A reissue of Mellencamp’s beloved eighth studio album, “Scarecrow”, featuring the classic rock favourites “Small Town” and “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” is set for release on November 4th via Mercury/UME. The box set will include two CDs of newly remixed and remastered songs plus previously unreleased bonus tracks and alternate versions, a booklet full of rare photographs and all new liner notes by acclaimed author and music critic Anthony DeCurtis.
“Scarecrow” proved a revelation, redefining Mellencamp as a more thoughtful, socially conscious creator capable of thematic ambition only hinted at on his previous records. It’s a watershed work, an album that talks about and cares about big-picture things, and marries real-world concerns to a first-rate roots-rock sound. It displays an artist still recognizable from his previous work.
The album’s opening track sets the stage memorably, as “Rain on the Scarecrow” opens with a robust curtain of pulsating guitar twang and insistent drum snap that draws open to reveal Mellencamp’s crisply cadenced gruffness. A lament of the American farmer’s fading fortunes, it is remarkable amid its considerable power that the listener never loses track of its overarching social message. The outrage that fuels the lyric “Blood on the scarecrow/Blood on the plow” is unmistakable, relatable, It’s a smart, sharp-edged avowal of values that lands one hell of a punch for rock with a conscience.
“Scarecrow” was Mellencamp’s eighth studio album and the second to bear that surname, as he was in a transitional phase from his early stage name John Cougar, and would use John Cougar Mellencamp until 1989’s “Big Daddy” before dispensing with the Cougar affectation entirely. His true identity was easy enough to find on this release, affirmed by the appearance of his grandmother Laura Mellencamp to sing “Grandma’s Theme,” an interlude produced to sound old but recorded during the record’s 1985 sessions (look no further than liner notes that declare the date and time of each recording if you don’t believe it). From its crackle-effected opening through the deliberate, full-tone acoustic guitar strumming at its close, it evokes family and tradition, an exceptional piece of sequencing that sets the table perfectly for the song that follows.
That song is “Small Town,” and in a present where country charts hang heavy with testaments to the delights of four-wheeling and kegs in closets, it is a legitimate spiritual forefather. Its sinewy throb marries ringing guitar to a resolute snare pulse, forging an ideal backdrop for an anthem of values, and a convincingly sophisticated take on an everyman’s outlook. The craft in its small touches goes a long way; the doubled preposition in the bridge lyric, “No I cannot forget from where it is that I come from” curiously increases its forcefulness, and listen no further than the shoehorning of “Married an L.A. doll and brought her to this small town/Now she’s small town, just like me” to understand how fitting words into a space in which they really don’t can be memorable. Mellencamp’s voice and demeanor are ideal vessels for its deeper message, with earnestness and no small amount of determination making clear that the singer’s love for that world is an informed choice rather than aw-shucks rural wisdom.
The album’s liner notes include the declaration that, “There is nothing more sad or glorious than generations changing hands,” and that’s a notion in which “Minutes to Memories” revels. Grounded in a belief in clear principles and traditional ideas of what it is to be American, the track is an earnest celebration of hard-earned wisdom, right through a barked final verse that stokes its urgency. It’s one of many songs on which the worth of Kenny Aronoff’s drumming is front and center, as is his meshing with sprightly guitar figures to propel the world-problems-as-family-allegory track “Justice and Independence ’85.” Undeniably grabby and well-decorated rock with an enthusiastic vocal, it’s still the case that the metaphors of “When a nation cries/His tears fall down like missiles from the sky” are fairly clunky—it’s a spirited pleasure that becomes guilty only when you try to sing along.
One of the anecdotes surrounding “Scarecrow” is that Mellencamp had his band members learn a catalogue of 1960s rock standards in preparation for its sessions, and that is certainly a groove they were deeply within for the finished record. Guitarists Larry Crane and Mike Wanchic add limber electric life to “Rumbleseat,” setting the stage for a bounding chorus to emerge from the chipper swivel of its verses, supporting Mellencamp’s dynamic lead in an offbeat, compelling rock burst.
