Let's talk a little bit about some perception and misperceptions of John Mellencamp.
One common perception is that Mellencamp is a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type, and that perception seems by and large correct. Thing is, mellencamp has been a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type since he was about 30 years old. Then again, wouldn't you be grumpy if your manager dubbed you - more or less behind your back - Johnny Cougar? Sure, young John probably could have picked a better manager than notorious Tony DeFries, fresh from losing David Bowie as a client due to numerous shenanigans by DeFries and cocaine-added paranoia by Bowie. Still, DeFries' Mainman connections helped out Mellencamp years later, when fellow MainMan client Mick Ronson came in to arrange "Jack & Diane" and turn it into the hit it woud become. But that's already years down the line for the man they would call - much to his happiness I'm sure - "The Coug".
One common perception of John Mellencamp is that the music he issued as Johnny (and then John) Cougar is mostly utterly worthless crap, only starting to be redeemed around the time of the last album issued under the John Cougar name, 1982's American Fool. Now that is, as far as I'm concerned, a huge misconception, and one that today's One Buck Record of the day will try to dispell. I mean sure, there's a bunch of crap and worthless filler on those early years from when Mellencamp was a Cougar, but the music isn't the totally worthless stuff that, say, the Allmusic Guide would have you believe. His first three albums get astonishing one-star-ratings, the self-titled John Cougar gets upgraded to two while Nothing Matters And What If It Did makes it to three. Honestly, there isn't a lot of good stuff on those first three albums, that's why the first two MainMan-led releases get two ongs each, A Biography gets three, and John Cougar is back down to two. But the stuff that made it onto this compilation is pretty good - there isn't un unspeakably wide canyon of quality between the best songs of those first four albums and, say, everything from American Fool onward. At least not to the extent that the one-star-demolitions would suggest.
Mellencamp simply did what you would expect a young singer/songwriter to do: he got better at his craft and he got better at separating the wheat from the chaff, to stay with his farmboy image. The number of weak songs slowly diminished, while the number of good songs slowly rose. Allmusic is at least right in identifiyng Nothing Matters And What If It Did as the first breakthrough in Mllencamp's career, calling it a prototype for American Fool I think Allmusic is even underrating that album, which I think is the overall strongest and most concistent of the Cougar years, even more so than American Fool. The fip side of the evolution that I just described is that Mellencamp didn't all of a sudden write and compose unimpeachable masterpieces - even highly popular and celebrated releases like American Fool, Uh-Huh and Scarecrow had its number of mediocre filler. I think his first completely consistent album is The Big Jubilee, also one of the singer's favorites.
Anyway, so Nothin' Matters does matter, as it gets the lion's share of songs on When I Was A Cougar with a record breaking eight tracks (well, "Cry Baby" is a 25 second trifle, albeit a really nice one), while American Fool has to do with five, including the three big singles, "Hurts So Good", "Jack & Diane" and "Hand To Hold On To".
So, what about that Cougar music you say? Well, Mellencamp doesn't have the songs yet throughout the six albums that form the basis for When I Was A Cougar, but the Stones-y rock attitude is already there, as is a voice that can get these rockn'roll songs and ballads over (and sometimes betrays a similarity to Bruce Springsteen, as well as Bob Seger on some cuts), and the heartland attitude for which he became known starts to seep through these songs as well. I think the whole Johnny Cougar thing got some stink on these albums that diminished the perception of the music, while fully agreeing with the fact that most of the songs aren't worth a second or third listen. That's why I think a comp like When I Was A Cougar is really useful. For some artists it's worth searching through their (relatively) underachieving early records and finding some treasure in deep cuts, but with Mellencamp you won't find treasure, because what's to be treasured is here.
I did the hard work for you, so that When I Was A Cougar basically supplants the necessity of listening to those first records up to American Fool almost entirely. If you have a personal favorite that's missing from this comp, then it's likely you are a Mellencamp superfan and find a ton of worthwhile stuff on thise records. But if you are just a casual fan of Mellencamp, or not familiar with his work at all, then I think you'll find a ton of worthwhile stuff on When I Was A Cougar and none of the crap, so you'll get the most interesting moments of an artist evolving before your eyes and ears without any unwanted distraction. I'm also really happy with the cover art that came out pretty much exactly like I imagined it (useless to add that that's not always the case, unfortunately, with my limited visual editing skills and software).
I think When I Was A Cougar is a really good listen. Hope you'll agree. And now I let the Cougar take over...