I've always had conflicting feelings about John Mellencamp, a bit more negative than positive. Oh, I liked the Lonesome Jubilee album and the innovative Mr. Happy Go Lucky, but not much else of his struck my fancy. And his induction into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame? No comment.
Anyway, a friend recently recommended that I listen to his 1999-release and greatest hits collection called The Best That I Could Do. So here's an attempted fair and balanced review of this 59 minutes plus collection (59:18 to be exact), covering both the hits and the misses.
Opening Instrumental - The Rockford Files revisited. One half expects to see Jim Garner driving his late 60s/early 70s Firebird down Third Street in Los Angeles. Quite nice for 2:00 until it turns into...
I Need A Lover - Still not an easy track to like (far too busy and unfocused) but at least the then-John Cougar had some energy. At times it sounds like a poor man's Journey. The drum beating fade-out is just awful.
Ain't Even Done With the Night - A little more subtlety here. The Spanish influenced music is nice as is the hand claps/cymbals sound effect. However, the sax solo ranges dangerously close to Springsteen's territory.
Hurt So Good - Now JC was rocking! Fine Matthew Sweet-style lead guitars, Beatles' hand claps, Charlie Watts-like drumming, and a "got attitude" vocal.
Jack and Diane - Still a classic. Yes, James Dean would have loved it. "Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone..." The splendid production, with the large drums, sounds like something from Van Halen's 1984. But the fade-out seems to indicate that no one had an idea of how to end this otherwise great song.
(The Walls Come) Crumblin' Down - Maybe the best hard rock song ever written based on a biblical tale. The drumming on this track has always reminded me of Keith Moon's playing on The Who's I Can See for Miles.
Pink Houses - I'm not sure if the sloppy vocal was meant to invoke blues singers, but it never seemed to fit with the sharp music surrounding it. I never liked the old folk-rock song about ticky-tacky houses and I also never liked this song about pink houses. "Ain't that America?" Nope.
Authority Song - An admirable re-make of I Fought the Law by the late Bobby Fuller and the B.F. Four. Nothing original but not bad.
Lonely Ol' Night - The drums are far too E Street'ish, which makes it instantly forgettable. (I love the Boss but not knock-offs.) "Glory days..." Yawn.
Small Town - Are we selling pick-up trucks now? Not even a bit interesting.
R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. - About 100,000 songs based on La Bamba have been recorded. This is one of the very, very best. From first note to last it's just about perfect and screams out for a video with the Shindig dancers. 210 seconds of rock heaven.
Paper in Fire - One of the best tracks from Jubilee, perhaps his best album. This is a "loose" JC, sounding comfortable within his own skin - like Paul Simon on Graceland - and not trying to be someone else. (Kudos to the drummer for pushing the beat forcing the Cajun-style band to keep up.)
Cherry Bomb - Another nice track from Jubilee. Very Motown in a unique way... Marvin and Tammi could have recorded this. "Our hearts were really pumping, say yeah, yeah, yeah..."
Check It Out - His anthem and just about as good as any of them from the Boss. It in fact sounds like a track from the later-recorded Springsteen album The Rising. The Ventures-style fuzz lead solo nails it all down. Or was this meant to invoke Buffalo Springfield?
Without Expression (This is a Man) - A cover. Nothing special. It was tacked-on to this collection and sounds like it. 5:05 and goes on for about 1:10 too long.
Overall grade: B-
Remastering: B to B+
Originality: C+ to B-
Essentialness: 2.6 to 2.75 stars out of 5 possible
[Examples of 5 star albums: Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, The Rising by Bruce Springsteen, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Who's Next and Live at Leeds by The Who, Straight Up by Badfinger, Beatles VI and Rubber Soul by Those Guys, Joni Mitchell's Blue and Beggars Banquet by the Rolling Stones.]
Before 'Small Town' became a truck commercial, it was a very good ballad of the places where most of us grew up. This is what happens when commercialization overtakes a song and why John Dunsmore reefuses to allow Door's tunes to be used for commercials. Still, I would give this album a 4, which is where I would also rate Beggers Banquet. The only Stones albums earning 5 would be 'Exile on Main Street; Decembers Childern; Out of Our Heads, and the forgotten classic 'Between the Buttons' with the only recording of their Dylanisque 'Something Happened to Me.'
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