John Mellencamp, "Whenever We Wanted"

Don drops a cherry bomb

Don’s Pitch: 

The 1980s were bloated in every sense. From plutocratic politics, to an inflated economy, and fashion that favored ridiculous shoulder pads, aerosol coifs and way, way too much makeup. Unfortunately, popular music suffered similarly. Most tragically: mainstream rock, which was overtaken by synthesizers, drum machines, and hair bands. Hell, even Springsteen buffed up. 

Meanwhile, there was a feisty, self-proclaimed “little bastard” from Indiana who stood out by stripping it down: John “Cougar” Mellencamp, whose straightforward approach unleashed a parade of hits: “Hurts So Good,” “Jack & Diane,” “Crumblin’ Down,” “Pink Houses,” “Small Town,” “Rain On The Scarecrow,” “Paper in Fire,” “Rooty Toot Toot,” “R.O.C.K in the U.S.A.” On and on.  

Yet the simple titles and conventional arrangements belied the fact those little ditties had something meaningful to say, and like absorbing a good sucker punch, you didn’t know what hit you until you were knocked out. 

But this isn’t about Mellencamp’s most popular or accessible records. It’s about Whenever We Wanted, which he released as the ‘80s turned to the ‘90s, when he stripped it down even more, and made the most no-bullshit, no-nonsense album of his career. 

In my opinion, Whenever We Wanted is Mellencamp at his peak. He matured, finally eschewing “Cougar,” the only name he ever dropped. And his band left the Americana fiddles at the door. They showed up to rock, and rock they did, propelled by Kenny Aronoff’s irrepressible drums along with Mike Wanchic & David Grissom’s dueling guitars. 

I once read Mellencamp dismissed Whenever We Wanted because he was distracted during the recording by his emerging attention to painting. But I think that practice showed up in his lyrics, like the opening verse from “Crazy Ones,” which effortlessly paints a picture for the listener: 

She’s got tights on her legs

She’s got a floppy French hat

Voodoo In her eyes

An endangered species on her back

The album’s central character is an almost middle-aged man thinking he’s finally figured out women, how to attract and conquest them, yet realizing he’s still boyishly smitten. Come to think of it, maybe Mellencamp hadn’t grown up.

My favorite tracks are the hard-driving “Get A Leg Up” and the pulsating “Melting Pot,” which best captures Mellencamp’s Jagger-esque snarl and the tightness of his killer band. I just love his vocals in the last chorus, when he takes it up an octave, like an angry young man who still has some cougar in him. 

So I’m challenging Mitch, CJ & Ken to look past the pop hits, turn over some stones, and enjoy John Mellencamp’s most rocking record, Whenever We Wanted. 

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CJ’s Response:

John Cougar Mellencamp Love Hewitt has spent his career walking a tightrope. Somehow he has managed to be the voice of the heartland with bi-coastal appeal. He has enough rock in his guitar to merit a cranking of the volume in a city-bound BMW and enough country in his voice to satisfy the crowd at a local barn dance.

Whenever We Wanted finds him shedding the Cougar and getting down to some straight ahead American music. If I’m being honest, the album did not get off to a great start for me. “Love and Happiness” was okay. But, “Now More Than Ever” is basically a lazy copywriter’s bad headline. And the nadir was the third song “I’m Never Satisfied.”

Me (speaking out loud to my empty office): And yet somehow this song made the cut for your album?

The next song, “Get A Leg Up”, was one I recognized and liked. Then things got pretty good.

“Crazy Ones” took me back to American Fool, which was my first pleasant encounter with Indiana’s favorite son. But, “Last Chance” was where he really got me. It just seemed like such a departure from the normal jangly tone he favors. And it worked for me.

“They’re So Tough” is a great us vs. them tune that might be his most underrated small town anthem. And the best of the rest was the title cut, one of Mellencamp’s better spoken-word story/songs.

I could stop here, give my scores and move on. But, something happened with this album that rarely happens to me. The more I played it the less I liked it. I can’t explain why. It just started to grate on me. Even the songs I had enjoyed the day before started to sound hollow. John Mellencamp is a prolific artist who means a lot to millions of people, but that didn’t stop him from wearing out his welcome with me.

• Pitch Failed

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Mitch’s Response:

In the Blum Unified Theory Tracking Creative Rock Artist Career Keystones (B.U.T.T.C.R.A.C.K.), the “back to basics” album generally follows the “experimental” album in an artist's discography. It is marked by a “stripped down” sound and a promise to remind fans why they fell in love with an artist in the first place.

The back-to-basics album is often symbolized by a name change or an eponymous album title. This time around, serious artist John Mellencamp (formerly known as John Cougar Mellencamp, formerly known as John Cougar, formerly known as Johnny Cougar) sheds his stage name, as well as the violins, dobros, accordions and mandolins that defined the sound of his previous release, the highly satisfying (but poorly selling) Big Daddy.

Unfortunately for us, JCM didn’t really hit his stride until his fourth or fifth album, so going back-to-basics might not have been his best decision.  Basically we get the sound of Cougar with the themes of Mellencamp, which leaves us with music that is competent but unremarkable ("Crazy Ones”), and social commentary that is well-intentioned but cringey (“They’re So Tough”). The band is tight (“I Ain’t Ever Satisfied”) and the songs are fine, but even the hit singles (“Get a Leg Up”, “Now More Than Ever") are poor facsimiles of his earlier hits. 

Whenever I want to listen to JCM I’m definitely going to pick a different album, so let’s get back-to-basics and give a below average review for a slightly above-average artist.

• Pitch Failed

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Ken’s Response:

I didn’t think I’d be discussing epistemology this week, and yet here we are.  Look, I’m not so naive as to think that mankind’s ingestion of music contains either absolute truth or pure opinion.  There are facts and truths, but our experience with a piece of music is largely based on the context in which we first experienced it.  With John “stop calling me Cougar” Mellencamp, that context must include his well-known body of work that came before Whenever We Wanted.

I was a 21 year old kid when I bought Whenever We Wanted right around the time it came out in 1991, because I was a huge fan of five of his previous albums.  American Fool, Uh Huh, Scarecrow, The Lonesome Jubilee, and Big Daddy all got regular play on my cutting-edge, Technics 5-CD changer, double-cassette deck, stereo system.  Songs like “Pink Houses”, “Small Town”, “Cherry Bomb”, “Lonely Ol’ Night” and “Jack and Diane” were huge commercial successes, and you couldn’t listen to the radio for more than 30 minutes without hearing a Mellencamp hit. 

So those are the facts; and my perception of Whenever We Wanted couldn’t avoid contextualizing it with his previous work as a sort of musical relativism.  This isn’t a bad album at all; it’s quite easy to listen to and there are some good songs, but it’s in no way as good as any of those five albums I mentioned before.  As the 11th album from a guy who seemed to get better and better as the 1980s edged toward the 1990s, I expected more.  Doing a straight-forward, back-to-basics Rock ‘n Roll album just didn’t hit the bullseye for me.  

• Pitch Failed

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Don’s pitch went tumblin’ down and John Mellencamp’s Whenever We Wanted has been exiled from the Newbury St. Collection.

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Thanks for reading! While Don’s hopes for a high score might have come crumblin’ down, there’s still plenty of time to R.O.C.K. (respond, opine, comment, kibbitz) in the comments section:

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Please join us next week as Mitch pitches the album that launched a thousand think-pieces about “dad rock” - Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky.