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

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

Speaking voice too! East Florida runs deep, I guess.

Central-West Florida?

middle earth Florida
both have serious Gandslf vibes

*Gandalf

Gandalf, Florida Man

I think he has said in interviews that Tom discouraged him from doing any solo stuff because their voices were so similar.

I think his first album is really good, his second album is pretty good, then there’s only two songs from his subsequent career that I’d rank higher than “adequate, with a hook”. I was trying to think why I draw this line, and at first I wondered if his later stuff was too glib; but those first albums are not founts of wisdom either. As Lee626 said above, “Rockin' Around (With You)” is nearly a tossoff as a composition. Even “Breakdown”, which I’d call a perfect arrangement/recording, is maybe not a great song per se.
I think my preference comes down to the youthful energy of the band, the concision of the songs and the unfussy but atmospheric production. It's the brevity of the songs that connects this first record to the Ramones', even if they have different influences. I find the "arena-size" sonic sheen of Damn the Torpedoes and later puffs up the material to pretend to be more than it is.
Also, not being American probably leads me to regard Petty as less of a mythic figure than some of you of my age. He was definitely heard up here, but a lot of the radio and video real estate he could have occupied went to similar (Canadian-content) “uncomplicated quasi-roots guitar-rockers” like Tom Cochrane, Blue Rodeo and, God help us, Bryan Adams. I definitely thought of him as the junior Wilbury in 1988 (not just based on his age), and, though he’s not to blame, the same year he sang on Joni Mitchell’s worst song ever. So I have different associations with him than many. I’m planning to check out the Best of Everything compilation to see if I’ve missed some notable “mature” stuff post-1993.

That piano melody is exactly the kind of thing she was writing in the late '70s and early ‘80s.

“Breakdown” and “Dreams” use the same three chords - all white keys.

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…

What’s so scary about Todd…if you stop in 1985 with the demise of Bearsville…and maybe skip Utopia…and ignore the live album…and...

claps

xxpost I appreciate the explanation but still this absolutely wild to me

then there’s only two songs from his subsequent career that I’d rank higher than “adequate, with a hook”.

i hope this listening thread expands yr appreciation!

seriously, there is so much good stuff in there, some bizarre takes itt but I am enjoying this immensely

ranking the S/T ahead of Damn The Torpedoes is some all time ILM level challops

i like all eras. i have to say that i was not some superfan my whole life. he was everywhere of course most of my life. but i really began to appreciate him more at the dawn of the 21st century. i enjoy all his albums now. a big epiphany for me was hearing the soundtrack to She's The One in a record store around 2002 and not even knowing it existed and pretty much loving it. that's when i realized that i should seek out the stuff i hadn't heard. and to me its all pretty strong. not that its all the same but there is just a level that is consistent in the songwriting and music that is admirable to me. most people have a real stinker and i don't think he does. for comparison: any 21st century springsteen i've heard bores me to tears and is just no fun at all. not even as a history lesson or whatever. i could say the same about most 70s superstars. but tom and mike really loved guitars and so do i. that is probably half of it.

for me, Damn The Torpedoes hit the mainstream airwaves right when I started listening to the radio and buying LPs, in late 1979. so those songs in particular immediately conjure a very specific place and time to me, a world of video arcades, three black and white TV networks, and the radio stations. plus big concerts. the DIY wave hadn't hit Charlottesville VA yet really, that took another couple years.

I love She’s The One soundtrack! saw that movie once (lol remember when Ed Burns was a thing) but man I have listened to the record for years since, so good

these early albums are ones I came to later, when I was stocking up on LPs in the mid-2000s

(xpost to myself)

looking forward to any oddball tracks here, I can upload the live ones from that punk sampler if ppl want

i can remember sitting and listening to the Damn The Torpedoes album on vinyl in my town library wearing big headphones.

<3

My first Petty memory is hearing “The Waiting” in the jr. high cafeteria in 7th grade and thinking it was cool. Then “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” was in the radio, then “You Got Lucky” (and its video, which we can talk about when we get there), and Long After Dark was the first album of his I owned. (Swiftly went back and bought the earlier ones.) He was a persistent presence for an ‘80s adolescent.

yep, I remember the first time I got burned by forgetting to fill out a Columbia Record House card was when I got Southern Accents in the mail

I came in even later than Scott; I owned Full Moon Fever, but was basically a Greatest Hits-level fan all the way up till The Live Anthology and then Mojo.

My father's vinyl copy of Damn the Torpedoes, was the gateway for me, circa 1981. We'll get to it when get to it, but I may lose interest... that, for me, is the Petty Pinnacle. Later stuff can sound a trifle phoned-in. Which is fine.

In maybe 1990 my college buddies had a stupid parody of "Free Fallin'" called "Beer Gogglin.'" It was amusing for perhaps 38 seconds.

I’ve always loved this guy but wildflowers came at a particular time for me that makes it special. I was 14 and smoking pot and causing trouble but mostly
I was confused about life and my place in it. That album had some really comforting songs. Like a cool dad telling you everything would work out. It’s time to move on it’s time to get going hits during differently when you’re the dad but it really does hit

I knew I was a budding music critic when an aunt bought me Wildflowers the holiday season Petty released it and as soon as I heard the simple mastery of the title track I thought, "This album is way better than even the positive reviews are claiming." Song after song after song -- killers all. Rick Rubin's best.

He also picked one of Beck’s best songs on She’s the one

I’m not sure when I first heard Tom Petty but I knew Refugee and The Waiting when I was really little, like 4 or 5, because they played on the radio a lot and Mum & Dad had the radio on all the time at home & in the car

it was a long time before i bought his records because his songs were always around on the radio, it was like I didn’t need to.

