''You've Got to Stand for Somethin','' despite its title, is aggressively noncommittal, and ''Between a Laugh and a Tear'' - yet another song that insists ''Just try to live each and every precious moment'' - has a few too many cliches.Rolling Stone: 4 stars out of 5 - 'ore than just an impressive retrospective from the bard of Belmont, Indiana.

''Justice and Independence '85,'' which rocks like a mixture of the Rolling Stones' ''Brown Sugar'' and Barry McGuire's ''Eve of Destruction,'' just tosses around important-sounding words. Mellencamp admits, ''Sometimes I feel so helpless/I don't know where to start.'' And in ''The Face of a Nation,'' which has a reggae undercurrent, Mr. Mellencamp sings about riding a bus with a retired steelworker, who says, ''I earned every dollar that passed through my hands.'' The old man tells him, ''Life sweeps away the dreams/ That we have planned'' and ''Be the best you can'' Mr. In the folk-rock-flavored ''Minutes to Memories,'' Mr. Mellencamp trades his rocker's shout for a hollow voice that's well suited to such lines as ''Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm.'' ''Rain on the Scarecrow,'' a stark minor-key march, is written from the point of view of a man who has lost the family's farm to a foreclosure: ''This land fed a nation, This land made me proud/And son I'm just sorry they're just memories for you now.'' For most of the song, Mr. The intentions of ''Scarecrow'' are laudable, and the songs often follow through. Even the album's most commercial song, ''Lonely Ol' Night,'' proclaims, ''It's a sad sad feeling when you're living on those in-betweens'' as its lovers arrange a rendezvous. He wants to pay tribute to the heartland's workers, to stick up for the unglamorous life and to counsel grit and steadfastness. With ''Scarecrow,'' he is determined to make an album that's not about John Cougar Mellencamp, but about - yes - America. Mellencamp has apparently decided that he has some responsibility. While an expanding audience sometimes encourages a musician to take more money and run, Mr. Mellencamp was energetically good-hearted, performing his own songs and plugging less popular songwriters he admired, such as Britain's Richard Thompson. ''Uh-huh'' sold two million copies in concert, Mr. Mellencamp was definitely feeling his oats as the voice of the underdog. The album also had an ''America'' anthem -''Pink Houses,'' about making do with disillusionment: ''Ain't that America home of the free/Little pink houses for you and me.'' Mellencamp's revenge on elitism song after song put down authority, pomposity and hip insincerity. ''That I'm uneducated and my opinion means nothin'/But I know I'm a real good dancer/ Don't need to look over my shoulder to see what I'm after.'' ''Some people say I'm obnoxious and lazy,'' Mr. All the leaves are green All my friends are gone I'm livin' in my hometown I can barely get along I feel sorry for myself That's an easy thing to do I feel sorry for the world I feel sorry for you Yes I am a pitiful sight I can't even get one thing right I know just what it's like To be ridin' in the rumbleseat Yes I know just what it's like To. He responded with a masterstroke - the 1983 album, ''Uh-huh,'' in which he rocked even harder but no longer bothered with simple, lusty songs like his other 1982 hit, ''Hurts So Good.'' His new message was chest-thumping egalitarianism, laced with heartland pride. ''American Fool'' sold 2.9 million copies, and Mr. On his 1982 album ''American Fool,'' the song ''Jack & Diane'' insisted that after age 16, ''the thrill of living is gone.'' He described Jack and Diane as ''two American kids growin' up in the heartland'' - and when rock songwriters use the word ''American,'' they're aiming for major statements. He was something like a younger, rowdier Bob Seger. Mellencamp's music was (as it still is) basic three-chord rock, compounded of Rolling Stones guitar licks and Middle Western grit. When he sang ditties like ''I Need a Lover,'' Mr. Mellencamp is writing about failing farms and disillusioned steelworkers and he's calling songs ''Justice and Independence '85'' and ''The Face of a Nation.'' Now, on his new album, ''Scarecrow,'' Mr. What's gotten into John Cougar Mellencamp? Just a few years ago, before he reclaimed his last name, John Cougar acted like a standard-issue rock hellion - a scruffy, guitar-twanging, girl-chasing wise guy.

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