Product Description
Labeling John Mellencamp's "On The Rural Route 7609" a box set would be a misnomer on several levels. In format, it is much more akin to a lavish book and is in fact, not packaged in a box. With 54 songs, 17 of which are previously unreleased on any Mellencamp CD, on 4 discs, the set is thoroughly annotated by award-winning music journalist/historian Anthony DeCurtis. Also included within its 72 pages are numerous evocative photos reflecting Mellencamp's transformation from pop idol to his current status as transcendent singer/writer whose work is celebrated, sometimes as a painfully honest musical reflection of hard scrabble midwestern values. Mellencamp songs from all phases of that career are included as are special guest readings by Academy Award (R) wining actress Joanne Woodward as well as from Dr. Cornel West, best selling author, lecturer and commentator.

Unlike standard issue box sets, "On The Rural Route 7609" is not a collection of hits and near-hits in chronological order. Rather, each of the discs is programmed as if it were a free-standing album with shared themes and a sense of flow that offers one a compelling context to listen from start to finish versus defaulting to searching for the most familiar tracks. While there is certainly a wealth of well-known material, a significant number of tracks are offered that, while less familiar, are equally significant in terms of providing an in-depth picture of the Mellencamp's spectrum of creativity. Those tracks juxtaposed to signature songs long-associated with Mellencamp on the four "albums" in the set give long-term Mellencamp fans and newer listers alike, a more complete and insightful view of the artist's role as a writer and artist whose catalog of songs and recordings glow with substance and nuance.

"On The Rural Route 7609" is a musical journey that sheds new light on an American musician who, as both a songwriter and and social activist. Mellencamp found his true voice as he followed his heart and mind over the course of a career that, after an improbable start, has spanned four decades and is reflected in the selections heard "On The Rural Route 7609". "On The Rural Route 7609" is a singular way to discover John Mellencamp again.. arguably, for the first time.

CD 1
1. Longest Days
2. Grandma's Theme
3. Rural Route
4. Jackie Brown
5. Rain On The Scarecrow [Rough Harvest Version]
6. Jim Crow - With Cornell West **
7. Jim Crow
8. Big Daddy Of Them All
9. Deep Blue Heart
10. Forgiveness
11. Don't Need This Body
12. Jenny At 16 *
13. Jack And Diane [Writing Demo] *
14. Jack And Diane

CD 2
1. The Real Life - With Joanne Woodward **
2. Ghost Towns Along The Highway
3. The Full Catastrophe
4. Authority Song [Writing Demo] *
5. Troubled Land
6. To Washington
7. Our Country *
8. Country Gentlemen
9. Freedom's Road
10. Mr. Bellows [Remixed Version]
11. Rodeo Clown
12. Love And Happiness
13. Pink Houses

CD 3
1. If I Die Sudden [Live]
2. Someday
3. Between A Laugh And A Tear
4. Void In My Heart *
5. Death Letter
6. Sugar Marie *
7. Theo And Weird Henry
8. When Jesus Left Birmingham
9. L.U.V. *
10. Thank You
11. Women Seem
12. The World Don't Bother Me None
13. Cherry Bomb [Writing Demo] *
14. Someday The Rains Will Fall
15. A Ride Back Home

CD 4
1. My Aeroplane
2. Colored Lights *
3. Just Like You
4. Young Without Lovers
5. To M.G. (Wherever She May Be) *
6. Sweet Evening Breeze
7. What If I Came Knocking
8. County Fair
9. Peaceful World *
10. Your Life Is Now
11. For The Children
12. Rural Route *

* = Unreleased Version
** = Unreleased Reading

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002GYHIWG/?tag=imwan-20

This is awesome news. It's from John's official site...

Box-set Retrospective: They've been talking about this one for years, but real work is now being done on what looks to be a 4-CD set. In fact, music business A & R and Producer veteran Steve Berkowitz, who among many other things did the a&r work for the ongoing series of Bob Dylan and Miles Davis boxes has been brought on as consultant.

According to Berkowitz, then, the box will not so much focus on the obvious hits as present a full picture of a "life-long, hall-of-fame, great artist" and his songs.

"John's music screams for an overview," he says. "He has so many great songs besides the hits--and there's a lot of those!"

