Songoftheday 11/5/14 - Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm, grew up like my daddy did my grandpa cleared this land...

John (Cougar) Mellencamp - "Rain On The Scarecrow"
from the album Scarecrow (1985)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #21 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day is from Indiana-bred rock singer/songwriter/musician John Mellencamp, whose roots-rock masterpiece, Scarecrow, had already produced three top-10 pop hits with "Lonely Ol' Night", "Small Town", and "R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A.". John released the dark and angry "Rain On The Scarecrow" as the fourth single from the album. With a first-person recount of a legacy farmer losing all he has to the bank, the song was a stark reminder of how bad the rural areas of America have had it during troubled times...

"Rain On The Scarecrow" became the fourth top-40 pop hit from Scarecrow in June of 1986, while scaling to #16 on the Mainstream Rock radio chart in Billboard magazine. The single also peaked at #34 on the chart in Australia.

The quick and moderate success of the song on the pop chart probably was due to the fact that the frank subject matter made people "uncomfortable" in the high-Reagan years; but IMHO the song was the most important and best part of that indispensable album.

(Click below to see the rest of the post)


John's feelings behind "Rain On The Scarecrow" certainly inspired his drive to put together Farm Aid, the long-running charity concert to aid farmers hit by economic troubles and corporate throttling of the agricultural industry. Naturally, he has performed the song in practically every annual Aid concert since. Here's his fresh rendering in 1985...

...and again in 1990...

Lastly, a heartfelt take from 2013's Farm Aid...

Up tomorrow: a phone call from Austria.