Dearborn Music

Reviews:

''The Lonesome Jubilee'' is the ninth album by John Mellencamp, released in 1987 on the Mercury Records label. It has considerable country and folk music influences, including the use of steel guitar, violins, accordion and hammond organ. It contained a number of hit singles, including "Paper in Fire" (Mainstream Rock #1, Hot 100 #9) and "Cherry Bomb" (Mainstream Rock #1, Hot 100 #8).

The lyrics are a mix of social comment and reflection, and nostalgic descriptions of younger life and the process of maturing. "Paper in Fire" is a cautionary tale concerned with the cost of chasing our dreams. "Down and Out in Paradise" chronicles a series of stories of economic and social hardship as if told to the President, who at the time was Ronald Reagan. "Check It Out" is a commentary on day to day existence that fosters the hope that future generations will understand better how to live. "The Real Life" continues the concern about the way lives are lived, and includes two vignettes of the lives of "Suzanne" and "Jackson Jackson." "Cherry Bomb" is a nostalgic but fundamentally happy review of the narrators life - "we were young and we were improving." "We Are the People" lists categories of people - the homeless, the oppressed, people in pain - against the refrain "May my thoughts be with you." Unemployment and its effect on the narrator and his wife, Maryanne, is the subject of "Empty Hands." "Hard Times For An Honest Man" continues the existential theme, noting, against a backdrop of two more cautionary tales, that "the rent we pay to stay here gets high." "Hotdogs and Hamburgers" addresses the fate of the Indian peoples in the United States and the inhumane, greedy conquest of the West, within a narrative describing the a lift given to an Indian girl on Route 66. "Rooty Toot Toot," like "Cherry Bomb," is a happy nostalgic tale of the narrator's youth. Mellencamp originally wrote the song as a nursery rhyme for his daughter, Teddi Jo, who had asked her father to use her name in one of his songs. After it was written, Mellencamp and his band turned "Rooty Toot Toot" into a rock song. - Wikipedia