31 July 2025
Highly lauded and prize-winning singer-songwriter star JOHN MELLENCAMP (73 now) released his triumphant 8th LP SCARECROW this day 40 years ago, on 31 July 1980.
It peaked at number two on the US Billboard. The album has
produced 3 top-ten hits. ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’, ‘Lonely Ol’ Night’,
and ‘Small Town‘.
The overall theme of the record wad the fading of
the American Dream in the face of corporate greed.
Mellencamp said years later: “With Scarecrow, I was finally starting to find my feet
as a songwriter. Finally, for the first time, I realized what I thought I wanted to say in
a song. I wanted it to be more akin to Tennessee Williams, John Steinbeck, Faulkner,
as opposed to The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan.”
Pitchfork: “The thing just leaps out of the speakers. The cool, natural efficiency of Mellencamp’s band combined with Gehman’s clean, muscular production adds up
to a platonic ideal of a rock’n’roll record: It’s direct, unfussy, and unpretentious,
barreling forward on the strength of a mammoth backbeat.”
KEY SINGLE
ALBUM