YOU RANK ME BABY, YEAH YOU RATE ME 1-2 - ILM Artist Poll #71 - Tom Petty (results)

http://i.imgur.com/mrMRRSY.jpg

22 ballots received
113 tracks and 18 albums voted for

Small sample, but 100% headz as demonstrated by the broad distribution of track and album votes

pre-ballot discussion for posterity: I'M PREEE... PRE-POLLIN' - ILM Artist Poll #71 - Tom Petty (discussion/lobbying)

Tonight we poll, right or wrong.

TOM PETTY POLL RESULTS PART ONE: THE ALBUMS

• 16 ballots
• 18 albums receiving votes

5. Southern Accents - 27 points (statistical tie - 5 votes, two #1 votes)

http://i.imgur.com/mZ0Vd1i.jpg

"When asked about Southern Accents..., Petty says quietly, "When I hear that one, I can taste cocaine in the back of my mouth."

nice showing for a dark horse, glad i threw it a vote

On the cover image:

Painted through the summer and fall of 1865, not long after the nation came to grips with Robert E. Lee's surrender and mourned President Lincoln's assassination—both of which occurred during the second week of April—Homer's canvas shows an emblematic farmer who is a Union veteran, as is signified by his discarded jacket and canteen at the lower right. The painting seems to blend several related narratives. Most soldiers had been farmers before the Civil War. This man, who has returned to his field, holds an old-fashioned scythe that evokes the Grim Reaper, recalls the war's harvest of death, and expresses grief upon Lincoln's murder. The redemptive feature is the bountiful wheat—a Northern crop—which could connote the Union's victory. With its dual references to death and life, Homer's iconic composition offers a powerful meditation on America's sacrifices and its potential for recovery.

Not sure if Petty knew all that and did it deliberately? I've always thought it was a weird cover, because pastoralism aside it doesn't signify South in any way.

maybe he was ceding victory to Springsteen

5. Wildflowers - 28 points (statistical tie - 7 votes, one #1 vote)

http://i.imgur.com/01KeAS1.jpg

"When Wildflowers came out," says Rick Rubin, “and it did as well as it did – and it did really well – I remember being a little surprised. And I think the reason I was surprised has to do with the idea of a grown-up making a good record.”

gotta help a friend with a thing... album rollout continues in a couple hours!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-O5UlBuSHY

4. Full Moon Fever - 44 points (7 votes, two #1 votes)

http://i.imgur.com/S9nR6yT.jpg

"It was a little bit of a lark, really, done very quickly. But then, as we were making it, it felt so good to me. There was a looseness there that you can’t force. You can only hope that it comes around every now and then. And it did."

3. Hard Promises – 49 points (11 votes, no #1 votes)

http://i.imgur.com/rfhSPX3.jpg

Iovine thought they'd topped Damn the Torpedoes. "I'll be honest with you," he says. "That album changed me. I thought 'The Waiting' was bigger than 'Refugee.' So when it wasn't a hit, a real hit, it killed me. It was devastating. I felt it was as good as anything I'd ever been near."

Last DJ is gonna take this, huh?

coulda been a lock if it had a few more tracks like "dreamville" and "have love will travel"

I thought 'The Waiting' ... was as good as anything I'd ever been near.

petty otm.

haha sorry it wasn't more clear: that's Iovine

the Hard Promises singles got shafted in the radio era bc program directors already had "stop draggin' my heart around" in heavy rotation

should have said "AOR era" really

2. Long After Dark – 60 points (10 votes, one #1 vote)

http://i.imgur.com/KzmHmC6.jpg

Petty: "When I hear it now, it's much better than I thought it was… It's a good little rock'n'roll record with good songs and good playing. But I don't know that we advanced a lot on that record.

my #1!

I know they were exposed to reggae early on via denny cordell, and put the skank into "depot street" in a novelty way, but imo this is the record you can really hear it on

Iovine seems like a pretty intense dude

So far this has mirrored my album ballot, except I had the s/t debut as my #5.

I picked up LAD for this poll and I'm not quite getting the love.

Petty's description pretty otm..."good".

This Rolling Stone interview with Jimmy Iovine is a must-read. His stories of working with John Lennon, Springsteen and Tom Petty are guaranteed to please anyone visiting this thread.

I think some of the love is related to the record's perception as a failure, which it's not. It's a solid record with (imho!) a not-great lead single and some exceptional tracks that headz may see as overlooked.

On the one hand it's much less of a mess than Let Me Up, but it's so tight that it can sound a bit samey, like a band that knows what it does so well and is so locked in on that that there's not a lot of room to breathe. In a weird way it's like their "rattle and hum" -- they've taken the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers thing as far as it can go and it's either change or die.

Enter Dave Stewart! Tho maybe it would have turned out better if they'd all gone to Berlin...

dun dun DUH

1. Damn the Torpedoes – 110 points (14 votes, nine #1 votes)

http://i.imgur.com/r0HrAAn.jpg

Iovine: "It's the best-sounding album I ever did. And there wasn't one fucking thing on my mind the entire time we made it. Just that. I was totally single-minded. I've never been the same way in anything I've ever done after."

very interesting bit from the Iovine interview:

"Tom Petty has a voice that sounds like a guitar. If you don't create an environment for it, it sounds small. It's like building the right set for a movie, where you move everything around him, through layers of echo. And in those days, there was no digital delay. It was tapes and 12 hands on the console, mixing."

I had Long After Dark #1 as well?

ugh that's on me - point total is correct and the spreadsheet captures #1 votes - it was a cut/paste error :(

some dude that bit is extra-interesting given that petty went dry for full moon fever (lynne's preference) and has stayed with it since

Petty's voice really is a temperamental thing. there are a lot of songs that i came across that were musically/lyrically strong but his voice had an annoying tone on the chorus or something and i just couldn't get into it.

lol that reminds me that rob sheffield had petty second worst singer all time - http://www.villagevoice.com/music/nobody-can-touch-him-6397466

I know there are raps on Petty as a singer, but his singing is one of my favorite things about him, so I guess I just don't hear whatever the detractors do.

Like I said in the noms thread, if like me you discovered Petty after 1987 the way he sounds on those early singles takes...getting used to.

Wow @ Long After Dark charting this high.

Iovine thought they'd topped Damn the Torpedoes. "I'll be honest with you," he says. "That album changed me. I thought 'The Waiting' was bigger than 'Refugee.' So when it wasn't a hit, a real hit, it killed me. It was devastating. I felt it was as good as anything I'd ever been near."

Mike Campbell said in the doc that "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" killed the momentum for "A Woman in Love" and the album.

f like me you discovered Petty after 1987 the way he sounds on those early singles takes...getting used to.

I can kind of understand, it's just hard for me to hear it in that order. To me the later voice is just a natural extension of the earlier voice. And I really love the raw yelp on, like, "I Need to Know." It's almost punky.

I probably would have said Hard Promises going into this, but I really found Long After Dark to be one of his more consistent releases when putting my ballot together.

or Damn The Torpedoe's rather. ugh posting in the am.

Re: "Punky"--That reminds me of another thing I learned from the Petty "Behind The Music": In '77, Shelter tried to break him in the UK as a 'Punk/New Wave' guy, which kind of makes sense as he lined up well with the Pub Rock guys (Graham Parker, Edmunds-Lowe*-Rockpile, even Costello).

*Either of whom might have been better producer picks than Stewart.

yeah he did very well on early kroq, which ok he was doing well on pretty much any rock station circa 81, but he was still getting airplay from them even after they'd completely made the transition to modern rock and ac/dc and seger were way in the past. i can kinda see it and wonder if that aspect of him helps explain why he thrived when alt-rock hit while mellencamp and esp springsteen suffered (or for that matter why he kinda dips when those two hit their commercial peak).

Wow, yeah. I hadn't made the corollary between Petty's mid eighties slump and Mellencamp and Springteen's commercial peaks.

No one has asked him what might've happened if he hadn't hooked up with Lynne?

His move through producers post-Iovine is interesting. He was obviously looking for new ways of doing things. I think Rick Rubin was the best match, but Lynne was weirdly in tune with the late '80s pop market. (I say weirdly because it's not like anyone would have predicted in 1983 that the ELO guy would be a major presence five years on.)

Wonder if his Dave Edmunds album would've been a bigger hit in 1989.

TOM PETTY POLL RESULTS PART ONE: THE TRACKS

• 22 ballots
• 113 tracks receiving votes

um, PART TWO dammit

counting down top 40 tracks, with ties sharing a slot in the interest of inclusiveness

i got a poll at the top of the world tonight

Even POLLS Count Down

Here comes my POLL

http://i.imgur.com/OuB8elM.png

40. Casa Dega - 60 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/U6wAR1rVbLs

kickin' off with a b-side, i like it!

Petty: Cassadaga is this really odd place in Florida that is filled with fortune-tellers. There are all kinds of psychics and fortune-tellers in the whole town. It's this really small place. And I wrote that by putting myself in the mind of someone who went to Cassadaga. Though I spelled it wrong..."

Dunno if it still exists tbh

xpost w/Today I Learned on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassadaga,_Florida

Cassadaga (a Seneca Indian word meaning "Water beneath the rocks") is a small unincorporated community located in Volusia County, Florida, just north of Deltona. It is especially known for having a large number of psychics and mediums, and has consequently been named the "Psychic Capital of the World". [sic]

http://i.imgur.com/gUYh1Vp.jpg

39 (TIE). A One Story Town - 63 points (3 votes)
http://youtu.be/T9dZSFX5Z8M

yeah!

love the hooky lead guitar wail on the chorus

nice! love em both

re: that wailing guitar, I really really wonder what petty's career might have looked like if he'd gone solo (as the label wanted) rather than stick with the gainesville guys who became the Heartbreakers. impossible to say, but i suspect it would have been much smaller. campbell's leads really function as a second vocal, to the extent that most of the tracks are nearly impossible to hum without including his fills.

http://i.imgur.com/tzbfP6z.jpg

39 (TIE). Kings Highway - 63 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/OdqDeBzqlP0

back from rio > into the great wide open

zuh i don't know why i thought jeff lynne was involved in the former

well tom and the heartbreakers are on it, anyways

great ending on "Kings Highway," those guys know how to end a song

kings highway's a good'un. couldn't quite make my ballot but i'm really happy to see it place. seems like it would have a lot of potential if anyone still made mixtapes lol

http://i.imgur.com/FUuirUi.jpg

38. A Thing About You - 70 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/hDRQ1glcEcs

another one i really like that didn't quite fit onto my ballot

fucking love "Kings Highway." Got lots of airplay fall '91. I'm sorry ITGWO didn't make the album shortlist.

i don't recall ever hearing it on the radio in NYC or LA. just "learning to fly" and "into the great wide open" over and over. if they'd played "kings highway" i might have bought that one!

http://i.imgur.com/XwuH1zw.jpg

37. A Face in the Crowd - 71 points (3 votes)
http://youtu.be/z_umeMtV4QU

"Kings Highway" and (especially) "Out in the Cold" were in constant AOR rotation in late '91 and early '92.

