Customer Reviews

Uh-Huh (Rpkg)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mellencamp achieves greatness for the first time here with "Uh-Huh", with this recent remastering rendering these songs in exquisite detail.

And what a set of songs!

Opening with a swaggering "Crumblin' Down", Mellencamp grabs us by the collar and declares himself a rock star with a purpose.

"Pink Houses" has become a heartland anthem, that even people in NY and LA love. (The acoustic bonus version is pretty freakin' cool...)

The snarling "Authority Song", a great flat-out top-down-convertible rocker if there ever was one, gives Mellencamp three classics in a row.

How many albums open with three spectacular songs in a row? Very few. Very very few.

But he doesn't stop there. "Warmer Place to Sleep" channels early Rolling Stones, with a guitar lick Keith Richards would be proud of.

"Jackie O" is a little wan, but "Play Guitar" is a rousing fist-pumping rocker.

The remainder of the album (there not a lot left) doesn't leave as much of an impression as the first half-dozen songs.

The guitars across the album are huge; lacerating licks mixed with monstrous chords. The drums thunder and crack like an out-of-control electrical storm.

What you have here is the declaration of a major American artist, beginning a run of amazing records few recording artists have matched.

Put "Uh-Huh", "Scarecrow" and "The Lonesome Jubilee" up against anybody else.

...Springsteen, U2, Dylan, The Who...

Those three records are great, intensely American rock albums...and belong in every rock fan's collection.

After exploding into the big time with American Fool after several years of obscurity, no one would have blamed John Cougar for making an American Fool, part two. Instead, he moved away from that leather rocker image he created and became more himself. He added his real surname and started writing songs that were socially aware. "Pink Houses" is one of the most earnestness songs of the 80's. With it's look at life in America, Mr. Mellencamp shows that he has a finger on the pulse of the people. "Warmer Place To Sleep" is a strong rocker that addresses his "selling out" and coming back to a style of music that is more his own. "Crumblin' Down" is one of his all-time best songs, with it's pulsating bassline and wall of sound chorus, the song explodes out of your speakers. "Authority Song" has the feeling of a loose remake of Bobby Fuller's "I Fought Law". "Jackie O" has a jazzy vibe to it and "Play Guitar" is a ballsy rocker. "Serious Business" is another hard rocker that sums up his view on the music business, it's all sex and violence and rock and roll. Uh-huh was a quantum leap forward and showed that Mr. Mellencamp had true ability and wasn't just some manufactured hard rocker. The acoustic version of "Pink Houses" was originally released as b-side to "Authority Song" and it strips the original down to the bone and gets to the real heart of the song.

This is truly one of the best collections of the early 1980s and the standout collection of 1983. John Mellencamp is a damn good rocker and this collection will not disappoint!

Mellencamp catches his listeners' collective attention with "Crumblin' Down" and has established his rightful place in the ranks of [...] kickin' rockers.

His stellar classic "Pink Houses" is a wonderful unifer and the acoustics are nothing short of outstanding. It is a coast-to-coast and worldwide treat that will leave listeners pleading for more.

The "Authority Song" could be the story of my life. It is a damn good assertive piece that is demanding to be taken seriously. If ever there was a straight from the soul rock hit, this is the one.

"Play Guitar" is a damn good in your face rocking number. It's a poke in the macho eye with some damn good guitar playing and some hard, cutting edge lyrics. I love it!

You have from the heartland the rich rock from the heart of one of the best rockers that ever picked up a guitar. John Mellencamp is an elemental musical force - he is here to stay!

Be sure to get this along with "American Fool," "Scarecrow" and any of Mellencamp's other collections. You will be so glad that you did. Every song is worth it. Be prepared to dance.

I have been waiting for the acoustic version of 'Pink Houses' to appear on a remastered CD. I bought the CD upon reading about it, and that version alone was worth the price of admission. 'Scarecrow" gets lots of attention, but 'Uh-huh' contained great music, including the best song of the 80's, "Pink Houses." I think Mellencamp keeps getting better.

This album is a lot of fun and turned Mellencamp into a star

UH-HUH, which was already a great John Mellencamp album in its original form, just got even better, thanks to digital remastering, which resulted in improved sound, and the acoustic version of "Pink Houses" has been added as a bonus cut. Of course, you still get classics such as "Crumblin' Down", "Pink Houses", "Authority Song", "Warmer Place To Sleep", "Play Guitar", and "Serious Business." This album is basically a concept disc about ordinary people fighting against their circumstances. The fact that Mellencamp believes that the young Australian tourist jailed in Indonesia on drug-smuggling charges was wrongfully convicted only adds to the appeal of this and all of the Mellencamp reissues.

I bought the remastered album for the bonus track alone, and it was well worth it. The remastered sound adds a good touch to a classic record.

John Cougar became a success when "American Fool" became his first major commercial and critical success. having been saddled with the "Cougar" name and hating it ever since, for the follow-up "Uh-Huh" album, John used his growing clout to begin emancipating his real name and, in essence, what he thought he wanted to be as an artist. John Cougar Mellencamp (and the second to last time "Cougar" would appear on one of his albums) established himself on this album as both a first class songwriter and a purebred American Rocker.

The music is still duking it out between Springsteen and The Rolling Stones (dig that Keth Richards riff on "Serious Business"), but he was also looking more at the grown up world that "Jack and Diane" were growing into. "Pink Houses" (also here as an acoustic bonus version) remains one of Mellencamp's finest four minutes, with its darkly ironic look at an American Dream gone stuck under a freeway. He'd tear into that vein fully when "Scarecrow" would arrive with its hard look at middle America. For the bulk of "Uh-Huh," though, Mellencamp wanted to kick out the jams.

The three rocking highlights were "Crumblin' Down," "Authority Song" and "Play Guitar." Mellencamp and his crack band - especially guitarist Larry Crane and drummer Kenny Aronoff - had honed their skills to a bludgeoning power that made the guitar heavy tracks crackle like prime Stones. Mellencamp was still working through the kinks of his songwriting, which meant the album starts to sputter towards the end (and on the particularly passable "Jackie O"). But as far as his creative juice was concerned, Mellencamp was rapidly closing in on 100% proof.

Actually, I bought this CD for a friend and he is very happy with it. He is a big fan of Mellencamp and I knew he really wanted this. Thank you so much for making these old LP's available on CD now.

The aptly-titled Uh-Huh is widely considered John Cougar Mellencamp's first great album. His brand of heartland rock blends the sounds of the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen into something that is completely unique. "Pink Houses" is one of his best-known songs and is akin to Springsteen's iconic "Born in the U.S.A," which it preceded. It's a rousing anthem of Middle America and is perhaps his most effective song to cover the subject. Mellencamp injects many of the tracks with his patent sarcasm; "Serious Business" and "Lovin' Mother Fo Ya" are humorous examples. "Crumblin' Down" and "Authority Song" are semi-autobiographic and equally disenchanted; they are also infectious. The album closes perfectly with the quiet, bittersweet "Golden Gates." The remastered edition includes a bonus acoustic version of "Pink Houses" that is arguably as good as the original and far more emotive. 4 Stars.