# The Strange Magic of: John Mellencamp



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The 1970s brought forth, upon this continent (of North America), a cluster of Dylan-inspired People's Songmiths--a bit of folk, a bit of rock, a bit of folk-rock, a bit of 60s pop. The East Coast was represented by Springsteen and Billy Joel, the South by Tom Petty, the West Coast by Jackson Browne, and Mid-America by Bob Seger and John Mellencamp. Mellencamp has been amazingly productive over the decades, releasing album after album, each with a hard kernel of 2-3-4 excellent songs about the experiences and strivings of rural or small-town or blue-collar folk. And every now and then he comes up with a very, very good album like The Lonesome Jubilee from 1987, wherein several tunes registered his disdain for the conditions resulting from actions of the administration then in power, alternating with equally cogent songs of a less political nature. Here we have the lead-in song from that album, _Paper in Fire_. Mellencamp's songs often derive an urgent quality from the trademark violin and squeezebox that typifies much of his band's sound.


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Of all the bands you mentioned that were Dylan-inspired, Mellencamp would be second on my list after Petty. The rest of them I could do without.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

For those of you out there who have reached a certain age, and are wondering whether you are living the real life, close to the bone, here is Mellencamp posing that very same question. _The Real Life_, also from The Lonesome Jubilee.


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## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

The John Mellencamp album that I keep coming back after all these years is "Scarecrow" :angel:


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Here's a favorite bit of very-near-perfect pop from Mellencamp. This could have been penned and sung anytime during the last 60 years--it's that unlinked to any particular phase in popular music. I feel good every time I hear it: _Just Like You_.


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