John Mellencamp : Rough Harvest (Expanded Edition)

SCARECROW ON A WOODEN CROSS

BLACKBIRD IN THE BARN

FOUR HUNDRED EMPTY ACRES

THAT USED TO BE MY FARM

I GREW UP LIKE MY DADDY DID

MY GRANDPA

CLEARED THIS LAND

WHEN I WAS FIVE

I WALKED THE FENCE

WHILE GRANDPA

HELD MY HAND

 Rough Harvest 

is the

 16th album

 by American singer

 John Mellencamp, 

a collection of

 alternate, 

acoustic arrangements 

of his favorite tracks,

 as well as

 several covers, 

released on

 August 17, 1999.

 Recorded mostly

 in 1997

 with the exception of 

"Under the Boardwalk",

 which was recorded in 1986, 

and

 "Wild Night" 

in 1994

 the album fulfilled

 Mellencamp's

 contractual obligation

 with Mercury Records.

"It was very easy for me," 

Mellencamp told the

 St. Louis Post-Dispatch's 

Kevin C. Johnson 

of the 

'acoustic arrangements

 on 

Rough Harvest

 in a September 30, 1999, 

article.

 "Actually, every song

 I ever wrote 

I wrote 

on 

acoustic guitar first. 

That's pretty much how

 the songs sound 

before I put

 electricity to them.

 When I start arranging, i

t's a big step 

when you have to 

add a band 

to the song."

On his cover of

 "Under the Boardwalk,"

 which was originally

 the B-side of his

 1986 hit 

"R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." 

and was performed live

 on the Scarecrow Tour

 and The

 Lonesome Jubilee Tour, 

Mellencamp told the

 Post-Dispatch:

 "God bless the Drifters,

 but I thought the song 

was a little slow.

 I think that suited 

the times very well.

 I was a kid at the time, 

and that groove

 was a very urban groove, 

a very black groove, 

and what I did

 was take that groove

 and record it with

 a rock groove."

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