Few artists have had to face the uphill climb that greeted John Mellencamp (b. Oct. 7, 1951, Seymour, Indiana) after recording his ill-advised 1976 debut album, Chestnut Street Incident. First, there was the horrible name problem: Johnny Cougar. Then there was the "MainMan" logo on the back--the trademark of the company helmed by former David Bowie manager and strategist Tony DeFries. Then there was the pretty-boy, almost androgynous picture on the album jacket, looking as if it had been taken by a camera with a vaseline-covered lens. Finally, there was the music--or what could be found of it, once you'd gotten through the pointless versions of songs previously sung by the Doors, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, and the Lovin' Spoonful. But 16 years later, when many of the world's most prestigious recording artists gathered together at Madison Square Garden to pay tribute at Bob Dylan's 30th Anniversary Concert, who not only opened the show--but opened it with a cover of "Like A Rolling Stone"? Mrs. Cougar's little boy Johnny. The transition of Johnny Cougar to today's entirely respectable John Mellencamp is an exemplary illustration of 1) How far an artist will compromise himself to break into the music business, 2) How much manipulation of image a manager or record label will engage in to break an artist, 3) How all the manipulation in the world can't help a flawed record, and, finally, 4) How long it can take to repair a reputation once it has become nearly irreparably damaged by all of the above.
From the very small Southern Indiana town of Seymour, a 23-year-old John Mellencamp took his demo tape in 1974 and went to New York in search of a record deal. He eventually visited the offices of MainMan's DeFries, and before long struck a deal that would ultimately result in Chestnut Street Incident, his embarrassing "Cougar" moniker, and a manager who wanted to push him to stardom the only way he knew how. "He tried to do the same exact thing with me that he did with Bowie," Mellencamp said in 1983, "but guess what? It was cool the first time around, but not second--hey, we've seen this act before, Jack!"
After the album flopped, and MCA opted not to release the intended follow-up The Kid Inside (though it would finally be released in the U.K. in 1982), Mellencamp signed a new deal with England's Riva label. Though the resulting album, 1978's A Biography, never saw American release, two of its tracks could be found on 1979's domestic John Cougar--and one of them, "I Need A Lover" finally helped the singer crack the American marketplace. Already a hit in Australia, the song was covered by Pat Benatar on her platinum debut and became a top 30 hit for Mellencamp himself in 1979.
With the Chestnut Street album a virtual sales nonentity, John Cougar was largely perceived by the public as the debut of a new artist. And far from the Bowie-esque figure DeFries might have planned, the singer struck many as a straight rock 'n' roller from the heartland, much in the tradition of a Bob Seger or a Bruce Springsteen. Within a year, the follow-up album Nothin' Matters And What If It Did was in the top 40, and two of its hits--"This Time" and "Ain't Even Done With The Night"--were suitable proof the singer wasn't a one-shot hitmaker. And when 1982's American Fool shot to No. 1 and stayed there for nine weeks--as two of its singles, "Hurt So Good" and "Jack And Diane" simultaneously sat comfortably in the top 5--proof of anything was hardly an issue. John Cougar had produced 1982's biggest-selling album.
Rather than sitting still and basking in success, Mellencamp got busy. He produced Mitch Ryder's 1983 "comeback" LP Never Kick A Sleeping Dog, he recorded his own album Uh-huh (this time credited to John Cougar Mellencamp) in an Indiana farmhouse converted into a recording studio--and he began to stretch artistically. With 1985's triple-platinum Scarecrow, his lyrics took on such serious topics as the plight of the American farmer; the same year, he performed at Farm Aid I, later returning to both Farm Aid II in 1986 and Farm Aid III in 1987. Additionally, Mellencamp's straightforward rock sound was evolving: With 1987's Lonesome Jubilee, he added new band members and began featuring violins, accordions, pedal steel guitars and dulcimers prominently. Still another sign of the singer's desire to expand his horizons, the album was his most artistically mature statement to date. And the audience wasn't being left behind, either: Jubilee bore three hit singles, with both "Paper In Fire" and "Cherry Bomb" cracking the top 10.
Mellencamp's growth since has been amply displayed on such albums as Big Daddy (1989), Whenever We Wanted (1991), Human Wheels (1993), Dance Naked (1994), Mr. Happy Go Lucky (1996) and John Mellencamp (1998). Human Wheels, a top 10 album, might've been the singer's finest album ever; it was certainly the most forward-looking--perhaps due to the touch of co-producer Malcolm Burn, whose prior work with associate Daniel Lanois cast a distinctive sheen on much of the '90s finest pop and alternative rock music. You'd never have suspected it from 1976's Chestnut Street Incident, but at the rate John Mellencamp undergoes stylistic shifts with each new album, he could prove to be the next David Bowie. Think he'd enjoy the comparison?
Source: http://new.music.yahoo.com/john-cougar-mellencamp/biography/
