Artist: John Cougar
Genre: Singer Songwriter/Rock
Country Of Origin: United States
Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Member: Yes (2008)
Album: American Fool
Producer: John Mellencamp/Don Gehman
RJ's Top 5 Tunes: 1. Hand To Hold On To...2. Hurts So Good...3. Danger List...4. Jack & Diane...5. China Girl
Disclaimer: All "facts" come from wikipedia.com unless otherwise noted.
Disclaimer #2: I'm on an 80's kick for the next 10 weeks. I'm covering an 80's album from each year of the 80's decade, though not in chronological order. Some of these may be well known to me, some may not be. But they were all pretty big sellers that left a mark. Out of these ten, I actually had to purchase two of them to feature them here. I think Scott and Jon are along for the 80's ride as well, maybe.
In our continuing run through the 80's, this week we have American Fool from 1982. This album was Mellencamp's fifth studio album and it turned out to be his commercial breakthrough. Of course, he was John Cougar back then. And we all remember that his name changed several times.
The album wasn't easy to make, as you can see from the following Wikipedia quote:
Producer Don Gehman stated in a 2011 interview that "American Fool" “was fraught with layers of problems. We had 20 or so songs, we had a record company that was hoping we were making a Neil Diamond‑type album, and after we spent two or three months in the studio recording these songs and mixing them to the best of our ability, I can remember an A&R guy in a pink shirt coming in to listen to them and basically thinking we had nothing. At that point, they put a stop to the project. We had ‘Jack & Diane,’ we had ‘Hand To Hold On To,’ we had ‘Weakest Moments’ — we had some good songs — and while I don’t know the precise nature of the discussions that took place, Riva went from wanting to get a new producer to not even wanting John on the label anymore. Finally, they came around to letting us finish it but wanting to hear the new songs we were going to cut.”
What do I think? I think it's okay, not great. Side one is better that side two. But hey, I picked this up from Walmart's five dollar bin, and it's the remastered version with the bonus track, so it's still a worthy investment. So give it a listen and tell me what you think of it.
1. Hurts So Good
2. Jack & Diane
3. Hand To Hold On To
4. Danger List
5. Can You Take It
6. Thundering Hearts
7. China Girl
8. Close Enough
9. Weakest Moments
10. American Fool (Bonus Track)
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Man, I hated this album when I first listened to it. Hated it so much, I swore I would never buy a John Mellencamp Cougar Johnny Cougar Melonhead album ever again. And then came Uh-Huh.
I thought Asia was the #1 for '82?
That tidbit came directly from Wikipedia. We know it's never inaccurate.
Yeah, they're wrong. Imagine that! Maybe they meant "the #1 overplayed video on MTV".
I love the first three tracks as they are the classic numbers. But I don't think I've ever heard the whole album.
Here's your chance...
Interesting. This was much better than I remembered. Actually, after the fourth song, I remember nothing of this album. I must have played this once and filed it away.The second half of this album is pretty darn rocky, much rockier that I can(not) remember. The bonus track really isn't that good, I can see why it was left off the album, but it's showing up as the 9th track?
Surprisingly decent, but nowhere close to the Uh Huh awesomeness. Nice post!
Uh Huh is really good and by far his best. This album is easily worth the 5 bucks...
Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)
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