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

"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.

i saw molly hatchet when all the original members were very much alive (as far as i know), opening for kansas, with whom i was briefly infatuated. it was a strange pairing. my only memory of molly hatchet was realizing "oh, they're the guys who do that song."

Kansas listening thread when

my very first solo rock concert was Molly Hatchet, in 1979 at age 13

Rick Danko opened!

Kansas listening thread when

― calstars, Thursday, March 14, 2024 4:05 PM (fifty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion?

I feel like Kansas are the group I have the hardest time selling people on, but their first five albums (and their obligatory double live album) all rule.

why late in the afternoon in the u.s. does ilm get all kansassed out?

The two songs by Kansas I know are fun/fine when they come on the radio, but I figure if I've made it this far without hearing anything else by them, then I've probably heard enough.

Those two songs are good but unrepresentative. The rest of their catalog is probably best described as "redneck Yes, plus poorly camouflaged Christianity."

lol. and true.

and they wrote a ton of lyrics! holy toledo you should check out their lyrics sleeves. they are endless. who knew kansas had so much to say?

i went to see kansas with blue oyster cult at a casino in wisconsin about 10 years ago, it was good but we were mad we went for BOC and it made it look like they were headlining but kansas headlined, maybe it was one of those co-headlining tours where they switched off every night

"Hurt": Yeah, very Arista-era Dead. Another one that feels like it came out of a jam. I like the verse melody. They're still figuring out their strengths, so they don't build more on the foundation.

Magnolia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6htoFxagOE