Love and Happiness

[Alex1974]

I recently saw a CD called 'Love and Happiness', on sale on various websites (seller located in Italy), which appears to be a live recording of a Mellencamp concert from 1992.  I love Mellencamp live and have always felt that he should put out a live album (his No Better Than This tour would make such a superb standalone album) and was thinking of purchasing this.  Furthermore, if it is recorded from his Whenever We Wanted world tour (I saw him live in Adelaide, Australia, that year), it would make for a wonderfully nostalgic purchase as well.  Is anyone familiar with the product though?  I have never heard of such a live CD and have never seen it for sale in the USA?  Any thoughts or information would be very welcome.

[walktall2010]

Here's the information on this show. Don't waste money buying it, I have it and will upload it for you if you still want it after seeing the information below. It's a Lonesome Jubilee Tour show, not a WWW tour show (though that exists elsewhere if you want it).

Love and Happiness in Small Towns

Tracks 1-13: Dallas, Texas; March 4, 1988
Love and Happiness - acoustic: Lonestar Roadhouse; New York; December 16, 1991

    Paper In Fire
    Jack And Diane
    Lonely Ol' Night
    Rain On The Scarecrow
    Rumbleseat
    Small Town
    Crumblin' Down
    R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.
    Play Guitar, Gloria, Wild Thing medley
    Hurts So Good
    Authority Song
    Pink Houses
    Cherry Bomb
    Love And Happiness-acoustic

[Alex1974]

Thanks for this, WalkTall2010.  I would absolutely LOVE to get a copy of that show - the track list includes songs that are not the list for the CD I saw.  I am assuming the latter is some kind of bootleg but it does include songs that could not have been part of a Lonesome Jubilee tour (Pop Singer, Now More Than Ever, Get a Leg Up, Big Daddy of Them All, Martha Says).  Do you know if it possible to get other recordings of Mellencamp live?

Incidentally, I come from Australia (though I now live in Scotland - recently took my daughter to see Mellencamp play live in Glasgow) and remember a 'live' show being broadcast on Australian radio to promote his Whenever We Wanted world tour in 1991.  I recorded it at the time - on a cassette! - with advertisements left intact and everything.  It's like a snapshot of Australian radio from twenty years ago as well as a terrific Mellencamp concert.  It concluded with an 8 or 9 minute version of Pink Houses, which I absolutely adore, and was supposed to be of a concert in Dallas ... I wonder if this is the same recording?  It would be great to have it on my computer or CD for the car - I no longer have a cassette player to listen to the recording ....

Many thanks,

Alex 

[stevekakuk]

I have this CD and it is from the 1992 WWW Tour.    Its not the full show and the audio isn't that great.  Its clearly an audience recording.  There are better recordings from the WWW tour out there. 

[mellenq]

Hey Alex....I live in Perth (Australia, not Scotland!) and I also taped that show off Aussie radio onto cassette way back when.  A very kind member from the Human Wheels group transfered it onto cd for me a few years back, although I had him take the commercials out.  He also transfered another cassette I taped from the radio for me, that was John and the band at Belmont Mall Studio (with Timothy White) playing tracks from The Lonesome Jubilee.  It a great listen.  I shared these with some US and UK Mellenheads so I know that there are copies out there somewhere.  I may even have a couple of discs kicking around the house if I look hard enough.  

[Alex1974]

Mellenq: if you did have a spare disc of that concert, I would be incredibly grateful to get a copy.  The concert I recorded, which played nationally, was broadcast in my hometown (Adelaide) by SAFM.  It's filled with adverts for sunblock and cricket, etc.  Quite amusing.  I remember recording it and being paranoid about missing songs if I switched the cassette recorder off at the wrong time.  It played at 11pm on a hot summer's night and I remember being very excited about the upcoming Whenever We Wanted concert.

Let me know if you succeed in finding a spare copy of the concert on CD and perhaps we can take things from there?

Speak to you soon,

Alex

[Mellenfan71]

Tracks 1-13: Dallas, Texas; March 4, 1988
Love and Happiness - acoustic: Lonestar Roadhouse; New York; December 16, 1991

    Paper In Fire
    Jack And Diane
    Lonely Ol' Night
    Rain On The Scarecrow
    Rumbleseat
    Small Town
    Crumblin' Down
    R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.
    Play Guitar, Gloria, Wild Thing medley
    Hurts So Good
    Authority Song
    Pink Houses
    Cherry Bomb
    Love And Happiness-acoustic

Thanks walktall.

[mellenq]

Alex..check your PM's

[Mellenfan71]

have never heard of such a live CD

I don't see him ever making a live CD.

[Smalltownboy]

A full length live CD/DVD would be great.  He did do Life, Death, LIVE & Freedom a little over two years ago.  There's always a possibility.




Mike 

[Mellenfan71]

A full length live CD/DVD would be great.  He did do Life, Death, LIVE & Freedom a little over two years ago.  There's always a possibility.




Mike 

Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that one.

[dusty947]

Mellenfan71, I love your attitude. You have a passion for John.... period.... Just like all of us Mellenheads.  He is not broken so he can't be fixed.  He is listening.  He will do a live CD/DVD sooner than later.  He loves his TRUE fans.  Save some time to dream. Because your dream might save us all....... Like he said..... "I have a had alot of SILLY ideas, but they turned out pretty good."  Thank God he listened to his Dad the past few years.  I save time every single day to dream.  One of them is a live JM DVD performance of one of his concerts.  NBTT is the one I want.  I saw him in November 2010 in Mpls. He was still adjusting to his new chapter of his life at that point, (My heart was bleeding for him this time last year.....It was a tough time of his life) but people say he is back better than ever.  He might not think we need this DVD, but can we just wish that he would do just one more performance in Indiana to capture what we desire?  (JM loves the word Desire...., his songs are full of this word...) I am from MN, and I hope he does it nowhere but his home state!.....  He has never disappointed us yet.  He won't.  This dream will come true.   

[Alex1974]

I agree: I would love Mellencamp to release a live CD/DVD (preferably both).  While I can live with bootlegs, I love collecting his albums on CD and vinyl etc.  But I would live two live CDs: one from his Scarecrow/Lonesome Jubilee days, with long, meandering rock versions of 'Pink Houses' and 'Small Town', etc, as well as one of No Better Than This Tour.  I went to his Glasgow concert and was blown away by how fresh songs like 'Jack and Diane' sounded in their stripped-down, folky guise, and thought 'Rain on the Scarecrow' was astonishing after 25 years: it seemed to speak with so much more anger and vitality and relevance, after all these years, which I guess is not surprising given the injustices of the song, written in the mid-1980s, have been barely addressed since, and so much time has now passed.  And who could not love 'Save Some Time to Dream' and 'Walk Tall' ... I could go on.  But yes, the old Mellencamp ANd the new is what I would like to hear: he is probably the best performer I have ever seen live and as a loyal, long-time fan, I feel it would be fulfilling to have a permanent collection of his live music.

[dusty947]

John is so modest.  He says performances recorded live are not as good as they are LIVE.  I don't agree.  His bootleg stuff is awesome.  He would be a perfectionist regarding his professional live DVD.  But that is what we want and he always delivers.  Someway, Somehow he will.  I watch the Walter Reed concert on HD and it is so awesome, even though they sweating so bad..... and who can't forget the Live by Request on A & E!?  I wish they would release that to us fans or replay it so that I can DVR it and then protect it......... He talked to people between songs they requested and the women went nuts for him, just like I would if I got the chance to chat with the one and only.  He is my Hillbilly at heart. 

[mitch1982]

Forgotten about that one?? Has to be my favourite!