John Mellencamp’s Rugged ‘Scarecrow’ Album

This week on the WPDH Album of the Week we'll feature one of the greatest rock albums of the 1980s, John Mellencamp's Scarecrow.

Scarecrow is the eighth studio album from John Mellencamp. The album was released on August 5, 1985 through Riva Records. Mellencamp recorded the album between March 20 and April 29 of 1985 in Belmont, Indiana.

Scarecrow the the follow-up to Mellencamp's 1983 album, Uh-Huh, which was the the first album in which he used his real last name.

Scarecrow contained three Top 10 hits, R.O.C.K In The U.S.A., which peaked at number 2, Lonely Ol' Night, which peaked at number 6, and Small Town, which peaked at number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Charts.

According to Wikipedia, the band spend a month in rehersals playing rock tracks from the Sixties. the idea was to learn and take devices from the past and use them in a new way accoding to Mellencamp's arrangements.

In 1989, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Scarecrow as the number 95 album of the list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. The overall theme of the album is the fading of the American dream in the face of corporate greed.

The tracklisting for Scarecrow:

1. Rain on a Scarecrow
2. Grandma's Theme
3. Small Town
4. Minutes to Memories
5. Lonely Ol' Night
6. The Face of the Nation
7. Justice and Independence
8. Between a Laugh and a Tear
9. Rumbleseat
10. You've Got to Stand for Somethin'
11. R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.
12. The Kind of Fella I Am
13. Small Town (Acoustic Version) (2005 Re-Issue Bonus Track)

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