Human Wheels
| Human Wheels | ||||
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| Studio album by John Mellencamp | ||||
| Released | September 7, 1993 | |||
| Recorded | 1992–1993 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 45:17 | |||
| Label | Mercury | |||
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| John Mellencamp chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| Q | |
| Robert Christgau |  |
| Rolling Stone |
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Human Wheels is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. Released on Mercury Records in 1993, it peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard 200. The single "What If I Came Knocking" was Mellencamp's last No. 1 single on the Album Rock Tracks chart, staying atop for two weeks in the summer of 1993.
Entertainment Weekly gave the record an "A" rating, stating: "John Mellencamp's last album was more or less straight-ahead rock, but there's something dark and unshaven about his new one, 'Human Wheels.' Oddball instruments — pennywhistles, mandolins — pop up like disordered wraiths over gritty drum tracks that sound like they were recorded in a cluttered cellar. Mellencamp himself mutters and snarls in a voice of tangled complexity, worrying his way through songs about trouble."
The title track was borne out of a poem Mellencamp's friend George Green wrote as a eulogy he delivered at the grave site upon the death of his grandfather. “He had no intention of using it as a song,” Mellencamp said in a 2008 interview with the Bloomington Herald Times. “He had me read it and I said, ‘These are the best lyrics you ever wrote.’ He said, ‘They’re not lyrics’ and I said, ‘I can make them lyrics.’ I took it and kind of cut it up and wrote the chorus.” Mellencamp gave additional insight into the writing process of "Human Wheels" in a 2004 American Songwriter interview, saying: "I wrote that song without a guitar or anything. I just sang that melody. I figured out the cadence in my head, and then I went to my guitar to figure out the chords."
"To me, this record is very urban," Mellencamp told Billboard Magazine's Craig Rosen in a July 3, 1993 story. "We had a lot of discussions about the rhythm and blues music of the day. We explored what a lot of these current bands are doing—these young black bands that are doing more than just sampling.
"The rhythms in songs like 'Birmingham' or 'French Shoes' or 'Junior' are R&B, but to me R&B is the basic beat that propels the human body. Sly & the Family Stone also deserve a tip of hat here, because as a kid when I heard Sly sing 'hot fun at the country fair,' I said, 'Man, that's for me!' Years later, I saw that there was a lot more subtlety and intensity to his music than I first realized. And whether you hear the influence in Tone Loc or Arrested Development, Sly remains an undercredited inspiration in '90s rock 'n roll. He made street music, and I wanted things like 'Birmingham' to have the rhythm of the streets."
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Wikipedia