John Mellencamp – Freedom’s Road Review
Posted by Mitch Michaels on 03.08.2007
John Mellencamp returns to his roots with a new heartland masterpiece…
My Story
Most of my reviews for better known artists start off with how I first started listening to them. Usually, I feel pretty lame, having to say that my introduction to the artist was at the same time as they were blowing up all over and having their most notable period of popularity. That’s not so with John Mellencamp.
My first appreciation for Mellencamp came when my brother picked up the cassette single for 1996’s “Just Another Day”. It wasn’t a Top 40 hit, it didn’t even crack the Top 10 on any of the minor charts, but there was something so optimistic, so breezy about that tune, that I, in my early years of rock appreciation, just couldn’t get enough of.
Unfortunately, as the 90’s have given way to this new decade, John Mellencamp’s music hasn’t had the presence on radio that it used to. It seems that people have forgotten about the glory of “heartland rock” during Mellencamp’s recent inactivity. Can Freedom’s Road remind us?
His Story
John Mellencamp was born fighting in Seymour, Indiana in 1951. As an infant, he battled spina bifida. As a young teenager, he battled his parents and the police. It seemed he was born for a life of either crime or rock ‘n’ roll. Thankfully, he chose the latter.
By the age of 14, John was already playing in rock bands. His early years were spent performing soul, rock, glam and even thrash metal in small venues throughout Indiana. At the age of 24 (and after 10 years of paying dues), Mellencamp traveled to New York City to score a record deal. He was welcomed with open arms, but those arms were incessant on holding a strong grip.
Mellencamp signed with MCA and also inked a deal with MainMan Management. His first album was pretty far from his expectations, to be sure. Firstly, Mellencamp wasn’t allowed to record his own music, making his debut, Chestnut Street Incident, a big hyped-up nothing. Secondly, Mellencamp wasn’t even allowed to record under his own name, instead using the moniker Johnny Cougar. The set failed to chart or sell and, just like that, “Johnny Cougar’s” association with MCA Records was over.
Shaken but unyielding, John decided to persevere, unwilling to return to a blue collar lifestyle and give up on his rock ‘n’ roll dreams. He signed to the smaller label Riva Records and internationally released A Biography, his second album. The set became a hit overseas, especially Australia, where the song “I Need A Lover” caught fire on radio. Seeing Mellencamp’s potential, Riva released John’s second US album, John Cougar, in 1979, promoting “I Need A Lover” as its first single. The song hit #28 on the pop charts and became John’s first hit. He was just getting warmed up.
As the 80’s dawned, John released his fourth album, Nothin’ Matters And What If It Did, which yielded two more hit singles: “This Time” (#27) and “Ain’t Even Done With The Night” (#17). However, it was 1982’s American Fool that would make John Cougar a household name.
On his fifth album and first for Mercury Records, John began focusing on a more straight-ahead roots-rock sound, and his work improved leaps and bounds because of that. The hooky “Hurts So Good” and the small town love portrait “Jack & Diane” both became #1 hits on both radio and the burgeoning MTV, propelling American Fool to the top of the pop charts. No doubt his breakthrough success, Fool still stands today as one of Mellencamp’s two best selling albums, with over 5 million copies moved in the US alone.
Now carrying some weight to go with his swagger, John fought to record under his real last name for his sixth album. A compromise came in the way of Uh-Huh, credited to “John Cougar Mellencamp”. The album was another Top 10 hit, though not quite as successful or enduring as American Fool. The record yielded the heartland classics “Pink Houses” and “Crumblin’ Down”, but critics were beginning to decry Mellencamp’s success, calling him a photocopy of more talented roots rockers like Bob Seger, Tom Petty or the then-red hot Bruce Springsteen.
Perhaps in response to the criticism, Mellencamp released Scarecrow in 1985. The album is considered to be Mellencamp’s masterpiece, both commercially and critically. The five-times platinum set not only produced five Top 30 hits (including the Top 10 singles “Lonely Ol’ Night”, “Small Town” and “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.”), but it found Mellencamp at his peak as a songwriter, writing about social concerns in the modern American south, and his backing band gelling into the crack unit that it became known as. Following Scarecrow, Mellencamp began flexing his socio-political muscles, speaking out against tobacco companies and corporate America, and co-founding the longstanding Farm Aid institution.
During the second half of the 80’s, Mellencamp’s output remained solid and consistent. His albums from that period were odes to the struggles and joys of middle America and were all reviewed very well. Each set was a full-fledged hit, producing hit singles like “Paper In Fire”. However, as the 80’s gave way to the 90’s, Mellencamp’s returns on the charts were suffering. 1993’s Human Wheels, John’s 11th studio set (and his second to be recorded under the name “John Mellencamp” after finally dropping the Cougar albatross), was the first album to fail to generate a Top 40 single since his debut, though it did reach #7 on the Billboard charts.
Mellencamp bounced back in 1994, however, with the Van Morrison cover “Wild Night”, a duet with rock/R&B artist Me'Shell NdegéOcello that reached #3 on the charts and propelled Mellencamp’s 12th album, Dance Naked, to a gold hit. Unfortunately, the tour for Dance never got off the ground; Mellencamp suffered a heart attack that sidelined him for most of 1995.
In 1996, John returned to the charts with Mr. Happy Go Lucky, an album whose title was no doubt referencing Mellencamp’s stress-related health issues. The set featured a new element to Mellencamp’s roots rock: a danceable undercurrent of bongos and rural island flavor. Lucky spawned a Top 20 hit in “Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)”, and proved to be John’s final studio album for Mercury Records. The label wrapped up Mellencamp’s time there with the hits set The Best That I Could Do and a wonderful collection of acoustic tracks called Rough Harvest.