Love that 12-string arpeggiated hook!

I used to think "Out In The Cold" was one of their early songs--our Classic Rock Station at the time used to add new songs by "Classic" artists to the rotation, and that one got alot of play.

...and Petty hates it, according to the Zollo book.

http://i.imgur.com/1ljT7vB.jpg

36. Something Big - 79 points (3 votes)
http://youtu.be/5wIOhq1J89c

(last one for the evening. we'll cover more ground tomorrow)

TOO LOW!

"A Face In The Crowd" way too low -- it was in my top 10!! People really don't rate this song? I think it's the best track on FMF.

i noticed while putting my ballot together how many "A _____" song titles Petty has, funny that they make up 3 of the 6 songs unveiled so far.

"Face" is one of those songs that was a rock radio staple in the '90s that has faded away since then, i used to dig it but it never got near my ballot

I didn't vote for any Full Moon Fever songs. It was the first cd I ever sold off (to one of my teachers who was a Jimmy Buffett fanatic).

FMF was my #2 album (my #1 was the Through the Years anthology).

I was really surprised when Wildflowers came out and was excellent because I'd found the Jeff Lynne era so boring.

had two post-Lynne albums in my top five.

Everything about Jeff Lynne production is indeed super boring, but many of the songs on FMF are among Petty's best and succeed despite being LYNNE'D!

Can't say the same for ItGWO.

GTFO

I only put one Lynne-era track on my ballot (but King's Highway would have made my top 30).

Of the roll-out so far only voted for "A Thing About You," which is one of my favorite TP rave-ups. But much love "One Story Town" and "Something Big."

i think the 80s Lynne production works better on some songs than others (and more often w/ Wilburys than w/ Petty solo) but there are some undeniable songs from that era (3 on my ballot). the new ELO album is really good and manages to fuse the '80s Lynne sound with the classic ELO sound and somehow not come off totally dated.

I don't find the Lynne production obtrusive, and to my ears it wasn't like Petty traveled a great distance from 'Runaway Trains' to 'Love Is A Long Road'.

"Something Big" was one of the toughest cuts on my ballot. Great song, great phrasing on the vocal... I get why Dylan liked it so much...

http://i.imgur.com/scf4n9E.jpg

35. Time to Move On - 84 points (3 votes)
http://youtu.be/u5o582N3wOQ

in middle school, the year Wildflowers was released, i took an elective music class that was partly about movie musicals and we had a group project where we'd basically take songs we liked and 'wrote' a 'musical' picking songs that tied into the plot. i barely remember what songs i picked, but i remember one of the kids in our group, James, picked "Time To Move On" and that was part of the denouement at the end of the story.

here are the Cougartown episodes named after "Something Big" and "Time To Move On":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl2IrXKqfvE
http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-5/episode-7/time-to-move-on.html

lol someone was going to go there eventually

and "A One Story Town":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaCccRdsKCU

[b]Petty[/]: [i]there's a really funny line in it: "nauseous adrenaline/Like breaking up a dogfight." [Laughs] I was really pleased with that. To get those lines into a song that's pretty was really hard. [Laughs] But it worked out really nice.

holy hell bbcode

http://i.imgur.com/tfqMH3d.jpg

34. The Wild One, Forever - 85 points (5 votes)
http://youtu.be/UbdlHgyIZfM

the first song i voted for to make the big list!

Cougar Town!
http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-6/episode-7/the-wild-one-forever.html

Time To Move On was real high on my ballot. One Story Town and A Thing About You as well. One Story Town should have been the single, if not for the "shit" in the chorus.

Excellent rollout

Will any post-Wildflowers tracks make it in?

i voted for 2!

so did I!

Same.

the first song i voted for to make the big list!

― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Sunday, December 13, 2015

me too. I think we said all there is to say [heh] on the nominations thread but i love "the wild one, forever" in spite of its unfinished quality (and i take tipsy mothra's point that in this case the form reflects the content, if not intentionally.)

Per Petty, he was going for "a chorus like The Rascals would have done," which I find charming.

http://i.imgur.com/mUVcB0f.jpg

33. Nightwatchman - 88 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/k4zL5vPs7Ho

We sure love Hard Promises!

so, anybody else like Roger McGuinn's 1991 album Back to Rio? Solid collection of songs, tom and the heartbreakers are all over it, iirc

gah back FROM rio

http://i.imgur.com/rls8MbP.jpg

32. Love is a Long Road - 93 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/ZfS6Nl962Qg

I didn't know if this was gonna make it, love this song.

I suspect the opening synth figure is what anti-Lynneists have in mind.

nah, I'm anti-Lynne and I dig it. the change make this one. like, when it finally gets to the G as it rounds into the chorus.

also the way he changes up the melody on "maybe one more chance"

That was my #11. I really rate those deeper FMF cuts a lot higher than some people, clearly.

Driving home through rural Texas after a rainstorm, listening to Wildflowers, which is sounding soooo great in such a context.

it is a great-sounding record. two years of long hours in the studio for tom, rick, mike and a few others.

in the zollo book petty says "I think it's maybe my favorite LP that I've ever done... that's the one that really gets me when I hear it. I can kind of go, 'Wow, I'm really proud of that. That came out exactly like I wanted it to."

http://i.imgur.com/1CYAnHn.jpg

31. Walls - 104 points (5 votes - 1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
http://youtu.be/ZfS6Nl962Qg

great song

Love Is a Long Road was my #3, and I'm largely anti-Lynne, but it's one of Tom's best songs and I can't imagine it sounding any different than it does.

i let my hatred of edward burns blind me to "Walls" when it came out but I'm glad I got to hear it again for this poll. just a straight-up great song, with or without lindsey buckingham

Petty:
I wrote that for the movie at the Chicken Shack [Ed - his post-divorce bachelor pad in Pacific Palisades, more or less a log cabin with actual chickens]... I think what kicked it off was Johny Cash said to me one day, "Some days are diamonds and some days are rocks." And I took that line, and wrote the song...

[Lindsey came up with the harmonies]. Yeah, it was all him. He came down and did it in one session. I kind of just sat back and watched him go. Just going, "Yep - that's what I would've done!" [Laughs]

wrong link for "Love Is A Long Road."

Casa Dega is so good

wrong link for "Love Is A Long Road."

― welltris (crüt), Sunday, December 13, 2015

balls! thanks for the heads-up.

"LOVE IS A LONG ROAD," CORRECT LINK: http://youtu.be/qOpuB5aSVF4

just checked my master sheet and it's correct there so I don't even know how that snuck in!

I was the shoutout for "Walls #3": It was the version I fell in love with on the radio. One night the DJ talked about how there was another version of the song; he played the openings of both, before deciding on-air that #3 was the 'correct' version and would be the one they'd continue to play.

'Circus' was the version in the video so i think of that as the main version and the other as the remix or whatever. not really sure which i prefer, but i'm kind of indifferent to the song overall. "Hope You Never" was the She's The One track that stuck with me.

Bucky is also on "Climb That Hill" and "Asshole", because nothing quite says "1996" like Lindsey Buckingham harmonizing on a Beck obscurity in a Edward Burns movie.

She's The One the album is quality goods.

Remembering how much I like "Walls" was my favorite thing about this poll.

http://i.imgur.com/76JHFgz.jpg

30. Dogs on the Run - 113 points (5 votes)
Original recording: http://youtu.be/x19fW4yC324
Live, 2014: http://youtu.be/bTBTBNx4NZU

lovely song, i'm sitting here listening to it like "maybe i should've voted for this"

Good lord.

Love the photo.

This is one of my faves, a compact epic with some of his best Dylanisms. "She would laugh and light my cigar-ETTE..."

Great Stan Lynch work on this one, too.

Why wasn't Dogs On The Run a single with a cool video? Anything would have been better than Forget About Me.

I'm going to have to listen to some Tom Petty tomorrow, I think.

Can I say how much I love his satellite radio show?

Super worried I'm going to buy a Rickenbacker, tbh.

worse things could happen to a person. what's your amp situation?

tipsy OTM re: dogs on the run dylanisms and percussion. campbell's only writing credit on Southern Accents and maybe only the fourth or fifth best track on the record, but the one I'm fondest of. his lead line on the chorus makes the track, and the variation he works on that melody is gorgeous when it comes.

maybe only the fourth or fifth best track on the record,

man you are overselling it

xpost Nothing to do the Rick justice. Just a 1980 Princeton.

great amp imo! i had a '79 for a while. cleanest 12 watts ever :)

man you are overselling it

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, December 14, 2015

lol i have no idea how to read this

http://i.imgur.com/2jpWE38.jpg

29. You Don't Know How It Feels - 123 points (5 votes)
http://youtu.be/9TlBTPITo1I

huh this is lower than I thought it would be

the absolute last time in human history that a guy playing harmonica and acoustic guitar at the same time was a top 40 hit that was relatively popular with teens

the Cougar Town episode:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZarHWH9oRZI

lol I'm not going to check but I believe that

i mean maybe John Mayer did something i'm forgetting

one thing I'm really noticing is how hard it is to find candid images of petty or the Heartbreakers. Lots of promo and live shots but very few unguarded moments.

https://i.imgur.com/IgcGNUk.jpg

28. Insider - 129 points (6 votes)
http://youtu.be/x7bjXWzms5I

Wow!

this should've been the Petty-Nicks single, not goddamn "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"

Nah, "Stop Draggin'" is the hit. But "Insider" goes a lot deeper, obv.

My #2 and my first TOO LOW

great story about those two tracks tho. "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" was a near-finished Heartbreakers track when they dubbed Stevie's vocal on top and put it on Bella Donna. iirc Stan still holds a grudge that Tom gave it away. On the flip side, Tom wrote "Insider" for Stevie and just couldn't let it go.

never got the love for "Stop Draggin' -- drag is precisely what this generic blooze does.

