John Mellencamp – I Need A Lover

My sister, who shared such classics as Down By the Lazy River by the Osmonds with me, also shared some good stuff. She liked Mellencamp before he was known as Mellencamp; she had the album Nothin’ Matters and What If It Did before the hits like “Jack and Diane” shot John to stardom. 

This song was not on that album, but she had this single back in the late seventies. Let’s rewind. In 1979, Mellencamp was still going by John Cougar, a name thrown to him by his manager in a transparent attempt to give him some glam-rock marketability. He hated it, but he played the game. The song first surfaced on A Biography, his second album, which only saw release in Australia in 1978.

When it finally hit U.S. ears via the album John Cougar a year later, it sounded like something beamed in from a Midwestern garage. The album peaked at #64 on the Billboard 100 and #77 in Canada in 1979. 

On the album version, the intro alone is a beast. Nearly three minutes of instrumental buildup, a swirling, stomping jam that sounds like an E Street Band warm-up exercise. Mellencamp makes you wait. When he finally spits out that opening line, I need a lover who won’t drive me crazy, you welcome it. 

Mellencamp would later refine his sound, focusing on heartland anthems and a few ballads. But this song is a declaration of frustration, lust, and escape. The song peaked at #28 on the Billboard 100 in 1979 after being rereleased. 

I Need A Lover

I need a lover that won’t drive me crazy(I need a lover that won’t drive me crazy)I need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl that knows the meaning of, “Hey, hit the highway”

Well, I’ve been walkin’ the streets up and downRacing through the human jungles at nightI’m so confused, my mind is indifferentHey, I’m so weak, won’t somebody shut off that light? Aw

Electricity runs through the videoAnd I watch it from this hole I call homeAnd all the stonies go dancin’ to the radioAnd I got the world callin’ me up hereTonight on the phone

I need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl to thrill me and then go awayI need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl that knows the meaning of, uh“Hey, hit the highway”

Well, I’m not wiped out by this poolroom life I’m livingI’m gonna quit this job, and go to school, or head back homeAnd I’m not askin’ to be loved or be forgivenHey, I just can’t face shakin’ in this bedroomOne more night alone

I need a lover that won’t drive me crazyI need a lover that won’t drive me crazyI need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl that knows the meaning of, uh“Hey, hit the highway”

I need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl to thrill me and then go awayI need a lover that won’t drive me crazySome girl that knows the meaning of, uh“Hey, hit the highway”You betcha

…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

46 thoughts on “John Mellencamp – I Need A Lover”

    1. I liked his heartland music in the mid eighties…but yea…I agree…you don’t hear this one every day. This one hasn’t been played to death.

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  4. Same for me it is Pat Benetar’s version I like best. But I did buy this album, I think after the Bentar release. It’s a great song and it certainly had a retro feel even back then. Oddly there’s only five versions.

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  5. First song I heard by the Cougar. I like his later stuff much better but this is a likable straight ahead rocker. Carl beat me to the punch by noting it was a very early radio hit for Pat Benatar, which at the time sounded a wee bit scandalous coming from a petit woman

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    1. I don’t think I ever heard the Benatar version but this one I knew well. I do think Ain’t Even Done With The Night is up there with his later stuff…I still love that song. I didn’t know it was rereleased like it was.

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      1. no, I assumed it was on that album which was the first one that got any attention at all (I think he did at least 2 in the mid-’70s that almost no one has heard to this day)

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      2. Yea it wasn’t on my sisters album but I didn’t know he just released one in Austraila only…and then he released this album right after that. I know the ones you are talking about….never heard them though.

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  6. Pingback: John Mellencamp – I Need A Lover – MobsterTiger

    1. This one and Ain’t Even Done With The Night…did it for me…which I think came off my sister’s album…Nothing Matters But What If It Did.

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      4. We played the song live and yours truly tried to sing it…every time I sang the lyrics “You got your hands in my back pockets And Sam Cooke’s singin’ on the radio” people would cheer. He does have some good ones.

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      5. I remember you saying that. Love those lyrics. Here’s a couple I like also. “Cuban band crucifying John Lennon”. All the lyrics to ‘Im Not Running Anymore’ especially when describing his kids. Love it.

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      6. Love that one as well! That lyric made my ears perk up lol. Rain on the Scarecrow has some really good ones on it.

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  8. I like that Mellencamp knows his roots…..seeing him (on a video) at Pete Seeger’s birthday party at Madison Square years ago (I think he did if I had a hammer) was great….man, one two day concert that I would have loved to have been at. pretty much all my faves were at that…and a lot that I didn’t reall know before. who knew that Tim Robbins and his son could sing?

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    1. That would have been fun to watch. I’ve seen something on Robbins before…I knew he was into folk music a lot.

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  10. I’ve liked John’s music since, “Hurt So Good.” I don’t like it when musicians keep changing their names, but it does help know what era the song was in. I like the ballads, which remind me of Springsteen.

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    1. Yea…this wasn’t really his choice I don’t think. He didn’t like it but it was forced on him by the record company and his stupid manager. Which the manager should have been looking out for him.
      My favorite song by him…was an early one…”Ain’t Even Done With The Night”…something about it I really like.

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    1. Yes! I’m a fellow southerner with you dude. I totally agree. His earlier stuff is worth exploring.

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  14. Great Midwest garage rock, but more polished than most. I like many of his tunes from the 90s. Little Pink Houses and so on. They grab you fast and keep your foot tapping, and once they get in your ear.

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  15. I’d say I appreciate Cougar/Mellencamp more than I’m a “fan”, IMO this is the best thing he’s ever recorded.

    A true classic that holds up well over all these decades.

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