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

Here Comes My Girl

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

there is also the video. which is shorter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4nPa35CZPI

fyi: that little mike campbell smile at 1:34 in the video is adorable.

such a cool song. best byrdsy chorus.

I love the anxious verses and comedown of a chorus -- the relief in his voice is palpable.

who can complain about this? great tension in the verses and release in the byrdsy chorus. tom as everyman. nice little verlaine curlicue in the "watch her walk" part, though it does extend the song out to AOR length, which is good and bad. also the tempo has really slacked off from the first two albums. i'm observing, not complaining.

springsteen needs the girl and a car, whereas tom just needs the girl.

The guitars sound amazing on this song. Apparently written the same week as Refugee, both songs were on the same cassette from Campbell. Good week!

Also love lots of little bits of the vocal cadence, but especially "it just feels so GOOD and so FREE and so RIGHT/and I KNOW ..." there's a bit of the Southern soul belter in there.

where’s the stan lynch slander now???

quick little snare pattern and you are *in it*

he sounds like two singers here, the timbre of his voice noticeably changing between each pre-chorus and chorus. it's like there's a switch being flipped between the "here" and the "comes" of each chorus, moving from soul shouter mode to power pop puppy dog mode as soon as his girl appears.

"Here Comes My Girl": Didn't think I knew this one until I got a used copy of Greatest Hits in high school, and was like "Oh, *that song*...". Still the least overplayed of the Torpedoes singles/airplay tracks, it's another winner and a great change of pace from "Refugee". Tipsy mentioned Southern Soul upthread: this does feel like a clever fusion of the Byrds and '70s Hi Records Soul (Al Green/Ann Peebles).

favorite TP moment in this song:

“Watch ‘er walk”

something about the casual drawl, idk

Distant xpost, but the shaker in "Refugee" is by Jim Keltner. Maybe that was in the classic album doc? Supposedly he was in the same studio and heard the song when he was walking by and basically just said "that song needs a shaker."

I once heard Amy Ray's punkish solo band do a cover, and it ruled.

Even The Losers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ue4_MWwKY8

alternate thread title: "It's just the normal noises in here."

i don't have enough words to describe how much i like this song. stupendous! monumental! lots of good things! its kinda perfect. sheesh.

i really like this one. it's almost a groove song. same syncopated pulse beat as the byrds' "mr. tambourine man" but amped up for the rock generation. it's like they kept the pulse from "mr. tambourine man" but dispensed with the riff, and the resolving chords, which is almost minimalist in its maximalism. there's nothing much musically to distinguish the chorus from the verse but that's ok; he's got a strong lyrical hook to tag it.

my favorite Tom Petty song

I always associate it with Deacon Blues, we all want a name when we lose, and to get lucky sometimes

Iirc this is the one where the title/chorus just came to him while he was riffing on lyrics during a take.

my favorite Tom Petty song

Me too! Or at least it was my #1 when we did the Petty poll. Lyrically and musically I think it’s kind of the ur Petty song, the title could cover his entire discography.

And structurally it’s so minimalist — the only two verses come right up front, then it’s just chorus-bridge-chorus-to-coda.

ur-Petty is a good call, this is definitely the purest distillation of all the things Tom Petty does best

two cars parked on the overpass
rocks hit the water like broken glass

someone with better ears than me can correct me, but it's remarkable how many of his hits hinge on bright chords. not a lot of moody minor key brooding in that guy.

"refugee" is a counterexample, but in general i agree.

yes omg maybe my fave TP song

WE SMOKED CIGARETTES AND WE STARED AT THE MOON

<3

and that intro audio is the best lol - shoutout to Marcie Campbell

i love that petty's losers still get lucky sometimes and generally don't seem all that bummed out. how could they with such a great tune just for them.

two cars parked on the overpass
rocks hit the water like broken glass

I love this couplet so much. And the way it sets up "God it's such a drag when you live in the past."

yes, my fave moment in his whole catalog, glad others feel the same

another benmont tench special here. the organ sound he and iovine achieved on damn the torpedoes is as good as any organ has ever sounded.

brilliant song, obviously.

someone with better ears than me can correct me, but it's remarkable how many of his hits hinge on bright chords. not a lot of moody minor key brooding in that guy.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, March 28, 2024 8:45 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is true, but he does have a way of making a major chord sound wistful. like on this song–that little lydian melody he uses when it goes to the major iv on "keep a little bit of pride"

Iovine was totally in Springsteen mode at this point, having just worked on Darkness, Patti Smith's Easter, and about to do The River and Making Movies.