In 1998, Mellencamp kicked off his new partnership with Columbia Records with the self-titled John Mellencamp. Though Mellencamp’s jump from Mercury was supposedly due to their lack of commercial aptitude, John’s debut for Columbia was his worst selling set since his Riva Records years. Still, Mellencamp did produce a pair of Top 40 Mainstream Rock hits in “Your Life Is Now” and “I’m Not Running Anymore”. John returned in 2001 with the laid-back Cuttin’ Heads, which featured unlikely collaborations with artists like Chuck D and India.Arie, the latter of whom appeared on the song “Peaceful World”, which became a semi-anthem following the terrorist attack in the US on September 11th of that year.
Though he has remained politically outspoken in this new millennium (Mellencamp is a staunch liberal), John hasn’t released too much in the way of new material since 2001. In 2003, he put together a blues set called Trouble No More, which topped the blues charts. In 2004, Words & Music, a two-disc career retrospective, was released.
In late 2006, Mellencamp returned to the airwaves with the patriotic “Our Country”, a new song embraced not only by Middle America, but also Chevrolet. The song became Mellencamp’s first to appear in television ads.
The Album
On January 23, 2007, Universal Republic Records released Freedom’s Road, the 16th studio album by John Mellencamp and the follow-up to 2001’s Cuttin’ Heads. The CD is available in its normal version and as Best Buy and Circuit City exclusives. The CD contains the hidden track “Rodeo Clown”. Freedom’s Road debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200, making it the highest charting debut of Mellencamp’s career.
The Band: 7.5
John Mellencamp: vocals, guitar
John Mellencamp is back. And I don’t mean John Mellencamp is back after a trip to bluesville back in 2003. I mean John Mellencamp, the same John (Cougar) Mellencamp that made Scarecrow has returned, over twenty years later, to deliver the rock that has been building in the heartland while he’s been dabbling in different genres and sounds. The voice of the mid-west has returned to find us in a more uncertain, scarier time, still showing us how to look within that to find both joy and somber truths. John Mellencamp, the serious songwriter, is back.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Songs are, after all, a whole ‘nother section. The SOUND on Freedom’s Road is the thing here. What can I say? John has never been THE singer (he ain’t gonna win many rounds of “American Idol” for instance), but that’s not the point. Mellencamp sounds fine here and in his true raspy, jangly form, nonetheworse for wear after spending a few decades in the music business grind. It’s heartland rock. It’s Bob Seger. It’s Springsteen. It’s John Mellencamp.
There are improvements to his sound, however. Sure, the big drums and rock jangle are still painting the picture, but John is benefited by the help from a few friends on this set. There’s the backing vocals, done exquisitely by country act Little Big Town, which really lend a near-gospel quality to this disc. And damn does that sound good. Joan Baez also shows up, proving that she is in fact still alive and adding to the folksy atmosphere.
If you were a Mellencamp fan who may have been a little annoyed by Johnny’s 90’s dabbling into the groovier side of life, you’ll be VERY happy on this dark, dusty set of true modern American folk songs.
The Songs: 8.0
1. Someday
2. Ghost Towns Along The Highway
3. The Americans
4. Forgiveness
5. Freedom’s Road
6. Jim Crow
7. Our Country
8. Rural Route
9. My Aeroplane
10. Heaven Is A Lonely Place
I have to admit, when I saw that John Mellencamp was releasing a new album, I couldn’t help but think “Democratic agenda promotional garbage”. Then I heard “Our Country” on the Chevy commercial, a song so wonderfully jingoistic in its hook that it could have come from Toby Keith or Brooks & Dunn and I was very confused. A liberal that loves America? Do they still make those? Mellencamp proves that yes, absolutely they do.
Freedom’s Road is a dark set of songs, no doubt. The compelling racism track “Jim Crow” and the haunting title-tune are good examples of that. But it’s this dark, spare landscape that make the optimistic moments stand out. By the time Mellencamp breaks into the hooky, optimistic “Our Country” (his best single since “Pink Houses”_, you not only can’t help but smile, you can’t help but WANT to believe it. The same holds true for the plain spoken crowd pleaser “The Americans”, a song that celebrates the natural kindness of our country instead of crying out against the fringe lunatics. It’s wonderful to hear in times such as these, and very encouraging.
Even when the hooks aren’t there, the songs are carried by Mellencamp’s expert songwriting. The song about the encroachment of big city crime into the small towns of America, “Rural Route”, could’ve been written by the heaviest hitting songwriters, a la Steve Earle or Chris Knight. The same holds true for tunes like “My Aeroplane” and “Ghost Towns Along The Highway”.
In the end, this is more than a collection of songs, it’s a portrait of our time and all the happiness, confusion, darkness and pride that goes with it, painted by a master’s hand. It’s a wonderful set.
The 411: He’s been away for far too long, but John Mellencamp, the man who brought us Scarecrow and roots rock hits like “Pink Houses” and “R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.”, has returned in full force. The hooks are here, the jangly guitars are here and, above all, Mellencamp’s master songwriting is here. There are some upgrades, like the excellent harmonies of Little Big Town, but that’s all icing. In a perfect world, Freedom’s Road could yield 2 or 3 big radio hits, but we’ll probably have to settle for a Chevy commercial and one of the most honest sets of political rock to come along in a while. And we’re actually CELEBRATING America here. What a novel idea.
