. However, I do wish Mellencamp had explored this style a bit more on a few album tracks.
In conclusion, this is Mellencamp's first great album and really the first true Mellencamp album (although in reality the first true Mellencamp album would not be released for another 12 years).
Do I recommend this as your first Mellencamp album? That's up to you. He's certainly made better albums, including last year's Life Death Love and Freedom in my opinion the best of his career (see my review of it). But thousands of people were introduced to Mellencamp through this album, why not you too? It's a little rough around the edges and there are elements of the late '70s production that have not aged as well as his work from a few years later, but below the surface you get a genuine portrait not of a manufactured rock star named Johnny Cougar, but of an American poet and musical genius named John Mellencamp.
Description of John Cougar
Originally released in 1979.Features newly remastered sound and upgraded packaging which includes lyrics and complete artwork. Bonus track is the previously unreleased "Take Home Pay".
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