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

soon enough petty would have plenty of money and cocaine

So many contemporary rock and rollers would've blamed HER for falling for the guy w/the money and the cocaine.

DON: well, yeah.

soon enough he would be declaring bankruptcy and suing his label and hiding the master tapes of his new album from them.

Petty was so strapped for cash that the band went on a mini tour to raise money for the case. Dubbing it The Lawsuit Tour, the band wore bitterness on their sleeves, even selling shirts to fans that read “Why MCA?” across the front.

Even when the label thought they could seize the tapes for the new record, Petty got crafty with storing them somewhere else. After the label got permission to seize the recordings from the studio, Petty convinced one of his guitar techs to hide the tapes in an undisclosed location. That way, when Petty was asked about the whereabouts of the tapes in court, he wouldn’t be lying when he said he didn’t know.

As the trial was wrapping up, MCA finally buckled, knowing that Petty would never back down from getting his songs back. Instead of welcoming him back to MCA, the label gave Petty his imprint, Backstreet Records, where he could release his albums without worrying about any of his royalties falling into the wrong hands.

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-reason-why-tom-petty-sued-his-own-label/

THEN he would have money and cocaine. he had to wait a bit.

"Scott and I don’t know each other irl but as Biden says, come on man. I pretty much joined ilm to talk about Orchestra Luna."

I stand corrected! i must have missed that thread. my apologies.

I also love the laconic roll of "Buddy, you don't even know her" — almost like it's one long word.

Surely the best use of "buddy" in popular song.

Petty achieves a rare trick here: he can speak confidently about HER heart without sounding like he controls her. It's in the way he comes down on those last syllables: "She's gonna listen to her heart, it's gonna tell her what to do..."

both of those syllables fall on the downbeats coming out of the 2/4 bars that thus sang freud talks about upthread. words and rhythm working really well together there. the craft throughout this song is immense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIJc3HQBUEI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4B3tivQqGs

Couple extra thoughts on Listen to Her Heart. The backing and harmony vocals are great, I don't know who all is layered in there. Lynch, Tench and Blair all sang, maybe an underappreciated part of the Heartbreakers' oomph. I love love love the coda. They have some of the best codas. And that final corny-but-heroic DAH/Da-DAH/Da-DAAAAAHHHH closing. Pros in the best way.

No Second Thoughts

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

#Dreamsfadehopedieshard

springsteen with tablas? interesting experiment.

strikes me as a little "we need one more...anyone got anything...?"

i like how in that interview i posted above tom credits denny cordell for teaching them how to work in a studio by letting them loose and having them jam and just get familiar with the process and also playing old records for them. and he also says that if they had signed to a label like Capitol they probably would have been thrown into a studio, made one semi-decent album that tanked, gotten dropped by the label, and ended up back in Florida! Ha! sometimes those first steps can be crucial.

And Cordell was robbing them blind. When Petty confronted him, Cordell said something, "Darling, that's the way the business works." Petty forgave him years later.

which is why its amazing that he still gives him so much credit! most people would just say that they were born in the studio and knew everything on their own.

i feel like getting robbed was the price of getting an album out into stores. what you did after that was up to you.

This one's pleasant. Kinda reminds me of "Bron-Yr-Aur" by Zeppelin. Unless you're the Ramones you probably need a few songs like this, just to give everybody in the band a break during the set. The "yeah, yeah ooh yeah yeah" thing is nice but I'd love one more extra-hooky hook tbh. Maybe the title line was gonna be that, and then the quaaludes kicked in right as Petty got to it..

i hear the seeds of "wildfowers"/"she's the one" era petty here. i like it.

Yeah I've always liked No Second Thoughts. I agree it's a slight thing, but good vibes and the "yeah yeah ooo yeah yeah" is nice.

Petty Dog Pondering. Sounds like spring to me!

Also, not the actor but

Phil Seymour – backing vocals on "Magnolia"

"No Second Thought": Yeah, this totally forecasts the off the cuff feel and POV of the post-Lynne stuff (even down to the title). Not much else going on, but who else sounded like this in '78?

label-mate j.j. cale?

i really love j.j. cale. from beginning to end pretty much. he never wavered from his sound. pretty impressive.

Yeah, Cale is a good one.

i love this one. i put it on that Not Dylan thread. its Leon Russell and J.J. Cale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpgfJf5ZT_I

who else sounded like this in '78?

wings,maybe?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSJ4xSmonr8

Sounds like a rip of the stones “favorite girl” to me

Factory

boy, Paul sure could play bass.

Restless

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5QKYC7yp3o

i like it. all tight and contained, lots of potential energy and sharp corners. i like how it dances around the 12-bar blues changes, turning the 4-chord into a chorus. harmonies are great.

"Restless": Another one forecasting the sound & feel of where they'd go on ...Torpedoes. A thin idea they the absolute most of, terrific liquid groove with lots of color added by the players.

Continuing the Physical Graffiti references: feels distantly like a relatively laid-back, Southern take on The Wanton Song (with the organ from Night Flight). Worthy album track.

I feel like The Eagles stole this slinky groove concept for "Those Shoes"

without the groove

I think that's just what happens when those respective acts 'Get Funky'...

cmon those shoes is a great break, beasties used to to good effect
i know it's not cool to like eagles and cool to like tom petty but that's just wrong

oh I like 'em both, I just think the Eagles heard this and that it was an influence

This has nothing to do with thinking the Eagles cool or uncool and everything to do with my not hearing a good grove in "These Shoes" (the Beasties found one).

found it? the loop is a clean drum/bass break right at the beginning of the song they sample pretty straight

those shoes is all joe walsh. the funky eagle. even if he didn't write it.

Restless is good, i love the groove in this

and yeah it reminds me a bit of Those Shoes too. Kinda that vibe or similar.

i like the way the groove builds up to the chorus & breaks like a wave
lots of songs do this obv but i always like when you can really feel it & anticipate it

i don't think i have a lot to say about this track. i like the drums at the beginning. but maybe i don't love it? for southern boys its not as heavy or as funky as lynyrd skynyrd obviously. i could hear 38 special or the rossington-collins band doing it. but in the end its not that memorable to me.

yeah, kinda “second-tier” southern lol