The Lonesome Jubilee

Background

On Oct. 30, 1986 - during the period in which The Lonesome Jubilee was being recorded - Mellencamp's Uncle Joe died of cancer at the age of 57, which greatly influenced the album.

While the album was being recorded, Riva Records had ceased to function, so the artist moved to Mercury Records (which, like Riva, was distributed by PolyGram), which would continue to release material by Mellencamp until 1998.

Recording and production

The sessions for The Lonesome Jubilee took place at Belmont Mall Studio in Belmont, Indiana and started in September 1986 and lasted until June 1987, a period of nine months. The sessions were produced by Mellencamp with Don Gehman and were engineered by Gehman and David Leonard.

The sound on the album was a departure from Mellencamp's previous albums and included many traditional folk and country instruments in order to make his audience aware of the "once-familiar social landscape" of folk music. The risk of making music counter to the mainstream of rock music paid off with the album's success.

Songwriting inspirations

Of "The Real Life," Mellencamp told Creem Magazine in 1987: "When I sing about Jackson Jackson (in 'The Real Life') – unless you know what it's like to spend your whole life or the majority of your young adulthood doing what you're supposed to do, then you can't relate to it. Because some of these young guys are thinking, 'Well, I'm doing what I want to do' – but that's not true. They're doing what they're supposed to do. Jackson Jackson is based on my Uncle Jay. He said those exact words to me one time at the Red Lobster here in Bloomington. He and his wife got a divorce. She was 14 and he was 17 when they got married – and he said, 'Man, I have done exactly what I'm supposed to my whole life. I married this girl when she was 14 – I didn't love her. We had kids. We raised the kids. I stayed there. I worked every day pouring concrete. Now I'm in my 40s, and I want to do something for myself.' And I asked, 'Well, what do you have in mind?' He said, 'I don't know.' You can't be 21, though, and relate to that. I mean, I look back on my life now – and you look back on your life – and you realize that we hardly ever really get to do what we wanted to do. Suddenly, it's 17 turns 35 – and how can someone 21 understand that?"

Mellencamp said he was inspired by his daughter Teddi Jo to write "Rooty Toot Toot": "That song was a nursery rhyme that I wrote for her. Teddi Jo said, 'Dad, how come you never use my name in one of your songs?' My youngest daughter's name is Justice, so she said 'You used Justice, and you used Michelle' – because Michelle's middle name is Suzanne – 'so I want you to write me a special song.' So I wrote 'Rooty Toot Toot' as a nursery rhyme. It didn't even have music. I showed it to Larry (Crane) and he said, 'That's a good little, uplifting story' – so we arranged it into a song and put it on the record."

Track listing

All songs written by John Mellencamp; "Empty Hands" was written by Mellencamp and George Green.

1. "Paper in Fire" – 3:51
2. "Down and Out in Paradise" – 3:37
3. "Check It Out" – 4:19
4. "The Real Life" – 3:57
5. "Cherry Bomb" – 4:47
6. "We Are the People" – 4:17
7. "Empty Hands" – 3:43
8. "Hard Times for an Honest Man" – 3:27
9. "Hotdogs and Hamburgers" – 4:04
10. "Rooty Toot Toot" – 3:29
11. "Blues from the Front Porch" (2005 re-issue bonus track) – 2:02

Personnel

Charts

Album

Singles