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

i do feel like jeff lynne knew how to bring the george out of george and make him really sound like george. his voice. his guitar. on this and cloud nine.

Fifteen years earlier, this Harrisong would've been a sententious affair; now he wrote this shiny, tuneful, ebullient death song. The harmonies and Jim Horn sax are essential.

The opening synth line on "Margarita" -- the Wilburys as Kraftwerk? Then it settles into its Bo Diddley groove. Great throwaway lines ("She wrote a long letter on a short piece of paper").

i do feel like jeff lynne knew how to bring the george out of george and make him really sound like george. his voice. his guitar. on this and cloud nine.

― scott seward,

Totally. Cloud Nine was Lynne's first production for these guys and probably the best? George as co-producer kept the Lynneisms in check.

"Heading For the Light" was like Dylan's "Congratulations" a song George brought basically completed.

speaking of production and jim horn, i like some of the stuff on this 1979 roy album. i think there are a couple of 70s-saxy slow jams too. but i just like the way this song sounds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecZPP2ONQKA

the george song is a good one. not sure what to think about "margarita" -- lots of different things spliced together. it's almost like a studio demo of "hey look what i can do with all these famous guys."

Oh this is the Disco Orbison album! xpost

t's almost like a studio demo of "hey look what i can do with all these famous guys."

why it works imo

also--that's the Wilbury conceit!

Yeah Laminar Flow rules and I’m not even a big Roy guy!

My mom loved "she wrote a long letter, on a short piece of paper."

On the other hand, I remember playing this album in my apartment, circa 2005, for J. Blount (still lurking? idk), him being fairly skeptical throughout, and completely abandoning ship at Margarita's "wang a lang a" backing vocals.

Alfred otm re: Heading for the Light - can EASILY imagine the turgid version buried in the folds of Here in the Material World. But this one's delightful.

Knowing blount I'm shocked he didn't decide that "Margarita" moment was the moment to stay.

Tweeter And The Monkey Man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PabG3nJRu3k

End Of The Line

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

"end of the line" is the one for me. i think its the best thing that came out of this project.

"Tweeter and the Monkey Man" is Dylan's Springsteen piss-take. I love the AND THE WALLS CAME DOWN interlude. That's why we go to the Wilburys.

"End of the Line" is another mostly George song, but I can't imagine it without Tom Petty's generous, relaxed vocal: he's like an old dear friend paying respects.

Maxine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Zcnj3lTczI

Like A Ship

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

and there you have it. onward to Full Moon Fever.

As a kid, I was mildly scandalized by the use of "Hell," but understood that wild rock and roll band singers would be the types to use language like that.

Apart from all the Jersey window-dressing, which is certainly Springsteen, this seems of a piece with many a Dylan story-song, from "Lily" to "Black Diamond Bay" and even "Hurricane" --- the shift to the first person observer at the end is straight out of the latter two. It all works, not the most exciting crime spree song narrative but I think he just wants it to rhyme, man. I'm not sure what to make of Tweeter's trans status... It could certainly be handled worse.

re those last two, the wilburys sure knew how to write throwaways. the first one is evelavated by george's voice, and wow that dylan guitar solo in the second one.

Dylan doesn't take any solos on the album; they're all George, according to the credits.

that could be true but i have heard lots of dylan guitar solos and that sounds exactly like them. maybe george or someone was channeling dylan? or maybe they didn't count that as an official solo?

actually two guitars are soloing there, but the dylan(esque) one is prominent.

Hm! I'm still hearing George's jangle and easily identifiable slide.

I just glanced at the credits again and Harrison and Lynne are the only electric guitarists; the other three strum acoustic.

we're talking "like a ship" at 1:55? dylan only knows two notes when he solos, and those are the two. i guess it was a loving homage by harrison and/or lynne.

Oh! Sorry. I thought you meant "End of the Line."

“end of the line” is one of those songs that feels like it’s always been around

"End of the Line" is really lovely. Best-case scenario for an upbeat middle-aged rock star reflection song. It gains an added poignancy from Orbison's passing --- at only 52! --- and now from Harrison's and Petty's as well. Tom's verses are beautifully delivered, although I'll note that this would have been my first experience of misunderstanding him: "Sit around and wonder / What your ma will bring," I thought.

oh yeah for the record, "maxine" and "like a ship" didn't make the album.

those are from the "box set" they did later, yeah?

yah.

seems like "like a ship" should have though! wondering if dylan thought twice about giving it up...

don't think twice, bob...put it on the album.

don't know what happened there though.

so the Wilburys never played live, did they? no TV appearances or anything?

You know Dylan had had a good time when apparently he called George in 1990 or so and asked if they doing another of those Wilbury things

never heard these unused tracks before. "Maxine" seems like a Lynne/Harrison demo with not much Wilbury to it, and a pretty unfinished idea for a chorus. "Like a Ship" similarly feels like Lynne auditioning to produce Bob's next album but definitely has a little more going on with the very Beatles-y piano, drum fills and backing vox. i don't think it's better than anything on the album, so if they wanted to keep it short and sweet, they made the right final cut. woulda been a fine b-side though.

yeah I'm somewhat baffled that they didn't use those as B-sides, they certainly had enough singles from the album

I feel like this album sort of single-handedly invented the "just some guys in a room getting back to basics" template. it's such a warm relaxing listen, it's cool to see how much fun they are obviously having in that End Of The Line video.

idk maybe that was "invented" with Let It Be, now that I think about it

I love “End of the Line.” Especially poignant given that Orbison died so soon after. (At 52! Still adjusting to the idea that I’m now older than any of these guys were when they did this.)

“Tweeter” is fun — Petty played it the last time I saw him, at Bonnaroo in 2013, it was a good jam.

(Oops just saw Dr. Casino made the same point about Orbison’s age and death.)

just checked the date that i saw roy orbison give a free park concert in point lookout l.i. (with fireworks!) -- it was july 1987, just pre-wilburys i guess. at the time he was a john belushi punchline. the wilburys really cemented his reputation.

it was july 1987, just pre-wilburys i guess. at the time he was a john belushi punchline. the wilburys really cemented his reputation.

He was already well on the comeback trail by then. "In Dreams" was in Blue Velvet, he had a new song on the soundtrack to Less Than Zero (terrible movie, great soundtrack), and had just put out In Dreams: The Greatest Hits, an album of re-recordings. (I used to own it; haven't heard it in decades so can't say whether it's actually good or not.)

https://www.discogs.com/master/137148-Roy-Orbison-In-Dreams-The-Greatest-Hits

Someone posted in the main Roy Orbison thread that it was as if the entire industry wanted a comeback.

He co-wrote "Life Fades Away" with Glenn Danzig and it's terrific.

Free Fallin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lWJXDG2i0A

https://i.discogs.com/p3hLYX1GfB7ypBrm7_I0nA3mfE8d5isVjpnQcJBw814/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:500/w:500/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwMjky/NjUtMTE4NTg1Mzgx/OS5qcGVn.jpeg

https://i.discogs.com/e9wjwxdbvQt6oO1ou0qXr2Qdln0DjmmMRwrJUNU6WKo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEwMjky/NjUtMTM2OTk1MzYz/NS0xNTg0LmpwZWc.jpeg

this song is inconceivably good.

all of a sudden its the 90s. just like that. it does not sound like the 80s.

His first top ten since "Don't Do Me Like That" (or "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around").

it must have taken an inconceivable amount of restraint not to add another bridge or break or chorus whatever. just take it and run with it.