Petty
...so I finally wrote her this song called "Insider" and I brought it down and Jimmy [Iovine] just flipped over the song... He asked for a song. He was going to produce [Bella Donna]. He wanted one desperately. I remember bringing it to him, and he said, "God, when I asked for a song I didn't expect this!" And I was really attached to it. And it really hurt me when I did the track and the vocals. And I said, [softly], "Stevie, I can't give you this." And she said, "Well, I can relate to that. I completely understand. I'll take something else..."

xp

Now now, this doesn't have to be the big get even.

why does it have to be one? Stevie & Tom together are just amazing; Stop Draggin' My Heart Around & Insider make me wish they had a whole album.
plus the chorus on Stop Draggin is unreal.

hear hear. I'd love for them to cut a record together ~now~

http://i.imgur.com/nyMQWOM.jpg

27. Runaway Trains - 135 points (7 votes)
http://youtu.be/TOTkw5om5QY

last year Stevie released an album of decades-old unreleased material, and it included a Petty co-write:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0K9uH-zpc

and another written w/ Mike Campbell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m57tHMuK7Bw

she and Campbell co-wrote this fine late period tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNLQpeXfXww

well I see my vote stuffing efforts (#5) didn't go so far. My favorite Petty deep cut.
It seems like this is the song that Adam Granduciel hears in his head.

i'm a huge stan for runaway trains. very much a campbell track (ben and stan were both not thrilled with how little room campbell's demo gave them to breathe) and very much petty not missing out on another "boys of summer" but even so...

the little Very Mike Campbell licks at 3:45-3:55 are just crushingly good. great vocal performance too.

http://i.imgur.com/A8J9Qku.jpg

26 (TIE). Southern Accents - 138 points (6 votes)
http://youtu.be/qTi6x_ADjqs

Pretty tune, but so hokey. I liked it more before I actually moved to the South.

"You don't know how it feels".. Love it, voted for it. It's strengthened in the album context. Thought petty was a badass (I was 12) for explicitly mentioning pot. It's a great "walking into a crowded bar feeling cool" song, ime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSJqe1h8qAQ

the hokeyness of southern accents works better for me than the last verse of rebels. and i really dig the trick he plays with the bridge and final verse, going in medias res for the middle eight, then backing out to set the scene after the fact.

also i kinda love that pic. byrds fetish in full effect even in mudcrutch days!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/NotoriousByrdBrothers.jpg/440px-NotoriousByrdBrothers.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/vc80GQq.jpg

26 (TIE). Mary Jane's Last Dance - 138 points (7 votes)
http://youtu.be/aowSGxim_O8

Oh my my, oh hell yes

I wonder how much of his longevity can be attributed to Petty's enthusiastic embrace of videos as a format, his career fortunes track pretty closely to the rise and fall of video culture

Like it more now than I did then.

I wonder how much of his longevity can be attributed to Petty's enthusiastic embrace of videos as a format, his career fortunes track pretty closely to the rise and fall of video culture

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 15 December 2015 00:15 (4 minutes ago) Permalink

Also his willingness to be a low-key, amused weirdo in his videos instead of an aging guy doing rock star moves.

yeah they're all very narrative-driven, with him as the narrator but not necessarily the "star"

for a tossed-off track thrown onto a greatest hits collection, "last dance" has proven to be astonishingly durable. a lot of guitar players have driven themselves nuts chasing that tone (probably AC30 but not documented afaik)

does anyone else hear it as an older, wearier "american girl"?

Re: music videos, it's really amazing how petty navigated multiple decades, managing to be both "classic rock" and "new wave" (as confusing as that term was in the late 70s), kinda fusing it almost

I assumed that everyone loved it, and that it would cruise into the top ten.

i loved "Mary Jane's Last Dance" at the time, it definitely helped motivate me to by the Greatest Hits CD, but it just barely made it onto the tail end of my ballot. it amused me that another Rick Rubin-produced hit (RHCP's "Dani California") was widely thought to be distractingly similar to "Last Dance" but Rubin is so famously hands-off about the actual songwriting that nobody even bothered to fault him for it.

http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-6/episode-13/mary-janes-last-dance.html

http://i.imgur.com/dCMnivd.jpg

25. Learning to Fly - 143 points (8 votes)
http://youtu.be/s5BJXwNeKsQ

xpost Looks like consensus is Tele/Nocaster (Campbell's guitar) played by Petty through an AC30.

happy that "Learning To Fly" showed up, i was starting to worry it wouldn't after several other '90s singles already placed. i swear that like 30 different country hits in the past decade have the same chords as "Learning," so many Petty vibes on country radio.

http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-5/episode-6/learning-to-fly.html

those into the great wide open singles are so slow

For some reason I think Lana Del Rey could do a good "MJLD" cover.

In Shakey, McDonough says that "YDKHIF" is the "Great Ersatz [Neil Young] record. It is like everything you wished Young's later laid-back stuff would be like.

I didn't vote for either. Both good though.

for all the talk of Lynnenification on those early '90s albums "Learning to Fly" sure sounds a lot like an Eagles tune.

The Eagles would never have that great of a drum break.

it amuses me that "Learn[ing] To Fly" is the title of one of the most innocuous radio staples by Tom Petty, Pink Floyd, AND Foo Fighters.

Dave Grohl said at the time that his "Learn..." song was an attempt to write a Petty-style Rockin' Pop track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYhYOdsqK5Y

I've always wondered if Paul Westerberg was amused or annoyed by the blatant thievery of the "rebel without a clue" line.

Oh wait, that's on Into the Great Wide Open, isn't it? I always confuse those two songs -- same laid-back midtempo vibe.

that's "into the great wide open" and it's one of the reasons I don't love it

"learning to fly" has grown on me a lot though. apparently my allergy to that shiny acoustic rhythm track has eased up.

Going from "rebel without a cause" to "rebel without a clue" isn't much of a clever leap or anything. If Westerberg was the first to ever do it I'd be surprised.

Apparently Jim Steinman did it first, though I doubt Westerberg stole it from him. Right, not hard to come up with. But Petty was touring with the Replacements when that was their quasi-hit, there's no way he didn't pick it up from them. Not that it matters much, it was just a little weird.

From an AV Club Westerberg interview: I'd steal something back from him, if I could find something I liked.

quality zing but also LIES

For some reason, I really hate that descending 3-chord progression during the 'rebel without a clue' part. I blame smash mouth.

Paul knows he stole it from somewhere too.

"Learning to Fly" may be my absolute least favorite of Petty's hits. Something about it just feels so lazy to me, and not in the good way.

Thematically and musically, it feels like the rebound of "Free Fallin'."

there's a song on ITGWO called "All the Wrong Reasons" that's closer to a "Free Fallin'" retread.

xp It seems like it takes all the worst elements of that and "I Won't Back Down" and combines them in the least effective ways. I know when he worked with Lynne the whole idea was to work in a different, more spontaneous way and not overthink everything, but LTF just doesn't work for me. (Actually the whole ITGWO album is my least favorite.)

https://i.imgur.com/GyhNrKG.jpg

24. Wildflowers - 155 points (9 votes)
http://youtu.be/AldoDm2bV04

Love this. It's one I find myself singing in my head a lot. One of those deceptively simple songs that felt classic the first time I heard it.

so fun to play on the guitar

nice song. i don't really rate Wildflowers, but if Petty had had to make it 20 minutes shorter to fit on vinyl it would've been pretty strong. the '90s gave us so many overlong CDs from people who used to make concise albums.

Completely arbitrary recap:

40. Casa Dega
39. A One Story Town (tied)
39. Kings Highway (tied)
38. A Thing About You
37. A Face in the Crowd
36. Something Big
35. Time to Move On
34. The Wild One, Forever
33. Nightwatchman
32. Love is a Long Road
31. Walls
30. Dogs on the Run
29. You Don’t Know How It Feels
28. Insider
27. Runaway Trains
26. Southern Accents (tied)
26. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (tied)
25. Learning To Fly
24. Wildflowers

a lot of songs I don't know at all so far tbh

listen to em! they're good!

Based on the middling placement of Runaway Trains, it would appear that the Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) album is gonna get robbed.

Anyone doing a spotify list yet?

Based on the middling placement of Runaway Trains, it would appear that the Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) album is gonna get robbed.

― kornrulez6969,

"Jammin' Me" might show.

I had the same reaction to "Wildflowers" the moment I heard it: it's a classic. Apparently he wrote and recorded it in one sitting.

spotify list goes up when we hit 21 :-)

http://i.imgur.com/nKZqMnV.jpg

23. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid) - 156 points (6 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/1pdscKJp_58

Apparently he wrote and recorded it in one sitting.

it sounds like it. it seems unlikely that a line like "who compaaaaaaaaaaares with you" would've survived a second sitting. fucking love this song. the wild flowers, forever.

Surprised "Shadow of a Doubt" is so high, but I guess that one #1 vote gave it a kick. I didn't vote for it, but it's pretty great. (If I was gonna vote for a non-hit from Torpedoes, I would've gone with "Louisiana Rain," which is the Dirty South song Southern Accents never matched.)

"shadow of a doubt" snuck up higher on my ballot than I expected, but I wasn't the #1. great representative of the "don't bore us, get to the chorus!" ethos and a nice little rocker.

http://i.imgur.com/IIm4aTb.jpg

22. Yer So Bad - 157 points (7 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/WdRViFCvvUo

http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-6/episode-10/yer-so-bad.html

had no idea there was so much love for "yer so bad." i don't think i ever even realized it was a single with a video and everything...

http://i.imgur.com/RCwIst2.jpg

21. Crawling Back to You - 170 points (7 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/gxsKi9MD6Bs

god I love this song

is the highest charting song recorded in 1994?

man you guys really like this post-FMF stuff

lotta Wildflowers, still holding out hope that "You Wreck Me" made the cut

man you guys really like this post-FMF stuff

― Οὖτις,

Lots of it is better than stuff on FMF though (and better than some eighties stuff).

iirc Wildflowers is generally considered to be a pretty good record?

oh yeah

right. what Alfred said. like "yer so bad" at 22 is a lot more baffling to me personally.

I didn't vote so I can't complain but "Shadow of a Doubt" TOO LOW

"Yer So Bad" was #16 on my ballot. Would much rather hear it then most of the other FMF singles!

it also pulled a #1 and a #2, so you're in good company!

placing ahead of Insider though... all the proof you'll ever need that your poll-runner has not tampered with the results

did not vote but I'm pretty sure crawling back to you would've been my #1

http://i.imgur.com/e1xlJQy.jpg

20. I Need To Know - 171 points (9 votes)
http://youtu.be/lBuIM-ekVjA

that was the one i felt most conflicted about cutting from my ballot, so i'm glad it did well without my help

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7brDWa7xCg

Like how Campbell appears to be looking at Lynch like, "Uh, I think you have gum in your hair" on that sleeve.

This is the closest so far to matching my own ballot choice -- #18.

I looooove "I Need to Know." Lookit the ROCK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBuIM-ekVjA

Stan Lynch looks like your lesbian big sis in so many of the early pictures.

