JOHN MELLENCAMP
John Mellencamp, also known as John Cougar Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), is an American rock singer-songwriter, musician, painter and occasional actor known for his catchy, populist brand of heartland rock which emphasizes traditional instrumentation. Mellencamp rose to superstardom in the 1980’s with a string of Top 10 singles, including “Hurts So Good”, “Jack & Diane”, “Crumblin’ Down”, “Pink Houses”, “Lonely Ol’ Night”, “Small Town”, “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.”, “Paper in Fire”, and “Cherry Bomb”. He holds the record for the most tracks by a solo artist to hit number-one on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, with seven, and has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, winning one. Mellencamp is also one of the founding members of Farm Aid, an organization that began in 1985 with a concert in Champaign, Illinois to raise awareness about the loss of family farms and to raise funds to keep farm families on their land. Mellencamp was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 10, 2008. (More from Wikipedia)
Last month I discussed the curious case of John Mellencamp, a/k/a John Cougar Mellencamp, a/k/a John Cougar, a/k/a Johnny Cougar.
(September 2012)
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When Cherie Currie had auditioned to join the Runaways, the other bandmembers quickly came up with a song called “Cherry Bomb” – named after a famous firework, and not the John Mellencamp song by the same name, “Cherry Bomb” – that she was asked to sing instead of the Suzi Quatro song that she had picked out.
(November 2013)
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Wikipedia states: “Such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Hunter, Harry Chapin, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Andy Irvine, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg, Jerry Garcia, Jay Farrar, Bob Weir, Jeff Tweedy, Bob Childers, and Tom Paxton have acknowledged [Woody] Guthrie as a major influence.”
(March 2015)
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Bruce Hornsby and the Range, A Night on the Town – Allmusic provides the details: John Mellencamp producer Don Gehman is on hand, and guest artists include Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, Shawn Colvin (early in her career), banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, saxophonist Wayne Shorter, and jazz bassist Charlie Haden.
(December 2015)
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But I likely will keep putting out what I call the “Story of the Month” (I have my web pages broken down into short “Items” and longer “Stories” on whomever or whatever I am talking about) that I uncover as I load up the web site. These Stories are on well known (well, better known anyway) songs and albums and rock bands and other topics that are not of the Under Appreciated variety. I started those last year and meant to list the ones in my year-end post last time but forgot, so here is that list from the past two years:
December 2013 – The Standells
January 2014 – (skipped)
February 2014 – Hasil Adkins
March 2014 – Bobby Darin
April 2014 – Nuggets
May 2014 – The Nerves
June 2014 – The Outsiders (American band)
July 2014 – The Million Dollar Quartet
August 2014 – Scientific Proof of the Existence of God
October 2014 – Walter/Wendy Carlos
November 2014 – The Trashmen
December 2014 – John Birch Society Blues
January 2015 – John Mellencamp
February 2015 – Child Is Father to the Man
March 2015 – Dion DiMucci
July 2015 – “Lola”
August 2015 – Bob Dylan the Protest Singer
(Year 6 Review)
