The Kid Inside
Studio album by
John Cougar
ReleasedJanuary 27, 1983 (1983-01-27)
Recorded1977
StudioThe Hit Factory, New York City
GenreRock
LabelMainMan Records
ProducerJohn Cougar
John Cougar chronology
American Fool
(1982) 		The Kid Inside
(1983) 		Uh-Huh
(1983)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Classic Rock[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[3]

The Kid Inside is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. It was released January 27, 1983 by MainMan Records. It was recorded in 1977 for MCA Records and was intended to be the follow-up to his debut album Chestnut Street Incident, but MCA declined to release the album and dropped Mellencamp from the label. The recordings remained unreleased until 1983 when Tony Defries, Mellencamp's former manager, released the album on his own MainMan label. Defries was attempting to capitalize on the recent success of Mellencamp's breakout album American Fool, which was one of the best-selling albums of 1982 and spawned two top 5 singles.[4]

Defries' decision to release The Kid Inside in early 1983 confused many fans and even some journalists who thought it was the follow-up to American Fool, when it was really already six years old. The true follow-up to American Fool was Uh-Huh, and it was released in October 1983. This was Mellencamp's last album to be released under the name John Cougar. His next release, Uh-Huh, would be released under the name John Cougar Mellencamp.

The 2009 Cherry Red Records reissue added four bonus tracks recorded during the sessions for the album.[5]

Track listing

All songs written by John Mellencamp; except where noted.

  1. "Kid Inside" – 5:32
  2. "Take What You Want" – 3:14
  3. "Cheap Shot" – 3:53
  4. "Sidewalk and Streetlights" – 4:08
  5. "R. Gang" – 2:30
  6. "American Son" – 4:52
  7. "Gearhead" – 2:38
  8. "Young Genocides" – 2:26
  9. "Too Young to Live" – 7:45
  10. "Survive" – 4:09

1998 CD bonus tracks

  1. "The Whore" – 1:21
  2. "The Man Who Sold the World" (David Bowie) – 2:27

2009 CD bonus tracks

  1. "Skin It Back" – 4:08
  2. "Last of the Big Time Spenders" – 6:34
  3. "Whore" – 4:00
  4. "Skin It Back (Acoustic)" – 5:20

Personnel

Technical

References

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "John Cougar / John Mellencamp – The Kid Inside review". AllMusic. All Media Network. Retrieved 2016-10-19.
  2. ^ Hotten, Jon (February 2010). "John Cougar – Reissues". Classic Rock. No. 141. p. 93.
  3. ^ "John Mellencamp". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 2014-03-20.
  4. ^ Cromelin, Richard. "Cougar LP Comes Out of Closet" Los Angeles Times March 5, 1983: E1
  5. ^ "John Cougar – the Kid Inside". Discogs. 19 October 2009.



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