RECAP

40. Casa Dega
39. A One Story Town (tied)
39. Kings Highway (tied)
38. A Thing About You
37. A Face in the Crowd
36. Something Big
35. Time to Move On

34. The Wild One, Forever
33. Nightwatchman
32. Love is a Long Road
31. Walls (1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
30. Dogs on the Run

29. You Don’t Know How It Feels
28. Insider
27. Runaway Trains
26. Southern Accents (tied)
26. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (tied)

25. Learning To Fly (1 shoutout for Live w/Stevie Nicks)
24. Wildflowers
23. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
22. Yer So Bad
21. Crawling Back to You
20. I Need To Know

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: http://open.spotify.com/user/dustradio/playlist/2VZLJQ5wrhbDspcOy9Y0mR

man you guys really like this post-FMF stuff

Full Moon Fever, Into The Great Wide Open, Wildflowers and maybe She's The One all feel like the same era - sort of the commercial renaissance.

Not sure if anything post-1996 is going to place at this point.

LIKE BENNY GOODMAN!

HE'S...THE LAST...DJ

But seriously...I found my copy of Echo after sending in my ballot. "Accused oF Love" and "This One's For Me" are among his best fake Byrds tracks.

http://i.imgur.com/83bSUX5.png

19. I Won't Back Down - 177 points (8 votes)
http://youtu.be/nvlTJrNJ5lA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGmEcmR7X0k

yeah I don't have anything to say about "I won't back down" either

here's one: George Harrison's awfully good at harmonies, isn't he?

According to Wikipedia: "A message of defiance against unnamed forces of difficulty and possibly oppression, the lyric is set against a mid-tempo beat:"

im not a big fan of the johnny cash arrangement, but the song does seem tailor-made for him.

some arrangements are diamonds, some arrangements are rocks

here's one: George Harrison's awfully good at harmonies, isn't he?

yeah and petty's big on them. there's a reason Campbell doesn't get a mic, and Howie Epstein got the gig with his voice not his bass.

http://i.imgur.com/htAsSRa.jpg

18. You Wreck Me - 181 points (8 votes)
http://youtu.be/B8m5p6V_NPQ

Yay. It's like he and Mike said, hey let's write a rocker like we usedta do.

pretty much!

Petty
That was one that I really felt like it paid off. When you're writing a fast rock'n'roll song, that's one of the most difficult things to do... It's not where you're drawn to when you're gonna write. You tend to find yourself going to the minor chords, and going to the slower tempos. But to write an uptempo rock'n'roll song, and have it work, God, that's such a huge payoff...

[Mike] had completely mapped out the chords and the arrangement. I just had to find a tune and lyrics for it... [and] Ferrone's playing on it blows my mind. I mean, I've heard drum machines that can't do that! ... I still marvel when I hear it on the radio: "Damn, is that us? Did we do that?"

i'm as big a campbell stan as we have around here but I also gotta say Tom's phrasing in the vocal on this one (and really all over Wildflowers) is really exceptional. the sessions were 180 degrees from Lynne, a ton of meticulous takes, but Rubin got him on some deep shit. wherever those performances came from, I want some of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgl1VER_Pz4

i always have to go back and listen to "Yer So Bad" trying to remember what it sounds like and then i hear it and go, oh yeah, it's not very good, nevermind. "Michelle" is the Beatles song i always have that relationship with.

Didn't Stan sing harmony, at least early on?

"You Wreck Me" is good, but it's basically his cleaned up AC/DC. A la:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bP6aVG6L1w

Yes, he did. He sang them all until Howie came, after which Howie dealt with the high end.

The drumming on You Wreck Me is what makes it NOT sound like early Heartbreakers, for sure. I'm a Stan stan, but he didn't have that precision or power.

precision, no; power, yes. That's what Petty loved about Lynch.

Different kind of power, though. Lynch is more locomotive than explosive.

http://i.imgur.com/fRllr8U.jpg

17. Runnin' Down a Dream - 188 points (8 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/Y1D3a5eDJIs

Petty
The most incredible thing about that one to me, which to this day amazes me, was the solo at the end... There was no one there but me, Mike, and Jeff… Mike was just sitting there with his head down, and that bit came, and he started to play. And he played that incredible solo. But he looked like a stone statue. He didn't ever blink or move. And he had his back to us. I remember Jeff looking back at me, making this face, like, "Is he really doing this?"

It was one take. One take.

wooooow. that's an awesome story. my one FMF vote.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QutOcNIQBg

http://i.imgur.com/oiZAMvB.jpg

16. Free Fallin' – 199 points (9 votes)
http://youtu.be/1lWJXDG2i0A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYCHnDUQki0

WOW! That is legitimately surprising. I figured Free Fallin was a mortal lock for the top ten.

Didn't vote for it

free ballin'

My one FMF vote. Overplayed and all, but the only thing on that album that resonates for me. Personal connection: The day I told my terrible boss that I would be leaving my first post-college professional job to move out of state -- with no job lined up to go to and no place even to live -- I went out to the parking lot, started the car, and this was on the radio.

xp me neither

Like, I don't hate it, but at this point I like the memory of when the song was new and fresh more than I like the actual song, I guess?

Love Is A Long Road was my lone FMF track.

one of the great LA songs imo.

Lynne's polish fits, and even though looking at the lyric sheet its sense of place shouldn't add up to more than a little name-checking, Petty somehow works Mulholland Drive and Ventura Boulevard into myth like he did for U.S. Route 441.

I take Phil D's point a lot but somehow when I hear this one it doesn't fail to remind me of when it was new and fresh.

http://i.imgur.com/Y8CDJgL.jpg

15. Rebels – 200 points (9 votes)
Original: https://screen.yahoo.com/rebels-103736884.html
Live Aid: http://youtu.be/6RN7lv9Xn2I

Love the rhythm guitar sound on 'Rebels.'

Responsible for Petty's pulverized hand too.

yeah, the first 30 seconds is a hell of an album opener. if the third verse were just a little less on the nose this could have been top 5 for me. no big solo but campbell's fills on the verses are sweet and the horns work for me

to this day, petty's not so sure about those horns...

Zollo: You wanted horns on it?
Petty: Well, I wound up with horns on it...

Zollo: Were you ever happy with how "Rebels" turned out?
Petty: No.
Zollo: It became a hit.
Petty: Yeah. I still think it could have been better. I don't think the vocal's that good on it. I could have sang it better.

http://i.imgur.com/0h6J034.jpg

14. Jammin' Me – 201 points (11 votes)
http://youtu.be/TCFAzPl1QmE

EXPLAIN YOURSELVES

hell yes.

fun fact: "jammin' me" appears on more ballots than any other track to place so far

it's a fun song!

#19 on my ballot but I kinda wish I had voted it higher. It's better than I remember it, dated Joe Piscopo reference and all.

DAMN

In my top five. Was Petty so horrified by the Let Me Down era that he couldn't make room for "Jammin' Me" on the first comp? It outcharted several other included singles.

One thing I like about it is that it shows just how important every member of the Heartbreakers is to the sound of the band and the success of the tracks. Imagine this song without either Tench or Lynch, let alone both of them!

Guess that's it for Let Me Down which is a personal fave. The Damage You've Done is a great deep cut imo.

Is "Jammin' Me" the highest-charting Bob Dylan song of the 1980s? (Not counting Rod Stewart's "Forever Young," which was a retroactive writing credit.)

(I like it fine btw, just not enough to vote for.)

Guess that's it for Let Me Down which is a personal fave. The Damage You've Done is a great deep cut imo.

― campreverb

title song and "My Life/Your World" too

for years i thought it was odd that Let Me Up was the only album that didn't have a song on the Greatest Hits comp and wondered why they didn't include its biggest hit. then I heard "Jammin' Me" and went hmmm okay i see why they decided to just put another song from Damn The Torpedoes on there instead.

I think I had Think About Me on my ballot as well.

Jammin' Me >>>>> I Need to Know

title song and "My Life/Your World" too

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 16, 2015

"ain't love strange" too

http://i.imgur.com/NVAPVHx.jpg

13. Change of Heart – 219 points (9 votes)
http://youtu.be/H0Zxs5TspQA

Great sound on "Change of Heart" – Stan Lynch owns this – but I loathe Petty's vocal.

This was my #2 ;_;

I almost wish he had gotten Nicks to do backing vocals on this, because this one feels to me the most like a Petty song that could actually have been a Fleetwood Mac song, from the sound to the sentiments to the arrangement. The "you never needed me" pre-chorus part really makes the song, too.

^^ agreed on the pre-chorus. "you were the moon and sun/you're just a loaded gun now" is A+

http://i.imgur.com/wHtPlyL.jpg

12. Listen to Her Heart – 225 points (10 votes)
http://youtu.be/qZpBhi04IoI

I like the way "Buddyewdonevenoher" is all one word.

i didn't vote for "listen to her heart" would've been top three for me. an all-time fave byrds/gene clark homage.

not sure they needed all those parentheticals on the 45 sleeve.

xpost "ain't love strange" too

YES! Ain't Love Strange and the title cut are my two favorites on Let Me Up.

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVpnxyATsEA

I love the opening couplet of "Listen to Her Heart" (which I voted for) so much: "You think you're gonna take her away/With your money and your cocaine." It's a complete character sketch in two lines, and exactly the kind of thing I love about Petty as a lyricist.

that cocaine line is boss

yeah. it's a tremendous opener -- and also petty's first label fite! (execs wanted him to change "cocaine" to "champagne")

not sure they needed all those parentheticals on the 45 sleeve.

― fact checking cuz, Wednesday, December 16, 2015

kinda why i love that one. also, the jacket, which I assume Robin Zander will want back at some point.

Has there ever been a sleeve that looked more like The Modern Lovers but sounded nothing like The Modern Lovers?

wonder if he nicked that cha-yange from Lynyrd Skynyrd. I sure hope so.

i keep tripping on how much Tom Petty and Elvis Costello's careers parallel. obviously both started out around the same time and their commercial fortunes rose and fell in roughly the same years, but also, like, they both started hanging out with a Beatle in the late '80s, they both permanently fell out with a longtime sideman in the mid-'90s.

And yet I can't think of two more dissimilar contemporaries.

a shame Elvis C couldn't keep getting gold albums

yeah obviously EC is on a lower commercial rung. still, both guys on that punk/new wave/mainstream continuum who got compared to Dylan a lot, both "___ & the ___" solo acts w/ equally billed backing bands for most of their careers.

the brain reels at the idea of Elvis C hooking up with George instead.

Elvis: I got this tune, George, and it -

George: No.

Elvis: Yeah, but listen to these ascending chords! What if a Rickenbacker -

George: No.

I do not know how to get a post in the right place. I predicted Free Fallin' would make the top three. Big surprise.

there's a good Costello story in one of the recent Petty books. I'll see if I can dig it up once I'm off Zing.

