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

For a split second "You Tell Me" sounds a bit like King Crimson's "Heartbeat" (#onethread).

The chorus is catchy but this is one of the more sour songs in the catalog. Maybe based on a real experience with a stalker or something? I don’t know, but it’s pretty bilious.

Tomorrow's our last DTT tune. I forget: we doing B-sides too?

here tom's blessing and curse start to clarify. he can churn these things out in his sleep and the band can spiff them up to a nice sheen 'til they sound just fine on the radio. then they're over and you forget them.

Album filler maybe, but the hook pops into my head every once in a while. I like the solo too. It'd benefit from a shorter runtime and a real ending. Tom is surely thinking of Chuck Berry's "some stupid jerk tryin' to reach another number" at one point, and I think a "cha-cha-cha!" finish, like Chuck or the early Beatles, would have been handy here.

there are two b-sides for this album? if i am remembering right. i could just add them after the last album track tomorrow. as a special friday bonus.

That works! Is "Stop Draggin'..." among them?

^^That one's later (cut during the Hard Promises sessions).

Box set B's from Torpedoes:

"Casa Dega" (B-side of "Don't Do Me Like That," issued November 1979) [Petty / Campbell] – 3:37
"It's Rainin' Again" (B-side of "Refugee," January 1980) [Petty] – 1:32
"Somethin' Else" (live at Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, March 7, 1980; B-side of "Even the Losers" in Australia) (Sharon Sheeley / Eddie Cochran) – 2:05

just here to say I love tom petty and I sobbed unexpectedly when he passed a couple of yrs back, hopefully, I'll get some tp on vinyl soon

where has calstars been on this album btw

"what are you doin in my life" is a solid rocker that seems like it would be fun to play. i like the way campbell's solo screams

i don't think i'll post that eddie cochran live track tomorrow. someone else can. that is my favorite eddie cochran song by far.

casa dega is really good!!!

the verses of "what are you doin' in my life" bear a more than passing resemblance to the verses of madonna's "jimmy jimmy." but where she pays it off with a sublime chorus, he throws it away. which is to say i feel the exact opposite of this:

The chorus is catchy but

the verses of "what are you doin' in my life" bear a more than passing resemblance to the verses of madonna's "jimmy jimmy." but where she pays it off with a sublime chorus, he throws it away. which is to say i feel the exact opposite of this:

The chorus is catchy but

casa dega is really good!!!

― brimstead,

Yup! Shoulda made the album before "Louisiana Rain" -- more local geography.

i liked having the DDMLT single with Casa Dega on b-side exclusively for all those years. Kept it like a secret (that i listened to over and over)

Louisiana Rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6y4-Rtf0W0

Casa Dega

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZlgx9uiK18

It's Rainin' Again

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

i am b-side myself that i've never heard casa dega before.

yeah i don't know why they chose louisiana rain over casa dega unless casa dega was recorded a little later? louisiana rain is a snooze.

"Casa Dega" sounds like an ode to something from the late '60s? My mind's tugged.

i guess i again get some bob seger vibes from it.

I definitely liked it better when I thought he was singing about "the wizard in the rain." I like it though! A little tether back to those country bar band slow-dance numbers. Seger is a good comparison. I'd probably prefer two really good short songs to one okay 6-minute one, but if they didn't have a wild new-wave rave-up to finish the album on, I think this is the right kind of conclusion for it.

I like "Louisiana Rain," even though it's somehow never quite felt like a "Tom Petty" song to me? Like he was trying on different songwriting guises and that was his country-rock one or something. I know it dates to Mudcrutch, right? Thematically, maybe he should have held onto it for another five years and put it on Southern Accents.

Love the verse about the "English refugee."

Been busy. Let's get this Friday Rock Block Petty Party on the move!

"You Tell Me": A patented mid-tempo chugger, slots in good at this point in the album. Would do better stuff like this in the future.

"What Are You Doin' In My Life?": For a guy who wasn't that famous (yet), TP sure had a problem with stalkers and possessive types. Cool pile-on middle-8. Campbell on the slide!

