Words and Music is more than just an impressive retrospective from the bard of Belmont, Indiana. It's also proof positive that a man who calls himself "Little Bastard" can overcome anything — even having a dangerous "Cougar" thrust into his name.

On a number of fronts, Words and Music offers a compelling overview, including not only all the obvious hits ("Small Town," "Pink Houses," "Jack and Diane," "Hurts So Good," among them) but also two encouragingly vital new tracks ("Walk Tall" and "Thank You," both produced with Babyface) and a cherry-picked selection of lesser-known gems from the past quarter century. These songs, too, find Mellencamp at his best, sounding alternately philosophical ("Your Life Is Now"), pissed off ("Pop Singer"), horny ("Get a Leg Up") and hurt ("Teardrops Will Fall"). Say this for the Little Bastard: He fights authority, but authority doesn't always win.

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.