Weren't Petty and the Heartbreakers part of the '86 spin-the-wheel tour?

the replacements followed up their tour opening for petty by opening for costello. not sure if elvis cribbed any lyrics from them, though.

Costello refined Westerberg's "Letters From Joliet" concept, iirc.

ha!

lol

Petty
We were doing ["Listen to Her Heart"] before the record was out. Actually, we played it at a show in Chicago at the Riviera Theater with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. This would have been '77...

And Elvis Costello stole the ending of that song. And he admits it. [Laughs] He remembered it. He watched us do the ending, and he put it on this song he just wrote called "Radio, Radio." If you listen, it's the same ending. I heard him say that in an interview one time. I thought that was humorous, because I remember thinking, when I heard that song, "Damn, that's exactly like our ending." And he admitted that he took it that night at the Riviera Theater."

I don't hear that at all but okay

Huh, he's right. Pete Thomas added some (very Lynch-y) fills, but otherwise identical. I never would have noticed, but I didn't write "Listen to Her Heart."

It's totally there. Once you hear it you can't unhear it.

For posterity, here's "Listen to Her Heart" as performed in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGA2amsBIg

and Radio, Radio as released in 1978

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eifljYPFW-E

are we talking about the very very end, like the last 10 seconds? that seems like such a generic song ending to me but what do I know

we are, and it is, but it's also on the nose and Costello's on the record

http://i.imgur.com/A2shVmG.jpg

11. Don't Come Around Here No More – 233 points (9 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/h0JvF9vpqx8

Always thought "Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes" was a closer Byrds-y comparison.

i am very surprised to see "Don't Come Around Here No More" place so high, but not at all disappointed. My #6 and my favorite story in the ongoing saga of songs traded back and forth between Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks...

So Jimmy Iovine asks Tom for material for a new Stevie Nicks record, and Tom says he doesn't have anything but they should call the guy who wrote "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Which is how Dave Stewart eventually ends up calling Petty in the middle of the night to come down to the studio and help get a track unstuck lyrically…

Stevie
I was writing madly. I had my little book, and I was just writing, writing, writing. Tom, Jimmy, and Dave were sort of talking. But it was five in the morning, and I was really tired. So I said, "I'm going to go. I'm leaving you guys, and I'll be back tomorrow." I left, and when I got back the next day, at something like three p.m., the whole song was written. And not only was it written, it was spectacular. Dave was standing there saying to me, "Well, there it is! It's really, really good."

And they go to me, "Well, it's terrific, and now you can go out and… and you can sing it." Tom had done a great vocal, a great vocal. I just looked at them and said, "I'm going to top that? Really?" I got up, thanked Dave, thanked Tom, fired Jimmy, and left. That went down in about five minutes.

another version:

On The Howard Stern Show, Dave Stewart explained that the title's phrase was actually uttered by Nicks. She had broken up with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh the night before,[2] and invited Stewart to her place for a party after an early Eurythmics show in Los Angeles. Stewart did not know who she was at the time, but went anyway. When the partygoers all disappeared to a bathroom for a couple of hours to snort cocaine, he decided to go upstairs to bed. He woke up at 5am to find Nicks in his room trying on Victorian clothing and described the entire scenario as very much reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Later that morning, she told Walsh, "Don't come around here no more."

I've said this already: I can understand the novelty of the record in 1985 but it's another chapter in Petty's long history of mewled, ugly vocals (YOU TAAANGLE MAAAH EMOSHEEONNNSS)

Also: David Stewart did better with neo-psychedelia with Daryl Hall's 1986 "Dreamtime." Imagine if Hall had sung "Don't Come Around Here..."

I bet Tom would have made a nice Dreamtime!

imho the song only gets better as the years go by and the novelty wears off. petty's vocal doesn't bother me, drum track, wah-wah solo, and backing vox just tremendous.

i can understand why the band didn't like it, but if the Stewart/Petty collab had just stopped there I would have been first in line to demand more. who knew "more" would turn out to be "it ain't nothin' to me" :(

and "Make It Better"

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

tbh "Runaway Trains" felt like more of a gobsmack

didn't vote for it because i trusted the electorate to do the right thing (and just outside the top 10 seems perfect to me) but i like it -- especially the "tangle my emotions" delivery! it goes with "Breakdown" as one of those songs where the unusual texture of Petty's voice and singing style work in favor of the sneering attitude of the lyric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flgG1X05BZw

http://i.imgur.com/nYMLgAh.jpg

10. Breakdown – 241 points (8 votes, one #1)
Original (fan video): http://youtu.be/pOwlYZ_P7Sg
Live, 1978: http://youtu.be/G1cm0QJ9MSo
Live, 1985: http://youtu.be.com/qNxfPAF1frM

i spoke it into existence! thought that would've been a little higher, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZvLmqjGB2w

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

The video was on heavy heavy rotation, and obviously it's a creepy video, though not nearly as creepy (literally) as Owner of a Lonely Heart which was also a hit around the same time.

I seem to remember a lot of people hated Southern Accents, it was tagged as an ambitious miss.

would like to jump in to defend Don't Come Around Here No More. I share some of the ambivalence (actually I think Southern Accents is an unmitigated disaster). But after hearing one of the live versions with the extended Campbell guitar freakout intro brought me back around on this song. My #7.

i dunno 5 really good songs seems kinda mitigating

RECAP
40. Casa Dega
39. A One Story Town (tied)
39. Kings Highway (tied)
38. A Thing About You
37. A Face in the Crowd
36. Something Big
35. Time to Move On

34. The Wild One, Forever
33. Nightwatchman
32. Love is a Long Road
31. Walls (1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
30. Dogs on the Run

29. You Don’t Know How It Feels
28. Insider
27. Runaway Trains
26. Southern Accents (tied)
26. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (tied)
25. Learning To Fly (1 shoutout for Live w/Stevie Nicks)

24. Wildflowers
23. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
22. Yer So Bad
21. Crawling Back to You
20. I Need To Know

19. I Won't Back Down
18. You Wreck Me
17. Runnin' Down a Dream
16. Free Fallin'
15. Rebels

14. Jammin' Me
13. Change of Heart
12. Listen to Her Heart
11. Don't Come Around Here No More
10. Breakdown

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: http://open.spotify.com/user/dustradio/playlist/2VZLJQ5wrhbDspcOy9Y0mR

http://i.imgur.com/V41mNT1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rxcW7Bn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YElRxj4.jpg

Six outstanding Tom Petty songs that will not be in this poll:

Ain't Love Strange
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
Letting You Go
No Second Thoughts
Red River
A Self Made Man

Time to Move On
All Mixed Up
You and I Will Meet Again

"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" is pretty great

Time to Move On was at #35

Yeah, for me it's about that moment in the chorus when the bass and drums bear down real hard before that I'VE HAD ENUUUFFFFFF

12 of the songs I voted for (including my top 4) have already showed up. I know my #5 will be showing up soon, too.

whoops missed it! xpost

man Wildflowers is the best collection of songs Rick Rubin ever produced in the nineties, isn't it?* I listened to it today and was hard pressed to find a song that's out of place or mawkish or terrible. I suppose I could shorten it, but I'm not sure where to start.

* I actually like Jagger's Wandering Spirit a lot.

Speaking of Wildflowers, what's up with the impending Wildflowers II? It's supposed to be a bundle of session outtakes that was to be added to a deluxe edition of the album, but recently has been mooted as a separate release.

Good point Mr. Pollrunner. Part of the problem for me is the production/arrangements on Southern Accents. But that just points to my larger problem with this album. I just don't buy it, the way I do Southern Rock Opera or Good Old Boys for example.

Am I expecting too much of this poll to think "Finding Out" might make the top 10?

that's what we'll be finding out

I guess it's a long shot, I figure it's pretty much hits from here on (apart from Straight Into Darkness, which I just assume is in here).

xxpost totally agree the album's a mess, and Petty readily concedes he failed to follow through on the concept.

Man, I really expected "It'll All Work Out" to land somewhere in the top 40, but unlikely to be top 10. u disappoint me, ilm.

I wonder if that song's only gotten exposure in the last decade. I really don't know.

I need to know!

I bought Let Me Up when I was in high school, so it's been a personal favorite of mine for 20+ years. It probably found a new audience when it was in Elizabethtown, though.

It made https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology:_Through_the_Years too, right? I'm assuming the entire top 20, except 'You Wreck Me' which is outside the timeframe, are going to be tracks from the Anthology.

That's where I first heard it. I wasn't sure if Elizabethtown had any kind of following.

Perhaps not the film, but it came out when people were still buying the soundtracks to Cameron Crowe movies.

wow "It'll All Work Out" is beautiful...i'm sure i listened to it when i was making my deep cuts playlist a couple years ago but i don't remember it, which is crazy because it's great, probably woulda voted for it if i stumbled across it in my recent listening. ton of very sad youtube-esque comments on here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APeP73X0Wc4

I like how you're warming up to Let Me Up, ship.

i was just thinking earlier about how i feel about the "Free Fallin'" scene in Jerry Maguire...has to be the biggest use of a Petty song in a movie, right? mixed feelings about the movie and the scene but i think it actually did help me think of the song in terms of being kind of a cry of desperation instead of just a catchy chorus.

wow, "breakdown" seems insanely low to me at #10. the classic rockiest of his classic rock staples. such a great groove. and that riff. and those backing vocals.

It'll All Work Out is unique in how it blends Celtic folk and Far East overtones/undertones. Never quite heard anything like it.

this poll has made me really wanna get into cougar town.

Surprised Breakdown isn't higher but that's pretty good. I got the first album when it was the only album, and Breakdown sounded unlike anything else I'd ever heard, to my kid earholes.

I've been trying to put my finger on exactly what makes so much Tom Petty great. He's remarkably unambitious - little in the way of big-picture political statements or aspirational poetry - and the skill of his band is what tempers some of his more cliched instincts. Yet maybe that's just it. He doesn't just keep it simple, he keeps it tasteful, which is a whole 'nother skill set, and just as the Heartbreakers are totally ace at turning something boilerplate into rock and roll gold, he's always proved receptive to his band and the ideas they bring, which is another underrated skill set that few bandleaders have managed to maintain for so long.

~on the other hand~ this is a hell of a showing for two and a half minutes of basically a groove and one lick

and to these earholes it ~still~ sounds fresh

i was just thinking earlier about how i feel about the "Free Fallin'" scene in Jerry Maguire...has to be the biggest use of a Petty song in a movie, right?

Yes, but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW9k44sDctI

Something about Petty and driving goes well in movies, I guess.

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

The video was on heavy heavy rotation, and obviously it's a creepy video, though not nearly as creepy (literally) as Owner of a Lonely Heart which was also a hit around the same time.

