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

This song is great. It starts simple, so you think you know where it's gonna go, and yeah there are definitely ideas he'd bring back on "Don't Do Me Like That" and "You Got Lucky," but then they go crazy and I love it. The strings (real or a synth?) sound like they're going for Isaac Hayes string grandeur on a budget, there's that sharp, ringing acoustic guitar in the right speaker, the female background vocalists are an unexpected and welcome surprise, and the lyrics are basically nothing, but they have just enough implied drama to really work in context. This is a wild song that gets weirder (and better) the more you listen to it.

In terms of live performance, JiC more or less otm. According to Setlist.fm, he played it only 14 times, all but one of them on the 1978 tour for this album. Then it popped up once in 1981, and never again.

On a quick scan, it looks like that's true of most of this album except the two hits — songs got played on this tour and then at best a handful of times after. EXCEPT for one cut, which became something of a live staple. Any guesses?

there's no question that "American Girl" wasn't part of the Petty rock radio canon in the '80s: even during peak Full Moon Fever/Wilbury, I'm confident that I didn't hear it once on the radio, and since I wasn't super into him, I probly never heard it before Silence of the Lambs. And I think the reason for that is two fold…

1. It's really quite candy, quite power pop in ways that commercial rock radio didn't really fuck with in the 80s. Marshall Crenshaw didn't get any play in that format, but the Smithereens did. Cuz Marshall and "american Girl" have a spring in their step, a lightness that Smithereens and radio rock singles mostly foreswore. Early Beatles and Byrds, which sounded AM and that girls liked it too much, was out, and the portent of late Beatles and CS&N, the FM music of the serious minded older brother, was emphasized for many many years. The times obit of Eric Carmen quotes some guy saying that power pop was invented in the early 70s by Raspberries et al, but is it not fundamental that power-pop is the name of the kind of music that the Beatles and the Who stopped making in 1967 and was later adopted by people like Crenshaw and Carmen? (it really is odd that the Beatles style from 1962-1966 was the most popular style of music the world had ever encountered to that point, and it stopped dead in 1967, never really being truly popular ever again.)

2. It was our beloved Glenn, whose dedication to ILM is such that he and Don continue to offer their maunderings herein on subjects hither and yon some 8 years after his own death, who said in the Eagles doc that the advent of classic rock radio was a boon to their legacy and to their pocketbooks. But to me 1986 was the year that classic rock fully transitioned over from AOR. AOR really was more a fluid, almost Top 40 approach, playing shit that was out at the time, and would only go back about five years. The AOR station in Louisville played 38 Special, Coug, Dire Straits, VH, Robert Plant, the Firm, singles from whichever Rolling Stones album it would have been, the singles from Building the Perfect Beast, and stuff that had a certain shit-kicker quality that characterized the Mid South, like ""Jammin Me" "You Got Lucky" and "Runaway Trains." But no AC/DC, because you will recall that from For those… to Razor's Edge, that band's records produced no memorable radio fare, and no Zep, because that band was defunct. No 70s Van Morrison, no Dylan of any kind, no 70s Springsteen (he wasn't particularly big in lville, and my understanding is that the acts just mentioned were perennial on east coast rock radio), no Fleetwood Mac or Eagles, and certainly no hair metal or anything new wave-associated. And no "American Girl," not only because it doesn't sound the way rock radio needed it to, but that it was too old. "Breakdown" was the only pre Dame the Torpedoes" tune that stuck around…

And then AOR mutates into classic rock, and then you have an unchanging canon: or rather, it changes at a glacial pace. Who's been let into the classic rock radio canon? Nirvana, U2, RHCP, Metallica, Pearl Jam…and who else?

Hmmm...my AOR station played Plant + Zep, mid '80s Zep, Don Henley, The Cars, whatever new single Rush released, a lot of Petty and Coog, some Fleetwood Mac -- well into 1992 or 1993.

I think the power-poppishness of "American Girl" is why it didn't get as much rock radio play as "Refugee," for sure. But it was definitely playlisted pretty regularly on my local rawk station in Rochester, NY. As was "Breakdown" and the two hits from You're Gonna Get It.

Basically there was no Petty album up until Let Me Up ... that didn't add at least a couple of tracks to regular rock radio rotation, at least in my neck of the woods.

"you're gonna get it" is cool, really dramatic. campbell and tench sound fantastic.

"Jammin' Me" didn't get airplay, tips? That was his biggest AOR hit to date even though for some reason lots of people (inc Petty) don't consider part of the canon.

Any song that mentions Joe Piscopo in the lyrics is permanently locked out of classic status. It's in the Constitution.

EXCEPT for one cut, which became something of a live staple. Any guesses?

"Listen to her heart"?

100%

Any song that mentions Joe Piscopo in the lyrics is permanently locked out of classic status. It's in the Constitution.

But Petty pleaded for someone -- anyone -- to take him back.

"Jammin' Me" and "Runaway Trains" both got airplay when that album came out, but my sense is that they didn't stick or join the canon — the ever-growing snowball of inescapable Petty. But also, I kinda stopped listening to rock radio around that time so I may be wrong.

And the live cut here I mean is besides "Listen to Her Heart" and "I Need to Know." There's one non-hit from You're Gonna Get It that was on the setlist for a bunch of tours into the early 2000s.

The legacy of "Jammin' Me" was really hurt by it being left off the Greatest Hits.

Yup -- a bigger hit than "Breakdown" and 'Into the Great Wide Open.'

I suspect Petty's reluctance to discuss the worst period of his life -- the arson, marital trouble -- prompted him to keep it off the comp. A shame. I'll have more to say in a couple months, but I consider it and Let Me Up among the best things he's recorded.

