Random Top Ten

Random Top Ten!!

Top Ten John Mellencamp Songs

10. "Small Town" - This song kind of defines Mellencamp in a way--the earnest, heartland, tells-it-like-it-is guy who has no problem in loving his nameless small town.

9. "Rain on the Scarecrow" - A great angry song, and how many angry songs about the plight of the farmer are there really?

8. "Mansions in Heaven" - A wistful gem off of Big Daddy, easily Mellencamp's second-best album.

7. "Love and Happiness" - An angry, almost thrashing rocker that any punk band would love to have written. Also highlighted by a killer, stratosphere-reaching trumpet solo taking the place of the expected guitar solo.

6. "Between a Laugh and a Tear" - The quote that sits at the bottom of my blog comes from this song. The song strikes me as true, in an insightful yet simple way that's hard to achieve.

5. "Minutes to Memories" - A reflective song about the old passing wisdom to the young. Mellencamp's deep facility with gently sad, wistful music is unfairly unheralded.

4. "Pink Houses" - Just a classic, with sharply drawn characters that feel real.

3. "Human Wheels" - There's that wistful sound again, here in a minor-key rocker about that great topic of writers of all stripes, the wheel of life.

2. "Jackie Brown" - A sharply drawn and deeply sad ballad about poverty. Gorgeous.

1. "Check It Out" - Yep - wistful. A simple but elegant electric fiddle line defines the song, and the quiet lyrics about life's tendency to not be what we thought it might be are superb. Should be a much better-known song.

Until Whenever