At the time, my local newspaper (The Lake County News-Herald) had a column that reviewed music videos (!), and I remember them trashing "Don't Come Around Here No More" for being mean and violent, even dropping in a "We are not amused."

"Breakdown" was my #12 -- I would've voted it higher but it always leaves me frustratingly wanting more! I guess that's the genius of the Heartbreakers; the entire song comes and goes so quickly, but even in that short time they establish such an amazing space and feel that you can't help but want more from it. A lesser band would have spun it out into eight minutes, but Petty said, "This is the song, it's done, deal." I *almost* gave a nod to the live version on Pack Up The Plantation for its longer length and crazy J. Geils rap in the middle, but figured I'd be the only one.

Still, not a lot of bands would give a song like this and my upcoming #3 that amount of space in the arrangement. It's not that one featured player lays back a little -- EVERYONE lays back, and the song is better for it.

As noted on the voting thread, Dwight Twilley is supposedly the one who said "You oughta take that guitar lick from the outro and use it in the intro." Good call, Dwight.

Speaking of Petty/"American Girl" In The Movies...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TDdKeb_94Q

http://i.imgur.com/yNHIfwm.jpg

9. A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) – 251 points (9 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/fKDYErlu5Kc

I guess it's a long shot, I figure it's pretty much hits from here on (apart from Straight Into Darkness, which I just assume is in here)

OTM. The remaining songs can be figured out pretty easily, though that's bad ILM form to do on this thread.

x-post---A Woman In Love was not in my internal calculations, so now my whole theory is shot. I gave you everythign, you threw it all away!!

According to my revised calculations, a major hit is not going to chart. Hmmmm

ooops, never mind. I didn't see Don't Come Around Here No More.

Anyway, I never really liked A Woman In Love, it seems like an inferior version of Here Comes My Girl.

no way. if anything, it's Breakdown turned into a real goddamn song, with duck dunn on bass and the rest of the band on fire.

i initially turned in a ballot with one song listed twice, and when i realized my mistake, "A Woman In Love" is the song i added to my ballot. one of those songs that seemed to kinda disappear more once it was left off Greatest Hits, really a shame.

I have this album but for some reason this song has never stood out to me

no way. if anything, it's Breakdown turned into a real goddamn song, with duck dunn on bass and the rest of the band on fire.

Good point. But there are some similarities to Here Comes My Girl, they're both track 2, both have spoken verses, soaring chorus.

it's also not a spoken verse! def a track 2 with a soaring chorus tho :)

btw a less ethical pollrunner would have definitely moved "a woman in love" a couple notches up his own ballot to make sure it placed ahead of...

http://i.imgur.com/TNrqjA2.jpg

8. You Got Lucky – 253 points (10 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/mtLpZWNyM0I

i used to think of that as one of his weaker hits but it's got so many vocal and instrumental hooks, that melody that goes from a high keyboard line to a low guitar lead is so cool.

hey it's his song in a minor key!
haha, normally something this dated would wear on me, but you know, good love is hard to find.

the video was a vv big deal at the time. that little intro before the song was a major innovation for a promo vid and obj set TP on a long course of wacky, attention-grabbing videos.

history clearly proves me wrong, but tbh imo the "a woman in love" video tops all of them. (tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream")

(dunno why autocorrect would find "obj" so preferable to "obv"...)

tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream"

I do too but it looks terrible in execution unfortunately.

Love this song, the video, the "good little love is hard to find" bit (or whatever it is he mushmouths his way through there)

There are about five or 6 songs I like more than this on Long After Dark.

I foresee a tie coming up because there are 8 more songs that must be accounted for.

rogermexico otm about the "Woman in Love" video, it's great. I love the song, too -- had it at #10. One of my favorite Petty vocals, especially the "Well all right, do whatcha want" verse.

The ubiquity of Petty's songs on MTV and AOR radio create the impression that he scored lots of hits, but how many posters know he only has three top tens, one of which isn't "Rebels" and the biggest is "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"? He's got loads of top twenties though.

lol one of which isn't "Refugee," that is

http://i.imgur.com/K3MyxPr.jpg

7. Don't Do Me Like That – 318 points (12 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/I5sTa2gMlJM

xpost

You're right about the videos exaggerating his pop presence. He has a lot fewer top 10s than Bruce, Seger, Mellancamp, Bryan Adams or any of the other Wilburys.

Also, hooray for "Don't Do Me Like That." Deserved to be the big hit from Torpedoes, just a killer tune and the band is so good on this one.

my #1!

http://i.imgur.com/ejjDnip.jpg

6. Refugee – 326 points (12 votes, two #1s)
http://youtu.be/fFnOfpIJL0M

As a New Zealander, it feels like he translates better to New Zealand than Seger, Mellancamp, or Bryan Adams. He's had two number one albums here (Torpedoes, Hard Promises).

American Girl is also what the Senator's daughter is rocking out to right before being abducted in 'Silence of the Lambs'.

Re: Refugee (which I somehow have not heard used ironically even once during the whole Syrian debate) -- I had a friend in college who hated Tom Petty solely because the line about "kidnapped-tied up-taken away-held for ransom" drove him crazy. "It has too many words!"

one of three of his songs that could be #1 for me on any given day, the others being Even The Losers & The Waiting.

I'm not crazy about Refugee, but it has a hell of an intro.

Ever since Amy Ray covered it I've always admired the versatility of "Refugee" as a sort of all-purpose protest song.

according to Iovine in the doc, it took the Heartbreakers days to get the intro right.

agreed Josh.

I am certain of four of the top five but the fifth eludes me. Do not tell me When The Time Comes is not on this list. DON'T TELL ME.

I'm still trying to squeeze 6 songs into the last 5. Looks like the title track from 'Into The Great Wide Open' missed out on the top 40 altogether, right?

re: Refugee, apparently they did like 70 takes, and fired and rehired Stan like 70 times

re: what's coming http://i.imgur.com/Y22tlUZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/bnbGxA5.jpg

5 (TIE). Stop Draggin' My Heart Around – 333 points (12 votes)
http://youtu.be/6UD0c58nNCQ

Yay! I am glad this wasn't $1 since it can only be found on a Stevie Nicks album.

I think it's been added to subsequent editions of the '93 Greatest Hits?

So mad that one of the Bonnaroos I missed was the one where Petty headlined and Stevie came onstage to sing this.

2006?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyzgvaYAqk

Yep, that was the one.

Out of curiosity I just checked how many of the songs on my ballot were Campbell co-writes. Six, including this one. That's fewer than I would have thought, but actually looking at the track lists, he generally didn't have more than two or three per album. I think of him as being more of a writing presence than he is.

Just noticed that Stop Draggin is tied, so everything is accounted for.

yup - you nailed it upthread, but i wasn't going to let the cat out

Campbell generally only got co-writing credit for tracks that he created on his own and petty then wrote to (obv the arrangements might change by the time the track was fully produced).

obv i'm on record as seeing his contributions going a lot deeper than that. there are a ton of tracks he didn't get writing credit for that can't be hummed without including his parts.

http://i.imgur.com/WiJUOgy.jpg

5 (TIE). Straight Into Darkness – 333 points (12 votes)
Original: http://youtu.be/oUovjEQri2I
Live, 1985: http://youtu.be.com/yONs2C6od-g

The obscure album track that surprised absolutely nobody with its placement. Easily one of his greatest songs.

And perfect picture!

I can't think of any recent poll results that more completely reflect the collective idiosyncrasies of ILM. Like, I wouldn't expect your average Tom Petty fan to even know this song, much less put it in the top 10.

Every poll is like this, there's always a Sway.

nah there's tons of polls with predictable results but maybe I'm just focusing on the ones I've run

It's funny, I don't think of this as obscure because Long After Dark was the first Petty album I owned, and this one got at least some rock radio play at the time. So it's always seemed canonical to me. As a teenager, it was one of those songs that seemed full of adult knowledge -- I couldn't directly relate to the sense of loss, but it made it palpable as a thing that was in the world to be experienced.

(And Campbell's guitar tone gave at least some idea of what it felt like.)

there may be some debate about "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" being one of Petty's finest songs. however, there should be no debate that "Stop Draggin' My Car Around" is one of Weird Al's least inspired parodies.

yup. if anything we just know now to look for the Sway. #5 on my ballot and in ILM's heart, and apparently one of Springsteen's favorite Petty tunes.

not sure i have anything to say that hasn't been said, and I totally hear what Petty means when he says they tried to do it as a guitar song but it didn't really come to life tip they turned it over to the piano.

dig the live version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86sQqz3GCkE

Yeah, definitely need to give Benmont credit too -- the piano and organ are sad and gorgeous.

It's on the two disc Anthology - feels like that defines the pre-Wildflowers Petty canon.

some dude OTM -- "stop draggin' my heart around" didn't even make my ballot and i still nurse a real grudge against weird al for his lazy-ass parody. come at the king, you best not miss iirc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb-NHxEFxQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M191OMg2BEI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEMEpeE_bmY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSs4zE-aDj0

:/

this is why I love participating in polls, you always get that, 'oh yeah, that song!' moment.

https://i.imgur.com/Jg73LDQ.jpg

4. Even the Losers – 341 points (12 votes, three #1)
Studio: http://youtu.be/E30XxSYgmqo
Live, 1978 (he's still working on the lyrics): http://youtu.be/hBcBPMckeyM

TOO LOW

lol @ that mustache

AGH. Too low. My number one, by a wide margin.

BABY EVEN THE COUGARS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhnic4kZFs0

dude we get it

simmer down, only 1 of the top 3 has a Cougar Town episode named after it

"Cougar Town" sounds like a Mudcrutch title.

Regardless, can we talk about Even The Losers? The bridge (two cars park...) is the greatest moment in Tom Pettydom. It's the song with his most evocative lyric, strongest melody, best use of "oh oh oh oh" on the outro, most melodic chorus and more. Holy mackerel what a song!!!

lol @ that mustache

"Straight Into Darkness" made it to both "Playback" and "Anthology," so clearly he rates it. As far as album track obscurities go, I'd be curious to see what songs didn't make it to the first three discs of "Playback."

I'm glad ILM thinks "Losers" is better than 'Refugee"

kornrulez, apparently it's futile but fwiw i was one of the #1s.

if I had to explain Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in a single track, there's another one i'd choose. but "even the losers" is the one i listen to more often.

the story goes, he had the whole song written except for the chorus and just said f it, let's roll tape, and what came out when the chorus rolled around is what we got, and he feels like he owes the muse one on that one.

tip of the hat to The Gaslight Anthem for covering multiple Petty songs AND namechecking him in an original

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL81lD8RHpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PXsfaH8_JA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDGyXb5XnM

Every time we claim Petty is a singles artist, an album track refutes this notion

i don't think i've ever said that. imo he's a "half a great album" artist :D

http://i.imgur.com/FTUYcoj.jpg

3. Here Comes My Girl – 394 points (15 votes, three #1)
http://youtu.be/n4nPa35CZPI

OTM. He's more than a singles artist but all of his albums have what the kids used to call filler. He's more of a body-of-work guy.