Yeah, we can talk more about this when the time comes, but I was just thinking how odd it is the way Greatest Hits short-sells his non-FMF '80s work: three songs representing for five (counting the live one) albums!

I definitely heard "American Girl" as much as any other Petty on classic rock radio in the '80s. When "Silence of the Lambs" came out a lot of people pointed out its good use, but I was 15? 16? and I already knew the song. For sure his MTV dominance made sure he got reciprocal love on the airwaves, and post "Full Moon Fever" there was no way a cut like "American Girl" needs a movie soundtrack to coax it out of mothballs. Maybe it depended on where you were and the quality of your classic rock station?

"You're Gonna Get It": A verse that's in your face like a chorus, a chorus that's not in your face until the coda, synths...who *are* these guys? Very "1978" the way some of the the album cuts on the debut are "1976."

would love to hear comments on this? is this the right spot to talk about this?

https://www.discogs.com/master/656871-Tom-Petty-And-The-Heartbreakers-Official-Live-Leg

also this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRGs7tJkapg

And the live cut here I mean is besides "Listen to Her Heart" and "I Need to Know."

doing a full album listen rn and this has gotta be "Restless"

I will reveal when we get to it! (Or of course anyone curious can spend 5 minutes on Setlist.)

TP and the Heartbreakers is such an odd band, all these clear elements of southern rock, country and soul without really fitting/hitting any of those categories.

but also seeming fresher/newer/short/sharp without being new wave or skinny tie or power pop? i mean the cars had been hippies too and they kinda fooled everyone into thinking they were from mars. but TP&HB didn't seem like they were from mars. and yet they weren't lynyrd skynyrd. or any of the southern stuff out there. i guess 38 special would end up being a hybrid of sorts.

just now watching TULSA KING on PARAMOUNT PLUS starring SYLVESTER STALLONE MARTIN STARR AND DANA DELANY at the end of SEASON ONE EPISODE SEVEN while STALLONE'S character DWIGHT "THE GENERAL" MANFREDI learns some disturbing news "SAVING GRACE" by TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS

is played at the bar.

that is all.

They were the most California of the Southern rockers and the most Southern of the California rockers. There's a strong West Coast vibe in there too, including the Byrds obv.

Patterson Hood said Petty & The Heartbreakers were the best Southern Rock Band.

oh right and they had that eagles connection too. bernie leadon's brother was in Mudcrutch. i hate to bring it up...

all roads lead to don henley...

XPS Actually his co-favorite

Doing what I do, I am often asked about my favorite Southern rock band. It’s a term I always hated (and used it with that in mind as part of a title for one of Drive-By Truckers’ albums). The question is usually prefaced with another, framed as a simple choice: Allman Brothers or Lynyrd Skynyrd?

The correct answer for me is R.E.M. and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. On any given day, the Heartbreakers could be the greatest band on the planet.

https://bittersoutherner.com/from-the-southern-perspective/music/like-sonny-liston-tom-petty-patterson-hood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7l5pA3EPug

When The Time Comes
- nice Byrdsian track that says to the world you guys do whatever new punk thing you’re doing, we’re gonna be over here doing our own thing

You’re Gonna Get It
- it’s not quite there yet BUT this is an example of how Tom as singer can change the context of a song by his delivery
This COULD be threatening with a different less nuanced, less present singer
But Petty puts the focus on himself as the false-bravado clearly-lovesick dude who wishes he didnt love her so much, when this song could easily be aggressive and full dude-rejection- energy.
To me it’s an early unformed example of how Petty as a singer can do to a song what Brando could do in a movie. It’s all the little choices of phrasing & backing off insteaf of belting that make his songs so much more textured and human
Sometimes even more than the lyrics would suggest
Also so much swagger from these Heartbreakers! chef’s kiss
Love it

Hurt

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

"Thank God for California" is not something you ever heard from Florida rockers Molly Hatchet.

who are playing here in, like, two days. would almost be tempted to go see them if i wasn't afraid that a Trump rally might break out...

those little garcia squiggles have me picturing bob weir singing this for some reason. an 18-bar blues? cool!

Funky break followed by mandolin flourishes…weird

re. molly hatchet, "As of August 2, 2020, all of the band's original members are deceased. The Molly Hatchet trademark is owned by Bobby Ingram, their guitarist since 1987 (when he replaced founding member Dave Hlubek, who rejoined the band eighteen years later and stayed with them until his death in 2017). The other veteran in the lineup is keyboardist John Galvin, who has been a member since 1983 (with the exception of a break between mid-1990s). Also included in the current lineup are veteran musicians of the Southern scene, drummer Shawn Beamer, bassist Tim Lindsey and vocalist Parker Lee."

Good playing, sounds like the Dead, total filler.

would love to hear comments on this? is this the right spot to talk about this?

https://www.discogs.com/master/656871-Tom-Petty-And-The-Heartbreakers-Official-Live-Leg

My hometown Petty evangelist let me tape his copy back in the day, so used to play it regularly. Great sound quality iirc. And i always thought that Dog on the Run was a jam

Dead Petty absolutely my least favorite Petty. There's a pseudo-Dead song on Mojo, otherwise one of my favorite Petty albums, that's a total speed bump.

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

Hard pass

That's the Bonnaroo show I saw. The Dead cover was apropos there, it was in deference to the tradition (up to that point, since abandoned) of having a big jam band close out the fest on Sunday night.

Overall a really good show!

It's funny, there are complete videos online of 2 of the 4 Petty shows I saw. But not of the best one.

those little garcia squiggles have me picturing bob weir singing this for some reason

and those little mid 60s beatle gtr riffs starting at 1:44 have be pre-picturing the traveling wilburys.