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As Heard On XM 75/Hear Music

"My Aeroplane"
John Mellencamp

How does the poster boy for Chevrolet get the public to take him seriously?

I was driving down Bundy just as the sun was emerging from the sky and I heard a guitar.  We boomers, we love guitars.  This had a twang, a richness, that took me right back to the barnboarded bars of my youth.

Johnny Cougar was kind of a joke.  Although he did pen one of Pat Benatar’s best hits.  And HIS version of "I Need A Lover" has such a soulful feeling, it SWINGS!

Then he added his last name, and suddenly had hits.  I’m not that huge a fan of "Hurt So Good", but I still love "Jack and Diane".  Admit it, you never switched the channel when that homemade-style video came on MTV.  He got the heartland sound right.  With the big guitars and then that acoustic twang, from loud to soft, and back again.

And then, before he dropped the "Cougar", he put out a Springsteen album that may not have had quite the lyrical depth, but played better than most of Bruce’s discs.  Oh, the big hits off "Scarecrow" were "Small Town" and "R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.", but have you listened to "Between A Laugh And A Tear"?  There’s a magic in the interplay of Mellencamp and Rickie Lee Jones’ vocals that the Boss has never gotten with his wife.  Bruce was east coast, complex.  Mellencamp was heartland, without artifice.  John’s music RESONATED!

But then Mellencamp took a left turn.  He didn’t want to repeat himself.  He added additional instruments, he dropped his phony middle name and he coasted on all that early success.  His album sales might have dropped, but he continued to sell out arenas.  But then the generations changed and he was no longer moving tonnage, NONE of his contemporaries were moving tonnage.

So here we’ve got a credible rock star past his time.  No one’s paying attention to him.  Frustrated, he makes a deal with Chevy.  His explanation?  He was forced to.  That radio froze him out.

Well, it doesn’t look like it worked.  Although "Freedom’s Road" debuted with a sold number, it’s only moved 144,654 units.  And at number 129, with last week’s sales total of 6,554, it doesn’t appear it’ll ever go gold.

Insiders say the album came out too long after the commercial.

I’m not sure Mellencamp can reach his audience, that they’re motivated to buy new music, but I will say the Chevy commercial hurt his image/credibility.  That’s what he’s known for now.  As opposed to great music.  And "My Aeroplane" is great music.

Earlier in the day I heard Ryan Adams live on XM’s Loft.  He was working it out like the Grateful Dead, going on and on, experimenting, looking for that groove, that fulfillment.

We baby boomers are looking for that fulfillment.  We’ve just become so overwhelmed, we don’t know where to look for it.

We’re certainly not looking for it on MySpace.  The plays on Mellencamp’s site are sorry.  None of the tracks have broken 100,000 plays.  "My Aeroplane" registers just over 13,000.  In other words, John Mellencamp’s made a record and nobody’s heard it.

What to do about this?

He could retire.  He’s rich enough.

Or he could just play the oldies.  But that’s not very fulfilling.

Mellencamp played to everybody but his fans.  His fans don’t trust what’s on TV, and they listen to NPR if they listen to new music on the radio at all.  Rather than make a deal with the devil, Mellencamp would have been better off going on "Morning Becomes Eclectic".  Why not?  His multi-instrumentalist sound has elements of eclecticism.  And Mellencamp’s smart, he could spar with Nic Harcourt.  And Harcourt’s English, he should be challenged to understand the heartland sound.  As for the audience…if Nic plays it, they pay attention, they LOVE IT!  Go where the fans are.  Shit, Mellencamp should be playing Nic’s show at the Gibson.

But fuck all that.  Listen to this song.  If you love rock and roll, American heartland rock and roll, this will resonate.

Imagine yourself driving down the street, window down, the music having you tapping your hand on the sill, setting your mind free.

"My Aeroplane" is the second song on Mellencamp’s MySpace page

"Back Together"
Citizen Cope

I heard this on Thursday night.  It’s almost reminiscent of "Helter Skelter".  The "oo-oos" sound like so many records of the sixties and seventies.  But the cascading chorus, that’s the Beach Boys on steroids!  There’s a celebration in this song, and you just want to be part of it.

I think I’ve got a couple of Citizen Cope CDs somewhere.  But I didn’t know how to penetrate them.  But the deejay picked out this song and I couldn’t get it out of my head, I had to come home and download it.

For everybody who thinks there’s no new good music out there, I recommend you listen to this.

"Back Together" is not on Citizen Cope’s MySpace page.  But you can watch the video on his homepage.

Go to Citizen Cope and pick your favorite format and speed (yes, the video is right there in the middle of the homepage). 