In 1999, my friend bought a CD burner, I had never seen one before. First CD I burned was a Tom Petty best-of.

loooove that one, was starting to get my hopes up that it was #1

so long, Cougar Town!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRCYowgonj0

Here Comes My Girl. Great song.

So it's down to the final 2. What will finish on top, American Girl or Spike?

Zombie Zoo, obviously

Yeah, it's a funny contradiction. He's more than a singles artists, because all of his albums have good album tracks. And not many outright clunkers, at that. And yet, very few of his albums would be considered great albums, imo.

CORRECTION: "So Long, CougarTown" sounds like a Mudcrutch song.

Regardless, can we talk about Even The Losers? The bridge (two cars park...) is the greatest moment in Tom Pettydom. It's the song with his most evocative lyric, strongest melody, best use of "oh oh oh oh" on the outro, most melodic chorus and more. Holy mackerel what a song!!!

― kornrulez6969, Thursday, December 17, 2015 11:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cosign all of this, it was my #1 too.

2 Cougar Town episodes actually were named after Mudcrutch songs!

"Even The Losers" really is a song that sums up Petty in a nutshell. he wasn't an outright weirdo, but he had an underdog quality that central casting-looking natural rock stars like Springsteen and Mellencamp didn't have, and yet he managed to have so many triumphant moments.

he's about as weird as a traditionalist can be

^^ that's it right there

xpost Eh, natural or no, Bruce was a big dork for a long time. Skinny, bad skin, beatnik style, underbite. He grew into his stardom. But if by your comment you meant more that Tom Petty kind of looks like a human chicken crossed with a goat and ergo makes an odd rock star, that's for sure.

Robert Christgau--who is not a fan--summed it up nicely. "Grant him this--he's a hooky sumbitch"

It is interesting that of that era he doesn't and never did seem even the least bit interested in or influenced by punk. He just skipped over it straight to new wave. Sort of like Dire Straits, I guess.

i never end up singing at karaoke on the rare occasions i go to a karaoke night but i always think i'd probably do some Petty. "Don't Do Me Like That" has long been my imaginary go-to but listening now i think maybe "Here Comes My Girl" would be more fun.

here comes my girl would demand some practice runs imo

probably true but i feel like you could get away with lightly crooning the chorus if you have fun with the verses

There's some quality in Tom Petty's spoken vocal in "Here Comes My Girl" that chills me out every time I hear it. Like, "Sure, Tom, I'll have a seat. What's on your mind? Oh damn, I feel you, man."

i feel like we're not going to get the top 2 until someone says that age-old line, so i'll just say it...

the anticipating is the most difficult part

(And then Tom steers the conversation toward his girlfriend. Typical.)

Stan, if you could tear yourself away for a sec...

http://www.stanlynchmusic.com/Pic3.png

we could use a drum roll...

http://www.drummercafe.com/images/stories/artists/StanLynch2.png

http://i.imgur.com/dAoI2Yw.jpg

2. American Girl – 422 points (16 votes, two #1)
Old Grey Whistle Test: http://youtu.be/12_RbUfdpW0
Live, Santa Monica, New Year's Eve 1978: https://youtu.be/QnS8577gBNc?t=29m55s

that song is fuckin' lightening in a bottle. last week i worked an event where "American Girl" was one of the music cues and every time it started up i was so happy to hear it again.

the bridge of "American Girl" is one of the all-time great funky licks. you'd think it'd have been sampled a hundred times, but the only time i can think of is the Fun Lovin' Criminals saying "I got supermodels on my d" over it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6PUncMEtdI

He IS one of the great singles artists--in that he has a lot of great singles, and his singles are among his best songs (which this list seems to show)--and that he has never made a consistently great album. (I own 'em all--I can say that.) And one of my favorite non-singles didn't make this list, so EXPLAIN YOURSELVES, When The Time Comes. #readytoargue

"american girl" is pretty indisputable. almost impossible to fathom that it's nearly 40 years old.

great intro. great bass. great drums. great backing vox from stan and benmont. great lyrics, great melody, great little rock'n'roll solo... it reaches back to the 50s but doesn't feel dated musically or lyrically. still hits hard if it catches me when i'm not looking.

sugarlips, fwiw when the time comes got some votes but faced tough sledding as a deep cut off maybe his most slept-on record

i have some love for the title track from that one too... not a perfect song but an interesting road not taken

I voted for a #1! this has never happened before!

can I just say that I love the Heartbreakers? Every player was gold. Not even the E Street Band had so many of its members have outside writer and producer credits. Listening to Through the Years, I noticed how every song had a different Campbell guitar tone or pedal, Lynch drum pattern, Tench melodic or contrapuntal keyboard part. I just love the sensation of listening to them.

great lyrics, great melody, great little rock'n'roll solo... it reaches back to the 50s but doesn't feel dated musically or lyrically

Petty said somewhere--presumably after hearing the Byrds soundalike thing for the umpteenth time--that the bands real aim for the track was to update vintage Bo Diddley.

and years later...Bo opens up for them, and stays on to jam!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVRtQUTd7Gk

re: the Heartbreakers, no doubt. without implying any comparisons, they're up there with the MGs and The Band for me. just a bunch of kids from Gainesville...

was it Petty or someone else who said that his greatest strength as a musician was talking people out of going to college?

xpost I hear Buddy Holly too, but i suppose that's redundant QED

Yeah the classic-era Heartbreakers were a heckuva unit. And bringing Howie in for Ron Blair made them even stronger on the harmonies. Between all of their extracurricular work, you could put together an impressive degrees-of-separation map.

and playlist. I knew Howie had produced those exquisite early '90s John Prine records, but not Carlene Carter's 1990 comeback.

Carlene Carter was in that stolen car with him in Albuquerque. If things had turned out different that could've been a funny story. To this day Petty's just like, "Man, Howie didn't even drive..."

well. shall we do this?

DO IT!

Christmas All Over Again time, right?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41uvs63vDnL.jpg

HEARTBREAKERS BEACH PARTY!!!!

at last!

http://i.imgur.com/CxRvBnz.jpg

1. The Waiting – 442 points (14 votes, three #1)
Studio: http://youtu.be/uMyCa35_mOg
Live, 1985: http://youtu.be/QpG09PenZt8
Live (dueling acoustics!), 1988: http://youtu.be/-4L4Hh0-JmQ

not my #1 but not far off. the platonic ideal of a Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers song. i remember exactly where i was the first time i heard it.

haha I knew it was going to happen by process of elimination

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0OYQm0pNI8

^^ tom in storytelling mode is always worthwhile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDcZGRKQ_M

hearing him talk about coming up with the riff and then getting stuck for a week and then coming up with the chorus and getting stuck for a week is a real eye-opener -- you think about the 200 or so songs he's churned out at a pretty high level of quality and you wonder if most of them came together much quicker or if he's just agonizing over a different one almost every week.

i don't think it's agony exactly (except maybe for the other people in the house). you know you're on to something and you just have to stick with it long enough for it to start speaking to you.

i'd lay good money campbell has ~thousands~ of ideas recorded at various stages of polish.

waiting for Don Henleys

well, yeah

Great poll roger, many thanks.

http://www.newsobserver.com/latest-news/2byywf/picture7338920/ALTERNATES/FREE_640/15bft.So.156.jpeg

Huh. Like "The Waiting" a lot, but love "American Girl" so much more.

It's interesting, Petty and Springsteen. They're both about the same age, worshipped Dylan, etc., but Petty veered Byrds and Beatles while Bruce, as much as he, like everyone, loved those bands, veered Roy Orbison and some of the more dramatic '50s stuff. Which is ironic, of course, given Petty and Roy in the Wilburys later. And yet per that Dylan worship, there is so much more of him in Springsteen than there is in Petty, imo, vocals aside, and yet that's about the only non garage rock '60s stuff you hear in Bruce, whereas Petty is steeped in that era.

christ i can't believe "Deliver Me" didn't place esp considering "The Waiting" is #1 and the choruses are practically the same

great poll. you guys have weird taste in Tom Petty songs though.

xxposts thx tipsy... it was a treat spending these past few weeks with Petty and the resident headz!

Still wrapping my head around Campbell. His licks are dead-simple. Almost nothing that anyone who'd been playing for a few months couldn't cop, but feel, his sense of composition, and the impact he gets out of just 3 or 4 notes...

Great interview here: http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/mike_campbell/

crüt if the verses were even half as strong as the bridge "deliver me" would have been top ten for me

I WAS BORN WITH SOMETHIN' DOWN INSIDE OF ME

'Don't it feel like tonight might never be again' is my favorite Petty lyric.

Thanks for running this, I really enjoyed it. Now seems as good a time as ever to mention I ran into Mike Campbell a few years ago in an ATL hotel lobby.
After thinking 'holy shit, that's Mike Campbell' I went up and introduced myself, and got out a 'thank you' without sounding too stupid. he was super nice and just kind of let out this 'ah thanks man'. Probably happens to him a lot.

