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

i like it! this would have made a nice album track on either of the first two lps.

Underappreciated gem, this one. Great buzzy little rocker. Never a single as far as I know but I definitely heard it on rock radio now and again.

Plus, Emmylou Harris and Southern Pacific had a top 20 country hit with it.

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

nice one, has a bit of Marshall Crenshaw sound on the chorus.

"thing about you" is one of the most "what if buddy holly lived and made music in the 1980s" songs ever and i love it

I like the Southern Pacific + Harris cover!

I had totally forgot about this very solid and enjoyable song! peppy, yes. Petty's breathless delivery of the chorus injects a hint of urgency beyond what's there in the lyrics.

apparently Southern Pacific got on the country chart with their own cover in 1985, and then again with the Harris duet in 1990. i like the vocals, but for me both versions are hampered by that increasingly airless, blank "karaoke track" sound, increasingly sought after by country producers in those days.

Insider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7bjXWzms5I

He and Nicks harmonize like pros.

He wrote for Bella Donna but at the last minute asked for it back.

*wrote it

why do i love it when an album title comes from the lyrics of a song that is not a title track? i just do.

i guess i came around to adult contemporary when i realized it was just power pop with pretensions. nice tune. he crawled through the briars?

https://sharonsflorida.com/plants-page/native-vines/smilax-in-central-florida/

oof -- looks prickly.

"why do i love it when an album title comes from the lyrics of a song that is not a title track? i just do."

same!!! it always feels special when that lyric comes around.

otm

"insider" is one of my absolute fav petty deep cuts

Lynch makes this song for me. A lot of lesser artists would have let it be just a mellow strum-and-sing, and the vocals (Petty and Nicks both) are great, but Lynch practically taking a drum solo through the whole goddamn thing is what elevates it.

The humility of the performances impresses me, from the instrumental fills to Petty and Nicks never soloing or jumping over each other's lines.

yes the restraint and tension are perfectly balanced

"you've got a dangerous background," what a great opening line

this was the period when iirc Nicks was begging Petty to admit her as a Heartbreaker; astounded, he said she couldn't because "you're a girl."

Petty and Nicks never soloing or jumping over each other's lines

otm. they were so goddamn good together. their sensibilities blend so perfectly. loooooove this song. love that turn in the last verse: "i'll bet you're his masterpiece / i'll bet you're his self-control."

has a bit of Marshall Crenshaw sound on the chorus.

very otm re "thing about you."

"his quiet world of white and gold"!

wait, is that a dig at John Stewart???

Nothing to add to the "Insider" love except to otm it.

Nicks should've joined the Heartbreakers imo

but then we might not have gotten Tango In The Night!

You say that like it's a bad thing...

haha I was teasing Alfred

The real way to tease him is to have said Rock A Little or one of those other solo albums TP might not have let her make.

Mike Campbell co-wrote a Rock a Little track.

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

The Criminal Kind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWjN4VVVxx4

Now the guy who took his gal is not only a mean mistreater but a criminal! Tom's got Trumpian levels of grievance going on. The song itself is OK? I like the Stones too?

sounds like a circa 2023 rolling stones album track.

High praise! Best Stones album in years! Back to basics! Just three guys and some session guys in a room!

this one is a little too long, but it's a fine "album track", some sweet guitar sounds

In The Wild: "I Won't Back Down" (coming after "Eternal Flame") in my motel lobby.

Makes sense. The Bangles will sing harmonies on one of his best-ever singles.

You Can Still Change Your Mind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5XHrJ1A0WI

Gator On The Lawn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZABzLa2WRf4

Stevie Nicks and her longtime backup singer Sharon Celani on it too.

xpost

Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5i7j0VhEHw

i think that does it for 1981.

https://i.discogs.com/ZKIAgpvxhxRkui5qfPYCoxKykNHt33vbcoa_iFRBwdo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:577/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE4Nzg4/MTc5LTE2MjE0MDY1/NzYtNjk2Ny5qcGVn.jpeg

For those of you around at the time: did "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" hit as hard in 1981 as it seems? That was one of the most somnolent pop years of all time.

it was on the radio a ton and it was one of those birth of MTV moments too. they played that video long after 1981.

long after dark?

way longer.

and then it basically never went away for the rest of my life. and i always like hearing it.

i wonder if this poor woman ever got tired of tom's rationalizing why she didn't want him. i like how he's so consistent thematically yet he's transitioned topic to a different kind of music -- one that suits the radio (and maybe mike campbell) better. these songs sound nice.

the topic