Search - John Mellencamp :: Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits

K.I.C.K.'s in the A.S.S.

J. L LaRegina | New Jersey | 04/09/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Covering John Mellencamp's career from the late 1970s through the mid-2000s and including a couple of new songs to sweeten it for fans who have all his albums, the double C.D. collection WORDS & MUSIC: JOHN MELLENCAMP'S GREATEST HITS has every well-known song by the artist. If there is an essential Mellencamp song missing, none of the previous reviews here mentions it and I don't remember it.



Maybe Mellencamp's regular guy image drew comparisons with Bruce Springsteen, but his rhythmic rock and roll makes him America's answer to the Rolling Stones. In the notes on one of his albums, Mellencamp thanks "the Rolling Stones for never taking the living room off the turntable."



With fewer radio stations playing rock and roll, WORDS & MUSIC is a visit with an old friend, albeit one who rocks the house. There was a time when "Pink Houses" was so overplayed I changed the station when it came on. Hearing that and the many other Mellencamp smashes on WORDS & MUSIC, I can appreciate the man's talent all over again.



Another version of WORDS & MUSIC includes a D.V.D. of several John Mellencamp music videos. I settled for the non-D.V.D. version as I had bought C.D.-with-bonus-D.V.D. packages by a couple other artists only to realize I never watched the D.V.D. a second time.



WORDS & MUSIC programs its selections rather than using the typical "best of" method of presenting the songs in chronological order. I like this mix approach better. Ironically, the C.D. case seems slapped together with a handful of pictures all from the same photo session. I would prefer photos reflecting the 25-odd years its music represents.



As opposed to an anthology, WORDS & MUSIC offers only songs from John Mellencamp's hit-making heyday. Absent is music from his mid-to-late 1970s titles such as THE KID INSIDE and CHESTNUT STREET INCIDENT. And as Mellencamp continues to release new work, there may be still more greatest hits.



Of course, a hit for John Mellencamp seems unlikely, but only because pop music stations don't play his new songs anymore. Heck, they aren't playing new Rolling Stones records, either. Mellencamp's recent song for an advertising campaign was probably the closest thing to a hit he will have. That's the public's loss.



Pick up WORDS & MUSIC."