Ballot!
1 The Waiting
2 Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
3 Here Comes My Girl
4 Even the Losers
5 Runaway Trains
6 American Girl
7 Don't Come Around Here No More
8 Straight Into Darkness
9 You Got Lucky
10 Change Of Heart
11 Refugee
12 Learning To Fly
13 You Don't Know How It Feels
14 Love Is A Long Road
15 A One Story Town
16 Kings Highway
17 Jammin' Me
18 The Damage You've Done
19 Insider
20 Think About Me

Good work, Mr. Mexico. Thanks for all the nonsense!

tracks:
Don’t Do Me Like That
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around w/ Stevie Nicks
American Girl
Straight Into Darkness
Here Comes My Girl
Insider
Swingin’
Finding Out
Runnin’ Down A Dream
Learning To Fly
You Wreck Me
Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Even The Losers
We Stand A Chance
The Wild One, Forever
Into The Great Wide Open
Room At The Top
You Got Lucky
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)

albums:
Long After Dark
Hard Promises
Damn The Torpedoes
Into The Great Wide Open
Southern Accents

Breakdown
Don't Do Me Like That
I Won't Back Down
You Got Lucky
Refugee
Free Fallin'
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
Deliver Me
The Waiting
Listen To Her Heart
You Tell Me
Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)
What Are You Doin' In My Life?
Runnin' Down A Dream
Casa Dega
Don't Come Around Here No More
Luna
When The Time Comes
You Got It (Roy Orbison)

I had post-submission doubts about ranking "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" so highly but I decided to leave it there on the strength of the Weird Al parody "Stop Draggin' My Car Around"

ALBUMS

Damn the Torpedoes
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Long After Dark
You're Gonna Get It!
Full Moon Fever

FINAL
40. Casa Dega
39. A One Story Town (tied)
39. Kings Highway (tied)
38. A Thing About You
37. A Face in the Crowd
36. Something Big
35. Time to Move On

34. The Wild One, Forever
33. Nightwatchman
32. Love is a Long Road
31. Walls (1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
30. Dogs on the Run

29. You Don’t Know How It Feels
28. Insider
27. Runaway Trains
26. Southern Accents (tied)
26. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (tied)
25. Learning To Fly (1 shoutout for Live w/Stevie Nicks)

24. Wildflowers
23. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
22. Yer So Bad
21. Crawling Back to You
20. I Need To Know

19. I Won't Back Down
18. You Wreck Me
17. Runnin' Down a Dream
16. Free Fallin'
15. Rebels

14. Jammin' Me
13. Change of Heart
12. Listen to Her Heart
11. Don't Come Around Here No More
10. Breakdown

9. A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)
8. You Got Lucky
7. Don't Do Me Like That
6. Refugee
5. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
5. Straight Into Darkness

4. Even the Losers
3. Here Comes My Girl
2. American Girl
1. The Waiting

Honorable mentions:
• Everybody's All-American: American Girl appeared on more ballots than any other track
• You like me, you really like me: The Waiting, Breakdown, and Even the Losers received the most points per vote
• TOO LOW: Even the Losers received the most #1 rankings per ballot where it appeared
• It's the thought that counts: Jammin' Me, Wildflowers and The Wild One, Forever received the least points per vote (relative to their ranking)

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: http://open.spotify.com/user/dustradio/playlist/2VZLJQ5wrhbDspcOy9Y0mR

wow the dueling acoustics version you posted is pretty great.

albums too!
1 Long After Dark
2 Damn The Torpedoes
3 Hard Promises
4 Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
5 Full Moon Fever

I generally avoid the big airplay tracks, most of which had been edging close to played out for me.

Great Moments In Stan Lynch: Choosing a different point each time to come in on the chorus to "A Woman In Love..."

1. "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)"
2. "You Wreck Me"
3. "Something Big"
4. "Hung Up And Overdue"
5. "Shadow of A Doubt (A Complex Kid)"
6. "Scare Easy" (Mudcrutch)
7. "Jammin' Me"
8. "Nightwatchman"
9. "Asshole"
10. "Listen To Her Heart"
11. "What Are You Doin' In My Life?"
12. "Walls #3"
13. "To Find A Friend"
14. "Insider"
15. "Swingin'"
16. "Straight Into Darkness"
17. "Louisiana Rain"
18. "Cabin Down Below"
19. "Last Nite" (Travelling Wilburys)
20. "Yer So Bad"

I for one would welcome a great moments in Stan Lynch thread.

you can totally hear why Iovine fired him so many times, but he's so great!

I for one would welcome a great moments in Stan Lynch Benmont Tench thread.

amen to that too

Postscript: an effect of this whole project has been that I'm being pulled to listen to everything all over again. I'm finding that I'm loving a lot more than I remembered. Most albums have several songs I do not care for but they also have more stuff I love that I didn't know I loved, so PEACE OUT, headz.

SONGS

Runnin’ Down a Dream
I Should Have Known It
Free Fallin’
Listen to Her Heart
Rebels
I Need to Know
American Girl
Here Comes My Girl
Jefferson Jericho Blues
Burnt Out Town
A Face in the Crowd
A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)
Southern Accents
Fault Lines
It’s Good to Be King
A Thing About You
Out in the Cold
Running Man’s Bible
Nightwatchman
The Wild One, Forever

ALBUMS

Full Moon Fever
Mojo
The Live Anthology
Damn The Torpedoes
Hard Promises

1. Refugee
2. A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)
3. Rebels
4. Jammin’ Me
5. Crawling Back to You
6. Something Big
7. Listen to Your Heart
8. You and I Will Meet Again
9. Runnin’ Down a Dream
10. Waiting For Tonight
11. Finding Out
12. Runaway Trains
13. You Got It
14. Here Comes My Girl
15. All Mixed Up
16. Two Gungslingers
17. Fault Lines
18. Last Night
19. Honey Bee
20. Wildflowers

Thanks so much to Mr. Mexico for running this excellent Tom Petty poll. It will live forever in the Century City of my heart.

1
Even the Losers
The Waiting
Straight Into Darkness
Ain’t Love Strange
Time To Move On
Don’t Do Me Like That
A One Story Town
No Second Thoughts
Shadow Of a Doubt
Deliver Me
Free Fallin
Change of Heart
Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)
Dogs on the Run
Rebels
Feel a Whole Lot Better
American Girl
A Thing About You
Red River
Oh Maria (Mudcrutch)
20

Albums

Damn the Torpedos
Long After Dark
Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)
Wildflowers
Hard Promises

American Girl
Refugee
Southern Accents
Breakdown
You Got Lucky
Don't Come Around Here No More
Trailer
Free Girl Now
Wildflowers
Here Comes My Girl
Waiting For Tonight
Runaway Trains
You Don't Know How It Feels
Dogs on the Run
The Last DJ
It's Good To Be King
Room at the Top
Keeping Me Alive
Straight Into Darkness
Casa Dega

tracks
1.here comes my girl
2. the waiting
3. runnin down a dream
4. even the losers
5. american girl
6. end of the line
7. yer so bad
8. i need to know
9. don't do me like that
10. jammin me
11. walls
12. it's good to be king
13. listen to her heart
14. rebels
15. stop draggin my heart around
16. you got lucky
17. wildflowers
18. you wreck me
19. a woman in love
20. learning to fly

albums
1. damn the torpedoes
2. hard promises
3. full moon fever
4. you're gonna get it
5. wildflowers

For once, I voted for a #1 also! That one was never in doubt for me. My ballot:

1. The Waiting
2. Change of Heart
3. Here Comes My Girl
4. You Got Lucky
5. Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
6. American Girl
7. A Face In The Crowd
8. Even The Losers
9. Love Is A Long Road
10. Don't Do Me Like That
11. It Ain't Nothin' To Me
12. Breakdown
13. Refugee
14. Yer So Bad
15. Listen To Her Heart
16. I Need To Know
17. The Damage You've Done
18. Flirting With Time
19. Jammin' Me
20. King's Highway

Albums:

Damn the Torpedoes
Long After Dark
Hard Promises
Full Moon Fever
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Change of Heart is just sublime isn't it?

Kinda surprised not to see any other album votes for The Live Anthology. That thing is fantastic, if you haven't heard it. Four CDs for, what, $25 at this point?

I voted for The Live Anthology.

TRACKS
Even the Losers
Straight Into Darkness
The Waiting
American Girl
Don’t Do Me Like That
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around
You Wreck Me
Dogs on the Run
I Need to Know
A Woman in Love
Breakdown
Runaway Trains
Change of Heart
Walls
Rebels
A Thing About You
The Wild One, Forever
Finding Out
Wildflowers
Free Fallin’

ALBUMS

Damn the Torpedoes
Long After Dark
Wildflowers
Hard Promises
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

collections always get short shrift in these things but YES, if anyone hasn't checked out the Live Anthology it's on Spotify and it is fantastic.

File "Change of Heart" as the Tom Petty deep track this poll has lead me to re-discover. It was actually a single? Anyway, interesting that "Long After Dark" has both beloved deep cuts.

The poll also led me to re-read Christgau's reviews of Petty, which even when they're positive are pretty ouch. That rabbit hole led me to consider Bowie a potential analog: too many great, iconic songs to be just a singles artist, more uneven records than his reputation might indicate.

working a Darlene Love concert tonight, and during soundcheck a guitar tech played the "You Wreck Me" riff on a really nice guitar/amp, brought a smile to my face

It's a fun song to play with a band

Love the ghastly near-howling vocals on the chorus of "change of heart"

Wish zing had a "find in page" function.. Any talk of that "surf" album by the Stingrays or whatever?

I mentioned it, yeah. One time I saw Petty he left the stage for a bit and let Mike lead a surf medley for a long while.

Wow, this unveil was really fun. Loads of welcome surprises, deep cuts and minor hits. You can tell that many of the participants were familiar with a large fraction of his discography, as opposed to a few of the more recent results threads (like Nirvana and Queen).

Also I can't believe I wasn't the only vote for "Asshole" (my #6).

I voted for it!

heard "Jammin' Me" on the local classic rock station for the first time today. they're having a 'No L weekend' with no song titles with the letter L in them (dad rock x dad jokes!), so maybe eliminating "American Girl"/"Don't Do Me Like That"/etc. made them dig deeper with their Petty selections. the next song was "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" so it was kind of a weird Dylan twofer as well.

You could have a real strong Tom Petty rock block of songs without L

The Waiting
Refugee
Breakdown
Straight Into Darkness
I Need To Know
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

Into the Great Wide Open
Change of Heart
Don't Come Around Here No More
I Won't Back Down
Runnin' Down a Dream

INSIDER

How are y'all still sleeping on this?

i mean hey, it ranked. it was in the top 10 of non-hits!

(and contains no Ls)

Guitar nerd stuff: I brought "Straight Into Darkness" in to my guitar teacher, and we were weirdly thrown off by what is largely a simple song. At first we thought it was tuned down a half-step, which Mike Campbell likes ("Boys of Summer"), but it still wasn't right. Turns out that to the best of our collective observation, the recording is totally out of tune! Guitar, piano, organ ... all off, together, like it was slowed down (or even fucked up) in the mastering.

Josh-interesting! I grabbed my guitar last night to see if I could reproduce it, but at least rhythm wise, I was able to play along with the recording tuned down a half-step (which is how I usually keep my guitar tuned).

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYtH66jVAAEDqMk.jpg:large

xpost We totally did try tuning down a half-step, and for a minute it sounded OK, but then we noticed it was out of tune with the piano and organ, too, and we realized that there was no way they tuned those down (on purpose). Then we listened to the live version, and the guitars are in standard!

yeah I found the same thing on the live, I had to capo to match that.

varispeed is an awesome thing.

But isn't that usually used for more conspicuous effects? The Petty track sounds pretty straight forward, except for being pitched down to some mysterious key.

a lot of bands used to use varispeed just 'cause they liked the sound of instruments and/or voices sped up or slowed down a tiny bit. i don't know if petty used it that way, but it wouldn't have been unusual if he did.

Zanes' Petty book is excellent, one of the best accounts of how bands work I have ever read.