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

"change of heart" continues to prove that petty was the greatest to ever write songs about people being around or not around

"finding out" is a banger

i put that live clip up because i felt like you could hear how another producer might have made that song sound on an album. its heavier live. more rock. don't get me wrong i like how the album track came out. it sounds cool. but there is less weight behind it.

The Church Studio in Tulsa shares an original Shelter Records press release for Mudcrutch: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/64P5vPHp7FpKrGtv/?mibextid=oFDknk

We Stand A Chance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sMoU5esYcc

not typically Petty? trying to think of someone who does songs like this and i can't think...feel like it would fit some singer. i like it though. its weird. that guitar is atypical.

Another strong one imo. I like the piano, and the bridge is good (“My whole world is a fountain of flame,” dang dude). As to who else it sounds like, this is I can imagine Stevie Nicks singing.

one I can imagine …

this is the kind of pleasant surprise i was looking forward to in this thread. nicely put together song, big fat chinn/chapman-sounding guitar.

good song. is this the most toto-esque of petty songs?

maybe not toto, but the song does seem to fit a turn of the 80s lite fm framework that he doesn’t usually play with

i did think of Stevie. definitely. but someone else too. from that time period. maybe a pop country person? i dunno.

no, not pop country. hell, maybe its just j. geils again. actually!! i think it might be supertramp. with that jaunty piano. imagine the vocals being supertramp.

this album has the most generic song-titles. tom had a lot of them over the years. again, when i listen to tom i listen to an entire album and i never know the titles. other than the obvious ones. i won't remember any of these titles after we are done with this album. other than "you got lucky" and "change of heart".

and "Straight Into Darkness," I hope,.

TOM PETTY IN THE WILD: S1 E10 of CBS drama Tracker starts with "You Wreck Me".

Peter Stormare is in this episode...playing a total freak.

Straight Into Darkness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyPeUV9-po8

Years ago the ambiguity of the biblical trope bothered me; now I'm struck how what begins as a condemnatory song becomes a self-indictment. Tench's piano and those chiming guitars help -- going straight into darkness sure sounds attractive!

This is one of his most frustrating songs for me - the chord changes off the top set up an atmosphere, and he's trying to convey a haunted mood but the fist-pumping chorus deflates it all. I can't see his singing appealing to everyone either.

i won't remember any of these titles after we are done with this album.

I listened to this at least a half-dozen times and don't remember a thing about any of the non-singles.

wow those vocals are mcguinn-like. these well-packaged song segments don't really cohere into a song.

Springsteen's favorite Petty song.

I remember flyin' out of London
I remember the feeling at the time
Out the window of the 747
Man there was nothin', only black sky

One of my favorite Petty verses. Love this song, it's probably top 10 Tom for me, definitely top 20. The foreboding in the music matches the sadness in the words. The chorus does reach for anthemic but it resolves to a minor chord, leaving it musically and narratively in the shadows.

i don't think the chord changes at the beginning are haunting or intended to be so, just the start of a journey

the piano kind of reminds me of "king of pain"

and "The End of the Innocence" a few years later

just the start of a journey

... into darkness! I think they're pretty haunting.

We Stand a Chance: agreed that this feels like a big departure for these guys! Maybe it's the current Foreigner thread but I immediately thought of "Double Vision," sharpened and 80s-ed up a bit, inching towards Kihn/Survivor territory. The rather icy instrumental track highlights the creepier aspects of Petty's come-on, and I really like the almost countrified bridge. I dunno it I quite adds up as a track for me, but I like a lot of the details, like the handclaps and the searing guitar figure that comes in at the end.

The Stevie Nicks idea is very appealing. It would have been fun if management had tried to recapture the success of "Draggin'" by forcing another male/female duet every album. I want to suggest Juice Newton --- wrong label though. Ummm... Tina Turner??

Straight Into Darkness: This is cool! Another one where the updates Byrds sound takes them very close to R.E.M.... sounds great. Good title/hook for evoking this sudden collapse of love into misery sketched out in the first verse. The rest of the lyrics, apart from that great black sky line, feel a little nonspecific.

It also kinda feels like an (unintentional?) portrait of someone whose actual problem is a very deep-seated depression which they haven't recognized or articulated, so that his experience or perception of these individual situations keeps heading "straight into darkness." I'm gonna sit with that reading for a few listens.

There is this duet on The Wild Heart:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amOdiSljZa0

The Same Old You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGPxPxO111c

faux-stones petty is fun! that guitar sounds awesome.

Yeah, imo one of the better songs about aging Boomers — no "Boys of Summer," but a good-natured barroom jam.

you'll never hear me complain about a good mott the hoople rip. well, i guess except for his sense that her rebellious david bowie self would really rather ride shotgun while he tours middle america.

did you know there's a cover band of women on the west coast who call themselves "nott the hoople"?

I have always loved the sneering five-syllable pronunciation of "politician"

this is very fun, especially the "let that sucker blast" verse. what is he actually trying to say though? in what way did this person have him fooled/confused? is he delighted, or bitterly disappointed, to realize they're still their same old self?

Oh, delighted I think. He remembers her back in '72! Whooee.

This album really does sound great, doesn't it? Punchy and bright but kind of grimy. Peak Iovine-era Petty, sonically.

Between Two Worlds

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y3YGUy_KFQ

Bob Seger's favorite Tom Petty song. kidding. but you totally would have believed me...especially when you heard the words "danger zone".

he's got a fire down below.

Came in hearing the title line as "on the train to work," and can't shake it. This is another reasonable bloozey groove with a strong central idea and kind of an undercooked lyric. At this point I should just accept that Petty is fine with conveying a feeling without conveying a plot.. but I guess I like plot. The strange little burst of scatting, heading into the fadeout, is great.

can't wait to hear what y'all think about next week's album -- a real uh change of heart

I've never loved "Between Two Worlds," feels like a B-side to me. A Foreigner B-side! It's OK, just kinda there. There isn't really a hook, just a groove.

And yeah, next week gets interesting

https://rockandrollglobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/image3A49945_Glitch4.jpg

A Wasted Life

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

Heartbreakers Beach Party

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

"A Wasted Life" = poignant closer.

Love the "uh-uh-owww, uh-uh-oww"

It's a nice song, good album closer.

i dig the otis redding bassline. mike campbell really lays back on this one.

We should note "Keeping Me Alive," kept off the album at Iovine's insistence and Petty's eternal regret.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xribnUH-Q-w