"Louisiana Rain": More studio noise at the beginning! Followed by Tench doing New Wave Procul Harum or something. All this giving way to...Thomas Earl Petty, Country Crooner. A fave discovery when I finally picked up this album. More slide! Seger-esque, yes. Also reminds me of somewhere Skynyrd could have gone as they eased into a Country groove.

"Casa Dega": Spotify threw this at me after one of the earlier albums wrapped up. A winner, nice little yearner. Could have slotted in at end of Torpedoes, or even as a penultimate track (especially if you cut that extra stuff off the beginning of "Louisiana Rain") without affecting the run time too much putting the album at around 40 minutes after the addition).

"It's Rainin' Again": A studio goof with the T.E. Petty Blooze Band. Kinda respect how obviously thrown away it is without taking up too much time, a mistake made by many other toss offs.

"Casa Dega" is great - never heard it before. The beginning sounds like a punchier take on Under the Boardwalk.

The palmistry reading in "Casa Dega" places the song in Cassadaga, FL:

Cassadaga (a Seneca Indian word meaning "Water beneath the rocks") is a small unincorporated community located in Volusia County, Florida, United States, just north of Deltona. It is especially known for having many psychics and mediums, and has consequently been named the "Psychic Capital of the World".

it had serious intense “empty street at 2am” vibes to me

(“Casa dega”)

Yeah the Bright Eyes album Cassadaga is named for the same place.

Petty's childhood home

Pilgrimage to Tom Petty's childhood home today - plus the neighborhood park nearby that he hung out at has been re-named Tom Petty Park. pic.twitter.com/kX5P8eCPG6

— stevecohen (@stevecohen) December 31, 2023

The Waiting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMyCa35_mOg

https://i.discogs.com/_wsS6IxU_YbgAOQ-mK2MbBMhMJNkMX2ChdyijAERoAg/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:596/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQxMjQx/OS0xNTU4OTk5MTE5/LTU2ODQuanBlZw.jpeg

such a great song. top ten petty for sure. the video is so nice too. videos would get a little more...complicated after 1981.

random thoughts: same feel as "even the losers." band sounds great. there's no reason this has to be 4:03. there's a voice he uses in the chorus, in his lower register, that is quintessentially tom petty but i'm not sure he's used it until here. love the yeah yeahs. the pedestrian chords over the chorus are a little bit of a comedown after the yeah yeah buildup.

is this the quintessential Petty song?

perfect song, no notes

the chords on the chorus are 1-4-5 but who cares when the melody is so strong? did a message so simple really need a tritone substitution or something?

Yeah definitely on the Mt. Rushmore of Petty songs. Also as I said upthread the first Petty song I remember hearing, in the 7th grade lunchroom. I imagine it was probably the "yeah yeah/yeah yeah" part that stood out above the din.

He says the title inspiration came from a Janis Joplin quote about touring and playing live, waiting for the show to start.

Also, I guess this is just how music works for me memory-wise, but that particular moment in the lunchroom is literally the only thing I remember of the two months I spent at that school before we moved that year. Zero else, but I remember the lunchroom clearly, and I think only because I peg this song to it.

this was a later-in-life discovery for me --- it rules, but wasn't in that top tier of endless radio rotation Petty songs by the time I was paying attention in the mid-90s. so it always feels like a hidden gem almost. the chorus builds up beautifully, each repetition of it is a complete little journey. really good use of the tool-belt of vocal stylings he's been testing out all this time.

That's interesting. "The Waiting" has always been on AOR down here. For a few people it's their favorite Petty.

When the C-part of "The Waiting" hits that guitar solo is one of my all-time favorite rock and roll moments.

A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKDYErlu5Kc

another one for the TP canon. Tom had obviously been reading Madame Bovary. that's a pretty complex relationship song. not a go-away-little-girl-come-here-little-girl pop song. more like a marriage song. there is real stuff in it. he loves her because she would let the little stuff go! a nice insight.

the "it's not me" in the title might be a little confusing...

Campbell stayed pissed off that "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" prevented "A Woman in Love" from charting higher.