I think the first albums of his I bought for myself was Wildflowers & the She’s The One soundtrack

i guess I became a diehard “head” in 2002 once Last DJ came out and he toured with the Heartbreakers - that’s when I saw them live for the first time and just fully rabbitholed and have been there ever since

it was a long time before i bought his records because his songs were always around on the radio, it was like I didn’t need to.

^^This. I'm not sure where I first heard him, other than it was on Rock radio when I was little in the mid-'80s. I do remember the Full Moon Fever singles blowing up in '89 ("Running Down A Dream" was a favorite), and of course everything afterwards. It's important to remember how ubiquitous he was if you were a Rock fan from '89-'97 or so: The new stuff was all over AOR, and the old stuff was a staple on Classic Rock stations, who also --being my neck of the woods anyway -- frequently dipped into his contemporary releases as well. That's something only Petty, Clapton & Aerosmith (and maybe the definitely less prolific AC/DC) pulled off in the same timeframe.

And then in the middle of all that there's the 1-2 Punch of Greatest Hits & Wildflowers!

All that said, I didn't seriously get on board until the early '10s cheap CD boom, picking up all the early album remasters for $4-5 apiece over a couple months after getting some of the later ones used or as cutouts much earlier. (I could kick myself for missing out on his stuff during the cheap vinyl days -- I flipped past so many $1-2 copies of Torpedoes in the '90s.)

It's been a terrific catalogue to explore.

tom and mike really loved guitars

gonna bookmark this for use throughout the thread

i guess i've been in since the beginning. sharing a lovely fb post that an ex-bandmate, ex-rock scribe, and current guitar maker/technician to the stars wrote upon Tom's death. names blanked to protect the innocent. this sort of shocked me when i read it; i was surprised he remembered my name let alone felt that way.

A few light years ago, in a basement underneath a dry cleaners in Hicksville NY, **** ******, **** ****** and I (along with some maniac drummer whose name escapes me) worked ourselves into one helluva rock'n'roll band.
It was an odd mix of talent...I was enamored with progressive rock and fusion, and **** and **** were rock'n'roll animals. **** was the more accomplished guitar player, but it was **** who had a real rock'n'roll heart.
**** was the only one of us who really understood that - at its core - the best rock'n'roll was a couple of raw guitars, killer vocals and straight-to-the-heart lyrics. I didn't realize it then, but **** was Keith to my Mick Taylor...Lennon to my Harrison...from watching him, I finally understood what playing rock guitar was all about.

**** and **** turned me on to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' debut album, and for that I'll be eternally grateful. "American Girl" and "Breakdown" became staples in our set. They also became two of my all-time favorite songs, and they turned me into a TP and the Heartbreakers fan for the next 40+ years.

Like ****, Petty knew what great rock'n'roll was all about...pure, unadorned, real, heartfelt and loud !
If TP didn't do anything past "Damn The Torpedoes", his place in rock history would have been secured...but he just kept doing what he always did - writing and playing songs with one of the best rock'n'roll bands that this country ever produced...

Gone too soon....thanks for everything,Tom. Rest easy....

Petty live experiences:

— Grateful Dead & Bob Dylan/TP& the Heartbreakers, Rich Stadium, Buffalo, July 4, 1986: A legendarily terrible Grateful Dead show, the only time I ever saw them and I wasn't even a fan then. My friends and I were in a significant minority at Rich Stadium in being there to see (in order of priority) Petty, Dylan and the Dead. The Dead played first and eventually got off stage. (Where Jerry famously collapsed and landed in the hospital.) Then Petty and the Heartbreakers played, with Dylan cycling in and out. That part of the show was good, but as my first Tom Petty live experience something less than ideal.

— July 1987, Darien Lake NY: On the Let Me Up tour. Good show.

— September 1995, Knoxville TN: On the Wildflowers tour. GREAT show, best I ever saw them, Petty was wearing a leather jacket with long fringes that whirled when he spun around, it was a sold-out show and the crowd was wired and the band was just on fire. Fantastic.

— June 2013, Bonnaroo: They were the closing band on Sunday night — a slot that had to that point been mostly reserved for jam bands as a nod to the festival's origins. As a nod to that, they included a cover of "Friend of the Devil" in the set (bringing my Petty/Dead experience full circle). It started lightly drizzling about halfway through the set, but the crowd was sufficiently buzzed and the evening was warm and it was the last night of the festival, so everyone stayed and danced in the light rain. They closed with "American Girl." I didn't know it would be my last time seeing him, but it was a good one to go out on.

I got to see him a few times, and to be honest they all seemed kind of run of the mill. I wish i saw one of those fabled club shows here.

i saw him with dylan, which was rambling but fun. i *almost* saw him in 1983 at the nassau coliseum. this one still makes me cringe. the show had been rescheduled from its original date to one that was inconvenient for us. we made it in to see nick lowe's opening set but had to leave before tom petty came on. i can't for the life of me remember what was so important that we had to miss TP.

Out of TP?

ha that doesn't ring a bell though.

Stuck inside of Gainesville with the no TP blues again

TP & The Shartmakers

when i saw him on the tour in early oughts, i thought 02 but maybe it was 05, i was comped a seat in a VIP box for work, my first time in a box.

that tour Petty instructed the venue stop drinks/food to the boxes at the start of his set because he hated the extra distraction and richies talking during the show etc

my boss was SO mad about it & would not shut up about it for months afterwards

i could not have cared less, i thought being in the box was weird enough as it was being penned off from the crowd like fancy zoo animals, without adding personalized service into the mix.

and it was a great show.

Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy6cMrXH09U

love the guitars. love the vocals. also i'm pretty sure i like every song about the radio or that mentions radio.

mister messthetics himself chuck warner was selling insane and obscure 45s at the record show yesterday and i thought it was cool that he had a copy of this picture sleeve single alongside all the KBD rarities!