The year John Mellencamp took control

The year John Mellencamp took control

By 1983, John Mellencamp had finally gotten the upper hand on his career. After the success of his breakthrough album, 1982’s American Fool, he had all the cards in his deck to change the game when it came to his relationship with the music business executives who had tried to control him from the start, over six years earlier.

For his seventh studio album, Uh Huh, he did just that. Released in the fall of '83, t is the first album that bears his last name, an important step toward freeing himself of artistic shackles. Uh Huh was another success for Mellencamp on the charts, and one of its charting singles could be viewed as his mission statement: a song that encapsulates not only his battle with the folks in the corner offices who tried to dictate his career but the very spirit of the man himself. Let’s get into the story of “Authority Song” in this episode of the Behind The Song podcast.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episoder(208)

Steve Miller Band, The Joker, and the "pompatus" of love

Steve Miller Band, The Joker, and the "pompatus" of love

It’s the song that put the word “pompatus” into our collective consciousness, a made-up word that was actually a mishearing of ANOTHER made up word. But it sounds great in “The Joker,” proving once ag...

28 Aug 202410min

The secret sauce in ZZ Top's biggest hit album

The secret sauce in ZZ Top's biggest hit album

It took original thinking to make one of the best-selling albums of an entire decade, and that’s just what ZZ Top did, although they had some help with coming up with the sound. Completely bypassing t...

7 Aug 202412min

How “Closer To The Heart” by Rush started with a friendship

How “Closer To The Heart” by Rush started with a friendship

It’s been said “Closer To The Heart” by Rush is Canada’s “Stairway To Heaven,” in ways that go beyond the technical, and it struck a chord worldwide to audiences in a way that Rush’s songs hadn’t befo...

17 Jul 20248min

Bon Jovi's story that started in "Livin' On A Prayer"

Bon Jovi's story that started in "Livin' On A Prayer"

It was a song that Jon Bon Jovi had to admit that he was wrong about. It took serious convincing for him to agree to put what became Bon Jovi’s signature song on their third album, a make or break alb...

26 Jun 202413min

The emotional ride of The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”

The emotional ride of The Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”

It may be the most delicate song in the entire Rolling Stones catalog, with Mick Jagger delivering every single line of “Wild Horses” with an impassioned weight. And there’s good reason for that. By t...

5 Jun 202411min

Who was Heart's "Magic Man?"

Who was Heart's "Magic Man?"

Workplace romances can be challenging…especially when your job is being part of a rock band. That was certainly the case with the band Heart. In fact, their first Top 10 hit in the US was written abou...

15 Mai 20249min

The timeless appeal of Pink Floyd’s “Time”

The timeless appeal of Pink Floyd’s “Time”

The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd stands alone in many ways. By dealing with the uncomfortable concepts of life, death, greed, and mental illness, this body of work chimes with the human experie...

3 Apr 202413min

Populært innen Underholdning

papaya
harm-og-hegseth
enkel-servering
tore-og-haralds-podkast
storefri-med-mikkel-og-herman
tusvik-tnne
big-5-med-nils-og-harald-2
topp-3-med-wold-og-fladseth
konspirasjonspodden
ma-pa-behandling-med-morten-ramm
hovla
folk-flest-med-linn-og-nils
kjendiscrush-med-sofie-karlstad
nare-venner
vitnemal
gi-meg-alle-detaljene
christine-dancke
rss-gammal-maiden
feedback-med-egon-holstad
rss-backstage-historier-om-legender