''Rough Harvest'' is the 16th album by American singer

John Mellencamp John J. Mellencamp (born October 7, 1951), previously known as Johnny Cougar, John Cougar, and John Cougar Mellencamp, is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for his catchy brand of heartland rock, which emphasizes traditional instrument ...

, 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 Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. "It was very easy for me," Mellencamp told the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

''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, it'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. "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", subtitled "A Salute to 60's Rock", is a rock song written and performed by John Mellencamp. It was the third single from his 1985 album ''Scarecrow'' and a top-ten hit on both the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and Top Rock Trac ...

" and was performed live on the Scarecrow Tour and The Lonesome Jubilee Tour, Mellencamp told the ''Post-Dispatch'': "God bless

the Drifters The Drifters are several American doo-wop and R&B/Soul music, soul vocal groups. They were originally formed as a backing group for Clyde McPhatter, formerly the lead tenor of Billy Ward and his Dominoes in 1953. The second group of Drifters, f ...

, 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."

Track listing

#"Love and Happiness" (

) – 3:37 #"

In My Time of Dying "In My Time of Dying" (also called "Jesus Make Up My Dying Bed" or a variation thereof) is a gospel music song by Blind Willie Johnson. The title line, closing each stanza of the song, refers to a deathbed and was inspired by a passage in the B ...

" (Traditional) – 3:03 #"Between a Laugh and a Tear" (Mellencamp) – 2:53 #"Human Wheels" (Mellencamp,

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

) – 5:15 #"Rain on the Scarecrow" (Mellencamp, Green) – 3:18 #"

Farewell Angelina ''Farewell, Angelina'' is the sixth studio album by American folk singer Joan Baez, released in late 1965. It peaked at #10 on the Billboard Pop Albums chart. History The album represented a further shift from the strictly traditional folk m ...

" (

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

) – 4:36 #"

Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First) "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" is a song by American rock musician John Mellencamp. It was released as the first single from his 14th studio album, ''Mr. Happy Go Lucky'' (1996), and peaked at number 14 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100, m ...

" (Mellencamp, Green) – 4:34 #"Jackie Brown" (Mellencamp) – 3:50 #"When Jesus Left Birmingham" (Mellencamp) – 3:35 #"The Full Catastrophe" (Mellencamp) – 3:17 #"Minutes to Memories" (Mellencamp, Green) – 4:29 #" Under the Boardwalk" (Resnick,

Kenny Young Kenny Young (born Shalom Giskan, April 14, 1941 – April 14, 2020) was an American songwriter, musician, producer and environmental campaigner who wrote and in some cases produced hit songs for The Drifters, Ronnie Dove, Herman's Hermits, Mark ...

) – 3:57 #"

Wild Night "Wild Night" is a song written by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and is the opening track on his fifth studio album ''Tupelo Honey''. It was released as a single in 1971 and reached number 28 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. ...

" (Live) (

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

) – 3:37 #" Seventh Son" (2005 reissue bonus track) – 2:43

Personnel

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

*Mike Wanchic - guitar, vocals *Andy York – guitar *Dane Clark –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Toby Myers –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Miriam Sturm –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

*Moe Z M.D. –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

*Janas Hoyt –

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

* Me'shell Ndegeocello – bass guitar and vocals on "Wild Night"

References

{{Authority control John Mellencamp albums 1999 albums Mercury Records albums Albums produced by Don Gehman