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

you know what, rules are made to be broken. i'll do the b-side now.

I think there is a current Petty best of collection that includes Mudcrutch.

i vote yes to "draggin" and travelin, no to muddin'

Yes to "Stop Draggin'"! It's his biggest hit .

I Don't Know What To Say To You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x49sFyOZFG4

well now i have to go add that to the Not Dylan thread...

well technically draggin' isn't HIS hit you know. and now one vote for wilburys! and no to mudcrutch. might have to take a vote.

The guitar crinkles are lovely. This defines "B-side."

basically I'm in for any ILX mention of Stevie Nicks.

lol yeah "I Don't Know What to Say to You" is like he saved up a drawer full of Dylanisms (lyrics and vocal affect) and then dumped them all here. Pretty good for what it is.

I remember where I was when I first heard "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around". Columbus, Ohio. 1981. In a car. We were staying with family friends. the little girl of the family was singing along to the song and everyone laughed. I hadn't heard it yet! The family friends were housesitting for their next door neighbors and their neighbors had "cable television" and they had JUST - that weekend - aired a new cable channel called...........................MTV. My brother and I never left that neighbor's house!

another Wilburys vote here, thanks but no thanks to Mudcrutch

and yes all the B-sides please

am i the only mudcrutch fan? i'm trying to justify wilburys because it was such a group thing with different singers, etc...

but i'll go with whatever. that is 21 wilburys tunes though....

though i have already excluded the two early mudcrutch singles. didn't figure they were canon really. we still could include them of course.

We don't have to cover every Wilbury tune? Maybe the ones with clear Tom Petty leads like "Last Night"?

yeah, that makes sense.

but mudcrutch is basically tp & the heartbreakers and one old guy nobody knows from florida, right? seems hard to ignore. wait, why don't you guys like that stuff? you think its boring? i like the guitars.

the wilbury situation is one we should handle with *porky pig stutter* delicacy

haha

I'm totally good with a selection of Petty-led Wilburys tunes

Definitely include "End of the Line," I think he sings all the verses on that right?

Yep!

Fun to hear "I Don't Know What To Say To You" in the middle of these arena/stripclub-ready rockers, a bit of Bob Wills.

"Baby's A Rock'n'Roller": Petty Doz Slade! Definitely not something I'll get to say again in this rundown. Another one of those stereotypical '70s moves found on these early albums.

"I Don't Know What To Say To You": A fun lil' '60s Dylan/Roger Miller pastiche. Would have been an interesting additional card in this album's pack, but maybe a left turn too far for the tracklist?

this thread should 100% include Mudcrutch…it's the band with TP on bass, Bernie Leadon's brother on 2nd guitar and anudder drummer… what could possibly be an argument to not include?

maybe people just really don't like the name MUDCRUTCH.

it is two albums of mud...its a commitment.

the only argument would be "you can't have music in which Ron Blair or Howie or Stan or Steve Ferrone weren't in the rhythm section… otherwise, those two records would be as canonical as Wildflowers and FMF…

other argument is that we already started chugging with the debut, no reason to go back in time

We can always do some Mudcrutch bonus tracks at the end if we want.

XP I think the Mudcrutch in question are the two reunion albums from the 2000s.

yeah 2000s-2010s shit is what I'm talking about… has the 70s Mudcrutch material ever been officially reissued?

Yes, the 2008 and 2016 Mudcrutch albums. Which, to me, are just Tom Petty records really. with Benmont and Mike Campbell.

I also like that Mike and Tom produced both albums. They are very homespun/DIY.

the 2nd Mudcrutch album is also the last album that Tom Petty recorded. :(

baby's a rock'n'roller - bubbleglam! i'm enjoying how the heartbreakers, on these first two albums, sound like a band that's still trying to figure out what exactly it wants to be, still working its way through its influences, next phase new wave dance craze anyways. a throwaway, but a fun one. (too many apostrophes for one song title though.)

i don't know what to say to you - next phase new wave folk craze. but this is just a goof, right?

wilburys yes stevie yes mudcrutch yes why not?

has the 70s Mudcrutch material ever been officially reissued?

A number of their original recordings appeared alongside some unreleased pre-Heartbreakers Petty solo stuff on the Playback box.

The rarities/unreleased discs from Playback:

Disc five: Through the Cracks
"On the Street" (1973 Mudcrutch outtake) (Benmont Tench) – 2:10
"Depot Street" (1974 Mudcrutch outtake) [Petty] – 3:26
"Cry to Me" (1974 Solomon Burke cover by Mudcrutch) [Bert Russell] – 3:06
"Don't Do Me Like That" (1974 Mudcrutch version) [Petty] – 2:47
"I Can't Fight It" (1974 Mudcrutch outtake) [Petty] – 3:00
"Since You Said You Loved Me" (1974 outtake featuring Al Kooper, Jim Gordon, and Emory Gordy) [Petty] – 4:40
"Louisiana Rain" (original 1975 version featuring Al Kooper, Jim Gordon, and Emory Gordy) [Petty] – 4:22
"Keeping Me Alive" (from 1982 "Long After Dark" sessions) [Petty] – 2:59
"Turning Point" (from 1982 "Long After Dark" sessions) [Petty] – 2:52
"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" (demo from "Hard Promises" 1981 sessions) [Petty, Campbell] – 4:11
"The Apartment Song" (demo from "Southern Accents" 1984 sessions) [Petty] – 2:37
"Big Boss Man" ("Southern Accents" 1984 sessions) [Al Smith, Luther Dixon] – 2:41
"The Image of Me" (Conway Twitty cover; "Southern Accents" 1984 sessions) [Wayne Kemp] – 2:33
"Moon Pie" ("Let Me Up [I've Had Enough]" 1986 sessions) [Petty] – 1:05
"The Damage You've Done" (country version from "Let Me Up [I've Had Enough]" 1986 sessions) [Petty] – 3:16

Disc six: Nobody's Children
"Got My Mind Made Up" (from 1986 "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" sessions; Bob Dylan wrote different lyrics for his "Knocked Out Loaded" version) [Petty] – 2:51
"Ways to Be Wicked" (from 1986 "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" sessions) [Petty, Campbell] – 3:27
"Can't Get Her Out" (from 1986 "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" sessions) [Petty] – 3:11
"Waiting for Tonight" (from 1988 sessions featuring The Bangles on backing vocals) [Petty] – 3:30
"Travelin'" (1988 outtake from an aborted Heartbreakers album) [Petty] – 3:15
"Baby, Let's Play House" (Elvis Presley cover from July 1993 "Mary Jane's Last Dance" sessions") (Arthur Gunter) – 2:33
"Wooden Heart" (Elvis Presley cover from July 1993 "Mary Jane's Last Dance" sessions) (Bert Kaempfert, Kay Twomey, Fred Wise, Ben Weisman) – 2:09
"God's Gift to Man" (August 1992 outtake from an aborted Heartbreakers follow-up to "Into the Great Wide Open") [Petty] – 4:18
"You Get Me High" (August 1992 outtake from an aborted Heartbreakers follow-up to "Into the Great Wide Open") [Petty] – 2:48
"Come on Down to My House" (from July 1993 "Mary Jane's Last Dance" sessions) [Petty] – 3:05
"You Come Through" (demo from 1986 "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" sessions featuring Lenny Kravitz overdubs recorded in August 1995) [Petty / Campbell] – 5:15
"Up in Mississippi Tonight" (Debut 1973 A-side for Mudcrutch) [Petty] – 3:28

The latter disc has been made available by itself on streaming for awhile.

Interesting to see that "Don't Do Me Like That", "Louisiana Rain", and "The Apartment Song" were all trunk songs.

"Waiting for Tonight" is the best, we should incorporate that in here at a minimum.

oh the mudcrutch reunion? yeah we should def include those

sorry for the nonsense

"Waiting For Tonight" deserves a thesis in th3 basis of those Bangles harmonies alone.

i have to remind myself that their gigantic hit "last dance for mary jane" wasn't even on an album just at the end of their greatest hits package. i will put it up in the proper place chronologically. there is a funny moment on that interview i posted above where tom talks about his dislike for "bonus" tracks and live tracks at the end of albums. the label asked for a new song for the greatest hits album. i have always felt the same way. the worst for me is a greatest hits CD from a 60s/70s/80s bands that features reunion live tracks from 1996 at the end of the disc. so sad. make an extra disc for that nonsense and leave me out of it.

Refugee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFnOfpIJL0M

OK, here we go.

What a difference Jimmy Iovine makes. This single BURSTS out of the speakers; every instrument is afforded its own crisp, warm space. Apparently Iovine hated Stan(ley)'s drumming.

I've heard it so many times that I'm having a little trouble finding anything to say about it. It's like describing the air outside. His voice was definitely not like other voices. That was one thing I remember from when I first heard this song. It sounded so different from all the 70s rock voices.

Petty's an interesting case: a punk-adjacent reactionary for whom stubbornness was a mode, not a fad. The spirit of "Refugee" pops up later to lesser effect in "I Won't Back Down" and to greater effect when he fought (and won) his case against raising record prices two years later.

super well-constructed song, solid recording, major leap in radio readiness, great yelping vocal (i have a thing for singers who choose keys that are almost out of their range e.g. petty, alex chilton, carl wilson), and obviously the song had legs, but on the other hand it's sort of standard-plus radio fare for its time and not really for me. there are a lot of things tom gets worked up about that don't resonate with me. standing my ground, not backing down, not having to live like a refugee, etc. sometimes i get worked up about waiting. i already miss power pop tom. i get why he had to move on. "listen to her heart" doesn't get you to the superbowl. sorta like when springsteen bulked up and developed that arena-sized bellow. he lost something too.

one thing he clearly retains from his power pop era is his guilt -- in this case that they broke up and now she's living like a refugee. whatever that means.

is this thing really a metaphor for his "breaking up" with his old record label? and now he's the one living like a refugee? that's even less relatable.