Album of the Minute – John Mellencamp – Big Daddy
Dec 30, 2009 by Nick
Big Daddy is one of my favorite John Mellencamp albums and I feel one of his most overlooked albums. It was released in the spring of 1989 and closed out the remarkable run of albums that he released that decade including the big three Uh-Huh, Scarecrow, and The Lonesome Jubilee. Mellencamp has been quoted as saying that The Lonesome Jubilee album was the album he made while trying to save his second marriage and Big Daddy was the album he made after that marriage fell apart. On The Lonesome Jubilee Mellencamp reinvented himself by incorporating fiddles, Dobro steel guitar, accordion, and Hammond organ. He continues that theme on this record and it works just as well as it did on the previous record. This album would be the final album that would feature founding guitar player Larry Crane and would signal the beginning of the end of the backing band that powered Mellencamp’s albums and live shows throughout the 1980′s.
This album had far fewer radio hits than his previous albums did but it does feature the radio hit “Pop Singer” where Mellencamp basically tells the record business to go to hell. Bass player Toby Myers lays down a ferocious bass line on this cut. As you can imagine the album is full of songs that would not be considered feel good songs. Songs like Martha Say, To Live, and Big Daddy of Them All seem to reflect how Mellencamp was feeling after losing his wife. On the flip side he also has lighter songs such as Theo and Weird Henry and Let it All Hang Out which is a cover of a Hombres song. Mellencamp was also writing political songs with Country Gentleman. He wrote this song as a commentary on Ronald Reagan’s time in the White House. He ends the song with the line “Thank God he went back to California”.
While this album will never be one of Mellencamp’s more popular albums I really think it was a great step in the direction he was taking the band at that time and really is a great companion to The Lonesome Jubilee album. If you are looking to get familiar with the John Mellencamp that you will not hear on classic rock radio give this album a listen.
Later,
Nick
Posted in Album of the Minute