I haven't listened to John Mellencamp's Freedom Road enough times to fully form an opinion, but so far it sounds great. Based on the song titles alone (The Americans, Forgiveness, Freedom's Road, Jim Crow, Our Country), the album is clearly intended to be a political statement, the exact nature of which is difficult to discern without a lyric sheet - and you have to head to his homepage for that.
There seems little doubt, however, that the song Our Country is intended to be an anthem in the mold of This Land Is Your Land. Which presents an interesting dilemma, because as anyone who watched any of NBC's Sunday Night Football from September through season's end knows, the song also served as the theme for the latest round of advertising for Chevy Trucks. And I don't mean they played it once or twice each game. They played it literally dozens of times, nearly every commercial break, to the point where in our household it became a joke. No matter where my youngest son would be at the moment it came on - upstairs, on the toilet, in his room - he would yell out, "is that Bruce Springsteen?"
In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, there's a short interview with Mellencamp where he defends selling the song to Chevy (I don't know any other way to put it). If I recall correctly, the gist of his argument is that he has no problem with the product being advertised, and the campaign exposed his work to an audience potentially larger than any he has reached before.
The problem is, especially with a song that's intended to be seen as so progressive, is that it no longer belongs to Mellencamp. By giving it up so early in the game, he has forfeited his right as an artist to define his work in a way that he sees fit, because no one who listens to this song will be able to avoid thinking about trucks. The song no longer matters; it is no more or less important than whatever music accompanies commercials for John Deere tractors or any other Chevy or Ford product.
Which is a shame, because it is a great song.
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