Viewed through the majority of his career as a "poor man's Springsteen," John Mellencamp has been haunted by his record company imposed moniker Johnny Cougar, and all the shallow pop boy-toy imagery associated with it. Since the release of his first album in 1976, this Indiana-born rock artist has made the transformation from Johnny Cougar, the tight jeans wearing pretty boy, to John Mellencamp, a serious artist who still doesn't always get respect. Acknowledging this fact, Mellencamp once said during a VH1 documentary on his life, "It's never been cool to like John Cougar Mellencamp." Nonetheless, since the release of 1985's Scarecrow, Mellencamp has carved out a niche for himself as one of America's great, unpretentious songwriters that can accurately reflect the social moods of the time, though he would be the last to recognize that title. If music critics have been harsh, then Mellencamp...