You’ll be absolutely stunned how bad the video is.  Like this dude would rather be anywhere but here.  The guy can’t even pantomime his own lyrics, and he’s so awkward, it’s so AWFUL!  This will detract from your enjoyment.  Try to listen without looking.  You’ll be enraptured.

By: bob | 2007/03/19 | The Music | Trackback | Comments [RSS 2.0]

One Response to As Heard On XM 75/Hear Music »»


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  1. Rob Light
    Comment by Rob Light | 2007/03/20 at 13:32:34

    Bob,

    First, I am thrilled you took the time to listen to John’s new music, I believe" My Aeroplane" is just one song of an amazing CD. "Freedom’s Road" is not just a CD about America, but is really about everyman’s personal journey and the demons he confronts going down his own personal road to Freedom.

    Second, why is it that we now have to judge every creative move in the short term of a few months. John’s frustration( your word) is brought about by our industry’s desire to only court and sell to youth. His core audience, like for many of his peers; are not adverse to buying new music, nor are they locked into living in the past (although we all like to visit it thru great music). That audience just has a different lifestyle, the freedoms and time that youth provides us for discovery, has been replaced by work and responsibility. It is much harder to break thru the daily routine and clutter, and seduce the brain to enjoy something new. If radio, (and NPR while great does not have the reach or repetitiveness to really impact an huge heartland audience), is not going to play his songs the way they did in the 80;s, then he has to find outlets and opportunities to speak to that audience.

    I do not believe you will feel the impact of this song or the commercial in the first few weeks of a CD release. This commercial has proven its effectiveness, just in the fact that you have devoted a column to it. John is back on people’s radar, his music conveying emotion again to a wider audience. And little by little, that audience connects the dots of John’s rich musical past to his incredibly relevant and fantastic new music. Over the course of this year and next, the hope is that a Chevy truck ad will slowly and surely make all of his artistic and philanthropic work become more visible.

    If some twenty something had written and recorded "Freedom’s Road", the critics, radio, and the whole music community would be screaming about the next great songwriter, one who had captured the American struggle on both a personal and national level…that artist would be on the cover of Rolling Stone, playing at Bonaroo and SxSw and Lollapalooza, and celebrated at awards shows.

    But as a fifty something , who is cursed ( along with his peers) to be judged by his past work…..the outlet is TV and brands…and the hope that the visibility provided by that outlet, opens the mind of the public to listen. And that "road" is just longer, tougher and slower to produce results.

    Thanks for listening and getting other people to listen. The commercial worked.


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  1. Rob Light
    Comment by Rob Light | 2007/03/20 at 13:32:34

    Bob,

    First, I am thrilled you took the time to listen to John’s new music, I believe" My Aeroplane" is just one song of an amazing CD. "Freedom’s Road" is not just a CD about America, but is really about everyman’s personal journey and the demons he confronts going down his own personal road to Freedom.

    Second, why is it that we now have to judge every creative move in the short term of a few months. John’s frustration( your word) is brought about by our industry’s desire to only court and sell to youth. His core audience, like for many of his peers; are not adverse to buying new music, nor are they locked into living in the past (although we all like to visit it thru great music). That audience just has a different lifestyle, the freedoms and time that youth provides us for discovery, has been replaced by work and responsibility. It is much harder to break thru the daily routine and clutter, and seduce the brain to enjoy something new. If radio, (and NPR while great does not have the reach or repetitiveness to really impact an huge heartland audience), is not going to play his songs the way they did in the 80;s, then he has to find outlets and opportunities to speak to that audience.

    I do not believe you will feel the impact of this song or the commercial in the first few weeks of a CD release. This commercial has proven its effectiveness, just in the fact that you have devoted a column to it. John is back on people’s radar, his music conveying emotion again to a wider audience. And little by little, that audience connects the dots of John’s rich musical past to his incredibly relevant and fantastic new music. Over the course of this year and next, the hope is that a Chevy truck ad will slowly and surely make all of his artistic and philanthropic work become more visible.

    If some twenty something had written and recorded "Freedom’s Road", the critics, radio, and the whole music community would be screaming about the next great songwriter, one who had captured the American struggle on both a personal and national level…that artist would be on the cover of Rolling Stone, playing at Bonaroo and SxSw and Lollapalooza, and celebrated at awards shows.

    But as a fifty something , who is cursed ( along with his peers) to be judged by his past work…..the outlet is TV and brands…and the hope that the visibility provided by that outlet, opens the mind of the public to listen. And that "road" is just longer, tougher and slower to produce results.

    Thanks for listening and getting other people to listen. The commercial worked.

This is a read-only blog. E-mail comments directly to Bob.

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