Other People's Stuff

John Mellencamp

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6
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Other People's Stuff Review

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

John Mellencamp gives away the intent of Other People's Stuff with its titles: it's a collection of covers, ten songs recorded between 1993 and 2018. Some of these songs come from tribute albums or soundtracks -- "Gambling Bar Room Blues" is taken from a 1997 tribute to Jimmie Rodgers, "I Don't Know Why I Love You" was pulled from 2003's An Interpretation of Stevie Wonder's Songs -- but most come from Mellencamp's studio albums. The notable exception is "Eyes on the Prize," a song he originally performed for President Barack Obama at the White House in 2010, here given a robust new version that sits along the rest of the oldies quite easily, playing as a slice of Americana that can also be read as protest song. Not everything on Other People's Stuff is politically charged -- Robert Johnson's "Stones in My Passway" is merely haunted, for instance -- but taken as a whole, the album can be read as a summation of what Mellencamp loves about America, which amounts to a political statement in 2018.

Track Listing

	Title/Composer	Performer	Time	Stream
1	To the River	John Mellencamp	03:32	Amazon
2	Gambling Bar Room Blues	John Mellencamp	03:14	Amazon
3	Teardrops Will Fall	John Mellencamp	04:16	Amazon
4	In My Time of Dying	John Mellencamp	03:01	Amazon
5	Mobile Blue	John Mellencamp	03:01	Amazon
6	Eyes on the Prize	John Mellencamp	02:45	Amazon
7	Dark as a Dungeon	John Mellencamp	04:10	Amazon
8	Stones in My Passway	John Mellencamp	03:13	Amazon
9	Wreck of the Old 97	John Mellencamp	03:58	Amazon
10	I Don't Know Why I Love You	John Mellencamp	03:08	Amazon