Album Of The Week #19/My Final Playlist – Life, Death, Love, and Freedom

Life, Death, Love, and Freedom is a great album by John Mellencamp but probably not what you have grown to expect from him. As Rolling Stone said in their review of the album: “There’s not a bright, catchy riff or fist-pumping populist anthem to be found among these brooding, low-key songs about growing old, sick, lonely and pessimistic.”

I’ve managed to find performances of most of the album’s songs for you to listen to (see below). I am really interested to hear what you think. Unfortunately, I was not able to find For the Children so I will have to create my own video for it, load it on YouTube, and do a post later this week with a link to it.

One song to watch for is Country Fair. The story in this song is absolutely scary (I have been to a lot of County Fairs and I can identify with the story)! Here are the lyrics to County Fair for those that are interested…

Well the County Fair left quite a mess
In the county yard
Kids with eyes as big as dollars
Rode all the rides
Strip artists and con artists
Put on quite a show
And made some money
Then left town
Where they went I don’t know

Hey all you suckers
I heard a fat woman say
Come on in for fifty cents
You can stay in here all day
So I took a chance
I went inside
Wasn’t much there to see
So I asked her for my money back
And she just smiled at me

Saw Princess Tonyika taken off all her clothes
Rode some rides and played some games
Saw the Wild Man from Borneo
There was a black man playing the blues
Talked to some friends I hadn’t seen in a while
Through a football through a hoop

Well I saw them loading up their trucks
Taking down the rides
Folding up all the tents
There’s a full moon in the sky
Some were laughing some were cussing
As they worked
Saw one of them making love
To a local girl

I was minding my own business
It was quarter after two
When a fella walked up and said
Hey man
I remember you
And then he shoved me
And pulled out his knife
Stuck me three times in the chest
And I died that night

For the like of me I can’t remember
Who he was
And why he’d put a knife in me
In the dusty parking lot
Everybody said
What a shame it was
But he knew better than staying out
Past twelve o’clock

Some people put no value
On a human life
And there are places we all go
That just ain’t safe at night
If somebody would do this to me
They just might do it to you
So be careful where you go
And what you say or do

Well the County Fair left quite a mess
In the county yard