My Middle Name Is Earl - The Official ILM Track-By-Track TOM PETTY Listening Thread

we weren't so enthused about "Witchy Woman"!

we better pace ourselves and drink plenty of water though. there is a long road to ride.

or fuck it just go for it. its fun.

Yup. Unlike our digs into the Elton, Don 'n' Glenn, and Rod discographies, Petty's has no doldrums.

If Southern Accents and The Last DJ are his worst, then he must have the best discography in rock.

i remember years ago i thought of pitching the idea of doing todd rundgren and one look at his discography and i was like yeah maybe not...

I’ll be “that guy” and say for a start that these tracks are unremarkable, banal, rote, and forgettable.

speaking of unremarkable and forgettable, inspired by not hearing "depot street" in a minute, i put together a youtube plist of the 9 released mudcrutch tracks from 1971-75, and threw on the 1976 "surrender" outtake. will listen to this with my brother on the beach when we hang out in vallarta in a couple weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9PFuJri-u5krOOiW7Vzgd5Stubj7sPCV

calstars, do you like Petty?

i debated starting with the two mudcrutch singles but then i decided to start at the beginning of TP as an artist.

that's totally fair! i just have a fascination for juvenalia.

didn't like petty growing up in 80s kansas, he was closer to mellencamp than the slightly cooler like the cars or elvis costello, but breakdown i had to admit had that watching the detectives chill swagger.

That’s funny, Petty always registered as “cool” to me — in a way that Bruce/Mellencamp/Seger didn’t. Those guys WANT things. Petty’s perspective is a more circumspect — whatever he wants, which he’s not sure of himself, he doesn’t expect much to come of it.

It’s alright if you love me
It’s alright if you don’t

in a way that Bruce/Mellencamp/Seger didn’t

i would push back a bit and say these three are very different songwriters imo

I feel that Petty maybe had more in common with Seger than those other guys, but at times all of them overlapped stylistically at least a little, imo.

If Petty was cooler, it's because he (and Mellencamp) cared about good videos.

Was just looking up birthdates for comparison, thinking of Petty as more late-70s than Seger and Springsteen, and yet...

Seger - born 1945
Springsteen - born 1949
Petty - born 1950
Ric Ocasek...born 1944

yeah, late 70s rockers who were born pre-50s is an interesting group of weirdos and strivers - ric neilsen, lux interior, martin rev, andy summers, lowe and edmunds...

I like my rock stars to be cool and TP is not in my book. More like an uncle who lives in the suburbs and his band of fellow weekend warrior rock fans

Might depend on which era Petty you first encounter. Definitely from the Don’t Come Around Here video onward, he cultivated stoner uncle vibes.

In '76, he's not yer uncle...yet.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/8a/0b/8b/8a0b8b5cf0896e8190dbb7471e57d380.jpg

"Hey lil' dude, is your auntie home?"

Bar is playing “yer so bad” so ok

In '76, he's not yer uncle...yet.

🖼

"Hey lil' dude, is your auntie home?"

I have a couple of aunts who are only about 10 years older than me and one of them definitely dated some dudes who looked like that photo.

…right?

NOT cool? I’m sorry what???

GTFO

Tom was the coolest

https://i0.wp.com/www.elle.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2017/10/1507089974767_GettyImages-73998983master-scaled.jpg?w=1029&ssl=1

If you say so

Fun fact: I am actually in a band with someone from Gainesville, Florida. Petty songs are in his blood, but we try to be judicious about including them.

See?

wtf calstars

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/7e/d3/40/7ed34085513b6bf629a47fc0803fe782.jpg

he was
an American giiiirrl

scott, we doing one today? I can post if you can't.

just a reminder that we aren't doing weekends. for some reason. i guess because that's how Eagles thread was. feels like tradition.

i’m happy with weekends off!

Weekends are when we can relax and just enjoy Tom Petty of any vintage, at our leisure. For me this could include wearing my "Oh My My Oh Hell Yes" T-shirt to the gym.

hell yeah

wtf calstars

🖼

For the weekend, here's Tom Petty and Garry Shandling.

YESS

Shandling: This is the most fun I've had in a couple years.
Petty: The sad thing is it takes three cameras for us to feel good.

Thanks Eazy

“With the advent of the digital thing, a lot of the tone quality has gone out of recording”

Do you think Tom has ever smoked weed

I was looking on YouTube to see if there was the interview/calls with Petty on Rockline, which I heard on a classic-rock radio station as a kid (from searching, looks like it was 1981). He sounded so ridiculously high and out of it, I remember finding it so funny at the time.

And searching for that Rockline interview led me to the complete concert archives. Interesting to see who they started out opening for (Al Kooper, Blondie, The Runaways, Seger, etc.).

To tide everyone over, here's an hour of Mike Campbell talking about his guitars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHVf4C2x_3g

with cornrows

mike’s hair journey is a whole side thread
he looks like a cross between a farmer & an out of work magician now

also i hate mike’s band name but i kinda enjoy this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2TSX5bnIQY

I loved his surf band.

we saw Mike in Sacramento last year & man they did some great Heartbreakers covers (incl a lovely slowed down version of Refugee) and Fault Lines! (this version not from my show but same vibe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFxbXBcx_7c

Interesting to see who they started out opening for (Al Kooper, Blondie, The Runaways, Seger, etc.).

that *is* interesting, thanks

I cannot and will not defend every decision Mike Campbell has made, especially hair-wise.

But he should have gotten writing credit on more of Petty's music. Certainly "Breakdown" and "Refugee," because his riffs absolutely make those songs work.

Wait

After a quick check, it looks like he is co-credited on "Refugee," so never mind. But I do think he should have been given co-writer status on "Breakdown."

it’s really funny/weird how close Campbell’s singing voice is to Petty’s