The layout of the set at this time involves one disc of early demos; two discs of various versions of well-known songs (these may be alternate takes and mixes, early versions, acoustic versions, etc.), as well as previously unreleased songs; and a fourth disc, which Berkowitz is currently referring to as "Let Us Reconsider," to also include different versions of other material. He estimates that 65-75% of the material will be "previously unreleased" recordings. "John has an incredible collection of material going all the way back to the 1970s--just vocal and guitar, with dogs barking and babies gurgling and him singing. Many of these recordings capture the first glimpse of songs and anthems destined to be classics--and these tapes capture the birth of these gems. We're just now editing a version of 'Pink Houses' from three early demos! It gives a peek behind the curtain to see how John created it--and a glimpse of what was to come."

This is good news. I have become a fan of John Mellencamp. I like When Jesus Left Birmingham, Small Town and a really old song of his called, I think, Ain't Even Done With The Night. He is a great songwriter and performer. I would actually buy this box set.


Thanks for posting about it, Jamie.

Your welcome! Mellencamp is my second favorite artist ever. I've been waiting on ths set for a very long time. He's got a few
other things happening, too. A summer tour hitting minor league ball parks. Bob Dylan and Wille Nelson are rumored to be on the tour. John is also about to get started on a new album, too.

p.s a "deep track" you might like is "Minutes to Memories" from "Scarecrow".

That sounds great, Jamie. And I will see if I can find that track. Oh, I forgot to mention, I also like the songs Jackie Brown and Scarecrow' title track.

I used to love Mellencamp, but then about the time he married that model I lost interest. It seemed so very contrary to not wanting to "be a Popstar."

I still like his early stuff. I probably will check this out . . . . at the library.

The whole album with "Pop Singer" was rather weak. "Jackie Brown" is excellent and the hidden track "Let It
All Hang Out" is good.

I remember when that song was new. Thanks for making me feel old, Francine.

Mellencamp's last album was brilliant!!!!! M.

I always liked the acoustic version of "Jackie Brown" much better than the album version. I picked up the CD single just for that reason. Also always really liked his cover of "Under The Boardwalk" - another CD single just for that.

Alan

Seems like this boxset will be filled with demos, alternate versions, different mixes, live cuts-in other words nothing very interesting. I'll wait and see what it has of course, but right now I'm disappointed and I don't need to hear the "barking dog" mix of "I Need A Lover" or the "baby gurgling" mix of "Small Paradise". Also, what is the fascination with demos? They're just that-a demonstration of ideas-and they usually sound like total crap because they are rarely mixed down. I really hate demos on boxsets and as bonus cuts on remasters.
But, again, I'll of course wait to see the track listing-maybe John was hiding some good things and that's why the remasters had so little in the way of bonus cuts.

Sorry.

<-------- makes it all better!

"Whenever We Wanted" is my favorite Mellencamp cd and is arguably the best 37 minutes of rock I have in my 2000+ cd collection.

I love the song "Last Chance"

I like to hear demos, provided they're listenable or worth listening to. In some cases, they're better than the album version. If I've already got an artist's entire catalog, I really don't need a box set that's comprised of mostly previously released material.

Sometimes when you hear a demo or an alternate version of a song, you wonder why they didn't release that version in the first place.

The best thing about the KISS box set is that there was roughly a CD and a half of demos, alternate takes & studio run-throughs. If it had been up to me, the whole box would have been like that.

Chris hits on one of the problems w/box sets. For long-term fans, you need a lot of unreleased material to get them to bite. I never picked up the Kiss set because it just didn't seem to be enough new stuff for me. On the other hand, to sell the most copies, they probably need to pull in the casual fans, and those folks generally don't care about an alternate take of a song, or the demo.

Something like the Black Sabbath sets is nice to pull in a full collection, but if it wasn't presented as a collection of the albums - that is, if it was presented as a compilation of all the albums but not replicating the original formats - would it be as highly regarded?

I do wish that artists would make the previously unreleased stuff available separately, though.

