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

The popularity of the video made the song seem bigger than it was -- it peaked at #13.

#2 on the Album Rock charts though! (Today's Mainstream Rock.)

Meandering goofy live version from 1991 that's compellingly great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9jDoXitEO0

this one works for me the same way "you got lucky" does -- an effective combination of his own influences and modern radio production. another good driving song. i could do without the double-time part at the end which breaks the mood.

Mentioned this earlier but now that we're at the actual song, I think both this song and video are key to establishing the Tom Petty persona that dominated the late '80s to mid '90s, and maybe really the rest of his career. It's where he crosses over to "Gen X's Favorite Boomer Uncle" status, this kind of hip older dude (he turned 35 in '85) who knows how to MTV and seems like he's probably fun to party with. Full Moon Fever was the full realization of that character, but I think this is where it starts.

otm

the melody, performance and production around the basic seven-syllable hook is mesmerizing and i could listen to a loop of that for 20 minutes straight, even the part where he tries to make five syllables ("you daaar-ken my door") fill the space. i'm not sure anything else in the song is necessary, especially, yeah...

i could do without the double-time part at the end which breaks the mood.

...that

It's where he crosses over to "Gen X's Favorite Boomer Uncle" status, this kind of hip older dude (he turned 35 in '85) who knows how to MTV and seems like he's probably fun to party with. Full Moon Fever was the full realization of that character, but I think this is where it starts.

Southern Accents

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po8RCVlQZGc

Like many people, my intro was the Johnny Cash cover.

Yeah, Cash treated it like a standard and essentially turned it into one. I think it's a good song, lovely melody, and as far as expressions of Southern pride go it's on the less noxious end of the spectrum.

dolly covered it too, for a tom petty tribute album.

I like Dolly's version, except for the "not ashamed" coda — I get it, I know where she's coming from (literally — I know Sevier County pretty well), but it smacks just a little of uninterrogated Skynyrd-style Southern defiance.

A shrewd political calculator, that one.

perfect. no notes.

i love the echo of "wichita lineman" wafting through "think i might go work orlando / if them orange groves don't freeze."

Make It Better (Forget About Me)

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

i've gotta say it. this is my LEAST favorite song so far. yuck. one of the three dave stewart co-writes on the album. i have no memory of the song OR the video. MTV did not make this video ubiquitous. and aren't they kinda ripping off that Cars video?
i have absolutely nothing good to say about this. this could be the sound of cocaine. this could also totally be a j. geils band song. one of those songs that they stretch out to 20 interminable minutes live.

sounds like something Paul Shaffer would have produced for a forgotten rocker in the 80s. or Bruce Willis.

If it helps, Petty loathes it too; he's called it the worst song he ever wrote.

oh good. that does make me feel better.

I give it a small edge over “It Ain’t Nothin to Me” on coherence alone — it all sounds like one song. Just not a good one. A clunky Southern soul pastiche. Totally forgot it was a single, yikes.

starts out like a reasonable sam cooke inspired southside johnny or gary u.s. bonds track, but soon devolves into chord progressions that sound randomly selected. no amount of raving up could help this one.

southside and gary us bonds otm. this is both the most, and worst, asbury park 1980s song ever.

as a big fan of q-tips, thumbs up to that specific part of the video.

The good news is that the next two songs are good. (imo ymmv etc)

this is them trying to do Talking Heads right? it kinda stinks but it at least has me tapping my toes. "Southern Accents" just didn't land for me at all, must be a genre/sound aversion or something. ploddy 80s piano ballad vibes, idk.

is this what Graceland would have sounded like, in a universe where Hearts and Bones hadn't completely flipped? god it's dreadful. the video really captures the way-too-long, go-nowhere quality of the song. Petty clearly on something --- he's lost his usually decent knack for lip-synching, and his clap-synching seems intended for some different song entirely. i wonder if the ghastly-looking giant ear inspired the equivalent obstacle on Double Dare.

Spike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8qe2vUUoA

i usually use tom's official youtube audio but that clip sounded way better. i would expect nothing less from someone called "steelyman08". maybe tom's team needs to think about an upgrade.

you be the judge. from tom's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7ALjBfVn9I

When Tom Petty sings In Character it's time to duck under the table like the Soviets fired their nuclear missiles.

its pretty goofy! maybe this is what mike judge heard that made him think of tom for a part on king of the hill.

finally listening to "make it better" - one-stop train to huey lewis town, but the way tom sings it seems to presage the eventual psamawayah of rusted root

not great!

and it's 5 mins long, why

at least "beat on the brat" doesn't beat around the bush.

https://i.imgur.com/OKX2MMv.jpg

Fun song, I like that by the end there's some ambivalent level of empathy from the surly redneck barfly. ("I might need me a dog collar too, boy/Might keep me safe") I don't think Petty ever wore a dog collar, but I assume he and his longhair buddies ran into some surly rednecks of their own. I also like the lazy bluesy shuffle, it feels like a hot afternoon at a dark dive bar.

And even tho Southern Accents isn't really a concept album, it has threads of one and this song is one of them. The narrator could be the same first-person as "Rebels" and the title track.

yeah for me Spike is the best thing on here so far besides the big hit

https://www.gainesville.com/gcdn/authoring/2017/10/02/NTGS/ghows-LK-571315dc-1d90-04fa-e053-0100007f7ff1-f5523cb6.jpeg?width=660&height=497&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

the Mudcrutch/Road Turkey picnic of 1973.

a long way from Los Angeles.

at fillmore southeast

i kinda like the laid-back swampy groove but this mostly sounds like a sketch for a much better song he could've written if someone had splashed some water on his face and told him to try harder.

I'm with fcc on both pros and cons. I'd also like it better without the put-on voice, in the hands of say... Roger Miller?

Dogs On The Run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV5F1C2NLdI

Petty does Springsteen! i like it!

it's ok. mid-level tom. he was born in a crossfire hurricane. then he met some babe?

The only Campbell credit on the album and also my favorite song on it.

Here's Campbell doing an acoustic version of it (video appears to only be on Facebook): https://fb.watch/s3871tc-9s/

this could've could've been a good bryan adams single. i think bryan would've sung it better.

Least objectionable horns on the album here too imo, they're relegated to a supporting role and don't overwhelm the mix.

this is a major breath of fresh air after these last few tracks imo. energetic, forceful, has convincing instrumental and vocal hooks. it finished and I wanted to start it over again just to hear that guitar part.