The album’s final single (which featured a cover of James Brown’s “Cold Sweat” on its B-side), it peaked “The Face of the Nation” displays the band’s meat-and-potatoes versatility, with Toby Myers’ bass slither and John Cascella’s keyboard accents defining its cadence as Mellencamp gruffly bemoans America falling short of its potential, then giving way to a forceful swirl of drum and guitar energy.
Mellencamp’s practiced informality suits the hearty, tambourine-adorned twang of “You’ve Got to Stand for Somethin’,” a survey of cultural touchstones and pitfalls that follows his recollection of spying Vanessa Williams in Penthouse magazine with the sharp-elbowed punctuating line, “I bet you saw that too.” His bruising, assertive growl also helps power the kinetic churn of “Lonely Ol’ Night,” which on an album full of thoughtful humanism is straightforward in its aims as a confident come-on with sturdy charms.
Beyond the heavy lifting handled by Mellencamp’s core four-piece, “Between a Laugh and a Tear” is enhanced by the appearance of Rickie Lee Jones, whose pretty vocal within the chorus and select other moments nestles comfortably alongside Mellencamp’s casually phrased lead to create an earthy authenticity. Ry Cooder also makes a memorable cameo with his slide guitar contribution to “The Kind of Fella I Am.” A frill-free ragged rocker available only on the tail end of the album’s cassette and CD versions, it sounded like it came from an earlier record in Mellencamp’s catalogue, and might have been a better fit elsewhere in the album’s sequence than as a tacked-on-sounding closer.
The album’s vinyl finale arguably should have been the closer for all formats, even if Mellencamp worried so much at the time that it didn’t sufficiently reflect the rest of the collection’s thoughtfulness that he almost exiled it to life as a bonus track. Loaded with springy acoustic and electric guitar lines, the lickety-split romp “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A. (A Salute to 60’s Rock)” may not share the rest of the set’s consciousness, but as a celebration of enduring charms in the land the collection champions, it’s a fitting reminder why they’re worth fighting for. Rich with an irresistible throwback bounce, it finds Mellencamp snapping at lyrics with assuredness and grit amid a stellar romp that sets every hook right down to Cascella’s organ adornments and Crane’s memorable flutophone hoots.
Mellencamp has shared another bonus track from the expanded edition of “Scarecrow”, the lyrics video for “Carolina Shag.”
This newly remixed & remastered edition of John Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow” features the original album, a full disc of rare & previously unreleased tracks, ATMOS, and new hi-resolution stereo mix of the album + bonus tracks in hi-resolution stereo on Blu-ray Disc, a 180g half-speed LP, an original picture sleeve of the “Small Town” 7” single, booklet, lithographs, poster and an all-new essay by Anthony DeCurtis.
The reissue offers a new stereo mix of the album and both the 2CD edition and the super deluxe edition offer a full disc of rare and previously unreleased tracks. This includes two previously unreleased full-length songs (‘Carolina Shag’ and ‘Smart Guys’), three rough mixes, demos, B-sides and a previously unreleased cover of ‘Shama Lama Ding Dong’ performed originally by the fictional band Otis Day and the Knights in the 1978 film National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Released August 5th, 1985, “Scarecrow” was Mellencamp’s fourth and final release on the soon-to-be-extinct Riva Records, and an immediate hit that would sell five million copies in the ensuing 16 years. It marked a turning point in Mellencamp’s music, and served as an overture of sorts for how he would bring his music into the world from that point forward. Putting action behind the album’s message, Mellencamp helped found the Farm Aid benefit concerts.
The super deluxe edition is a 2CD+LP+blu-ray lift-off lid box set. In addition to the two CDs mentioned above, the blu-ray offers a new Atmos Mix of the album as well as a hi-res stereo mix. This disc also has all the bonus tracks in hi-res stereo as well. This box includes a half-speed mastered black vinyl LP and a seven-inch single (‘Small Town’). This box comes with a booklet with a new essay by Anthony DeCurtis (including new interviews with John Mellencamp) and additionally, there’s various ‘bits’ including lithos, poster etc.
A standalone half-speed mastered black vinyl is also available. As with the other formats this contains the new stereo mix. “Scarecrow” is out now, via UMC/Virgin.
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