Alan

I always felt a boxset should include the standard classic tracks and album cuts, and any relevant b-sides and/or rarities from the appropriate eras as it goes along. The Deep Purple boxset "Shades 1968-98" and the Echo & Bunnymen boxset "Crystal Days 1979-99" are perfect examples of what a boxset should be.
I dislike the KISS boxset for several reasons. One reason is that the demos sound like garbage and some of them are just Gene and a drum machine or Paul by himself. Others are ancient demos from the 60s which are at least semi-interesting, but rather useless. Fully recorded rare tracks instead were passed over for the most part with only a few exceptions. There were also virtually no live rarities which would've been better than the demos. The packaging was beautiful however and so was the booklet-one of the best I've seen in a boxset. There were also wayyyy too many album tracks, but they pretty much included the right ones-just too large a quantity.
There needs to be a good balance of the classics and the rare-in other words, a career overview.
One of the worst boxsets was Chicago's "Chicago-The Box" (great title). 5 discs of nothing but hits and album tracks-nothing rare and some of the tracks were edited! Without the DVD it's totally useless. Glad I passed on it. All the rarities were used up for the remasters, making the boxset worthless. Same thing happened with Judas Priest's "Metalogy", and the only thing worth a damn was the DVD which came out later anyway! Again, I passed on this one. There are some boxsets of nothing but rarities, and those are generally pretty good for the diehards.

Saw this on Musictap.net tonight...

"Island Records also plans a John Mellencamp CD for October called "On the Rural Route 7609"

Even though one CD is mentioned, the title sounds "box-setish" an the numbers could reflect his
years of recording..1976-2009.

What do you guys think???

Jimbo once told me that Mellencamp was stingy with the bonus tracks on his remasters because he was saving them for a box set. He had this on good authority.

It appears that Herr Jimbo is correct.

I don't know if I'd go quite that far, but it IS great album, maybe his best (Although Lonesome Jubilee is pretty great, too). It certainly rocks the hardest. "Last Chance" and "Melting Pot" are two of my favorite Mellencamp tracks, but the whole album is rock solid (no pun intended). Nice to see somebody giving "Whenever We Wanted" its due.

Some of his early, early stuff might be kind of shakey, but really looking forward to hearing more acoustic stuff. I have his "Biography" album, which I think came out before his "John Cougar" LP. It's got some great kick ass stuff on there. Having said that, his last album (mostly almost solo acoustic) I thought was one of the better ones he's done in years.

Earlier this had been reported as a new studio album which was incorrect (damn internet), and it is actually the 4 CD box set that is due out.
I have no interest because I don't care for alternate versions of songs or unfinished tunes, but I'm sure diehards would love it.
All I could find so far is from Wikipedia, so take it with a grain of salt and realize it might not be accurate!


This box set, the first of Mellencamp's career, will include a disc of early demo recordings, two discs of various versions of well-known songs and previously unreleased songs, and a fourth disc that will include different versions of other material. It is estimated that 65-75% of the material on the box set will be previously unreleased recordings, whether they are demos or alternate versions of familiar songs or songs that were never released for one reason or another. [2]

"It will be a broad overview of my songwriting, and it will be much more about the writing than about the hit records or the versions of songs you may be familiar with," Mellencamp said of the box set.

A number of the tracks will be alternate takes of classic songs. "Some of them show me actually in the process of writing them," says Mellencamp, "so there's a lot of stopping and starting up again-a lot of head-scratching. It's turned into quite a project." [3]

[edit] Track listing
The exact track listing probably won't be known until sometime in August 2009, but Mellencamp has already said the set will include "Jenny At 16" -- a song that predates "Jack and Diane" and actually contains some of the lyrics that would find their way into "Jack and Diane" [4] -- in addition to a raw version of the Trisha Yearwood duet "Deep Blue Heart" from 2001's Cuttin' Heads. "I felt like calling [Trisha] up and saying, 'Gosh, I forgot about that song. You were fantastic on that song!' I mean, she's just fantastic," Mellencamp told CMT radio in May 2009. [5]

There will be at least two readings of Mellencamp songs by legendary figures that aren't singers included on "On the Rural Route 7609." Dr. Cornel West recites the lyrics to "Jim Crow," which was originally a duet with Joan Baez on 2007's Freedom's Road [6], while actress Joanne Woodward provides an emotionally-charged reading of the lyrics to "The Real Life" from 1987's The Lonesome Jubilee. "When I was growing up Joanne Woodward was my favorite actress," Mellencamp told CMT radio. "I admire so few people [but] in my mind she was the best actress ever to walk on screen and she was so beautiful, too. And she's 80 years-old and just read [the lyrics to 'The Real Life'] for my box set that's getting ready to come out, and I just couldn't believe it because she made the poetry so much better than it really was." [7]