Having spent seven wonderful years in Bloomington, you know I'm going with The Coug' for this category. Before he was co-founding Farm Aid, marrying supermodels, and dating the likes of Meg Ryan and Christie Brinkley, John Mellencamp was born and raised in the south central Indiana town of Seymour. And while he went to New York City to try to make it as a musician, he has never really left Indiana, despite his fame and fortune. He has lived just outside of Bloomington since at least the mid-'90s, when I first started at IU. In addition to him being a fixture at IU basketball games, it wouldn't be rare to spot him driving around town or to see his then-wife, supermodel Elaine Irwin, at College Mall with their kids, shopping at Old Navy like a normal human being. Mellencamp is just one of those guys about whom you never said, "that guy's a poseur" or "that guy doesn't know what he's singing about." He has always felt authentic, which is kind of one of the pillars of being a heartland rocker.
1983's Uh-Huh was his seventh studio album, and it was the first album on which he used his real last name. Prior to that, he had only released albums as "Johnny Cougar" or "John Cougar." For Uh-Huh, he was John Cougar Mellencamp, which he used until 1991's Whenever We Wanted album, when he finally dropped the "Cougar." Uh-Huh was the second in a string of five consecutive Top 10 albums in the '80s for Mellencamp (I don't count The Kid Inside, which was recorded in 1977, but released in 1983 by Mellencamp's old manager). Like American Fool before it and Scarecrow after it, Uh-Huh was a heartland rock masterpiece, with songs about losing jobs, fearing what happens when things stop going well, being happy despite humble belongings, fighting authority (and losing), learning to play guitar as a means for upward mobility, uncertainty, Jacqueline Onassis, and the like.
The album went to #9 on the Billboard album chart and eventually went triple platinum in the U.S. Three songs from the album reached the Top 15 of the Billboard Hot 100: "Pink Houses" (#8), "Crumblin' Down" (#9), and "Authority Song" (#15). Aside from the hits, there isn't really any "filler" on the album, with rocking songs like "Warmer Place to Sleep," "Play Guitar," "Serious Business," and "Lovin' Mother Fo Ya" complemented by the slower songs like "Jackie O" (co-written by John Prine) and the last track, the bittersweet "Golden Gates." Also, the producers' credits on the back of the album are "Little Bastard & Don Gehman," with the former being a pseudonym for The Coug' himself. That duo produced American Fool, Uh-Huh, Scarecrow, and Lonesome Jubilee -- Mellencamp's biggest four-album run.
Favorite song from Side 1: "Authority Song"
"Authority Song" is one of my favorite Mellencamp songs. It just has such a great vibe, from the early '60s style guitar riff to Kenny Aronoff's always-great drumming to the theme. "I fight authority / Authority always wins." But you keep fighting and you'll turn out just fine. And the following line from the song is probably the lyric that I have most tried to live my life by: "Growing up leads to growing old and then to dyin' / Ooh, and dyin' to me don't sound like all that much fun." So any time someone tells you to "grow up," tell them to "fuck off" or accuse them of wanting you dead. I also recognize that this lyric came from a man who, at the time, smoked five packs of cigarettes a day.
Favorite song from Side 2: "Play Guitar"
This is one of those songs you might hear every now and then on classic rock radio. I alluded to its subject matter above. Basically, if you're not happy with your station in life, "you better learn to play guitar." He ain't wrong.
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