Also in re "bright chords," the bridge is a lovely use of a suspended A chord, introduces a little tension and longing without going full-on minor key. *chef's kiss*

And I had no idea this wasn't a single, I heard it on the radio a lot. And it's even on the Greatest Hits. Guess it was just a rock-radio fave.

also noting that he learned his lesson on sequencing an album from You're Gonna Get It, this time they come roaring out of the gate with three total undeniable classics

the ur Petty song

yes! the platonic ideal of petty songform: big, open folk-rock verse-chorus-verse with dreamlike imagery and little melodic twists like, in this exact case, the turn the choruses take on "keep a little bit of pride," which if you asked me how tom petty's sense of melody works, i'd just play those two bars and say it works exactly like that. it looks so simple and straightahead on paper and it's ridiculously hard to pull off in a way that's interesting and resonant and he basically makes its sound so damn simple and straightahead. i dream in english. i think petty dreamt in this exact songform.

and speaking of springsteen mode, this one reminds me of the river, the album not the song, in the way it distills what he wants to say, and how we wants to say it, down to its very essence.

also: third song in a row that fades out. i wouldn't mind if the heartbreakers started figuring out how to end a song.

I keep coming back to that...I've mentioned The River a few times on this thread, and I guess I think of Springsteen as the bigger/more important artist and think of Petty being influenced by Springsteen (like The Wild One, Forever as an example)...but I never thought of the fact that maybe Springsteen was influenced by Petty? Just the economy of what Petty did, the more streamlined much less Wagnerian/Wall of Sound aesthetic, the tenser, tighter version that Petty does really seems to point the way towards Bruce's River/Born in the USA era

also noting that he learned his lesson on sequencing an album from You're Gonna Get It, this time they come roaring out of the gate with three total undeniable classics

This is a perfectly sequenced album. Five rockers on the first side, and then the second side kicks off with "Don't Do Me Like That" which leads into the jamming "You Tell Me," one more rocker ("What Are You Doin' In My Life?") and then the country comedown ("Louisiana Rain") to wrap it all up in under 37 minutes. There's not one bad song on it. It's incredible.

the economy of what Petty did, the more streamlined much less Wagnerian/Wall of Sound aesthetic, the tenser, tighter version that Petty does really seems to point the way towards Bruce's River/Born in the USA era

and maybe even the guitar sound, especially on the river?

i wouldn't mind if the heartbreakers started figuring out how to end a song.

there's this pretty amazing "extended" version of "Here Comes My Girl" w/ a killer outro. I see why they faded it, but it is awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3NTVKFdV-I

I don't think Bruce took much influence from Petty, tbh, but there is some overlap of influences, of course. Bruce was once famously described at the '50s plus the '60s, but you don't get much British Invasion in Springsteen. Petty is kinda the '60s plus the '70s, with a heavy emphasis on the Beatles and Byrds and Stones and stuff, plus southern rock.

xp !!!!

"Here Comes My Girl" w/ a killer outro

wow!

and maybe even the guitar sound, especially on the river?

― fact checking cuz,

otm

there is that 50s-influenced 60s stuff that they loved. del shannon, bobby fuller, surf rock stuff. pre-beatles kinda sounds. rockabilly. everly brothers.

x-post

Yeah, Petty produced a Del Shannon record in 1981 while Springsteen and Van Zandt produced Gary U.S. Bonds.

Though Bruce's economy and lean sound of that era was kind of influenced by punk and New Wave, too, without sounding like either. Petty kinda was, too.