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

Mike Campbell playing a perfect imitation Harrison slide part

This isn't a personal favorite but I'm never bummed to hear it come on. tipsy's vintage review (a great artifact - thank you for sharing!) is not wrong about the Bryan Adams qualities of the lightly chugging groove. The generic ground-standing not-backin'-down sentiments also fit with that... we're definitely heading into VH1 territory. But the little push of energy going into the chorus, from the drums, the Lynne (and Harrison?) vox, and then the HEYYYYYYYYYYY really saves things. (Jakob Dylan may have been taking notes.)

I always forget about the mellower "I-won't back-down" vocal part, that's a little less compelling tbh. Don't mind the pretty little synth buried in the mix.

those jeff lynne backing vocals are basically AI before AI. you could say that jeff and george were singing on it but you could put anyone in that video and say it was them. its a completely generic sound. same with ringo's lynne-drums.

Ringo, to be fair, is not actually playing on the record (though I wish he did) - it's Phil Jones, Heartbreakers percussionist, who apparently was brought in at the start of these sessions for "Free Fallin'" and stayed to play on the entire album. No idea why Ringo is drum-syncing to his performance.

god, I forgot Ringo drummed on it.

Tom Petty's response to Sam Smith was A+:

Petty himself shrugged it off, saying in a statement that “I have never had any hard feelings toward Sam” and that “all my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times you catch it before it gets out the studio door but in this case it got by.”

i'm confused -- did ringo drum on this or not? also, who is sam and why should tom petty have had hard feelings toward him and what got out the studio door?

lol I was also wondering, scrolling up got me nothing

No, Phil Jones drums -- I posted before the correction.

"Sam" is "Sam Smith." You guys know what happened with "Stay With Me"?

what is "Stay With Me"?

guessing this is like a "you stole my song" issue?

yeah one of the 10 or so most popular songs of the 2010s

Still ubiquitous in the wild too -- like "I Won't Back Down."

i have fond associations with “i won’t back down” and the patriots blowing their undefeated season in the super bowl (tom played halftime, his set was “american girl,” “won’t back down,” “free fallin,” “runnin down a dream”)

yeah one of the 10 or so most popular songs of the 2010s

well this explains why I have no idea what it is and have never heard it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB-5XG-DbAA

1.2 billion views! On the Hot 100, it was halted at #2 by "Rude," but it topped five of the genre charts and was #1 in the UK, Canada, Poland, and elsewhere.

Petty's publishing company settled out of court, giving Lynne and Petty a joint 12.5% songwriting stake.

well this explains why I have no idea what it is and have never heard it

― I painted my teeth (sleeve),

this is like not knowing "I Won't Back Down" itself tbh

#idontevenownatv

stand your ground!

there ain't no easy way out, man

separate thread but I am always baffled by the idea that songs like that are ubiquitous. where in my life would I ever hear them? maybe as distant background noise in a supermarket, at best.

I mistakenly think ILE posters consume media equally.

separate thread but I am always baffled by the idea that songs like that are ubiquitous. where in my life would I ever hear them? maybe as distant background noise in a supermarket, at best.

Yeah, this idea that pop music is inescapable is really weird. As I mentioned on the Sabrina Carpenter thread, not only did I have to actively seek out "Espresso" on YouTube, once I heard it I looked her up and realized she had five previous albums, despite my being totally unaware of her existence until that week.

But how many Cecil Taylor albums does the average Sabrina Carpenter fan own? I know I'm on my own weird path; pop music listeners don't.

I wonder if Carpenter has fans instead of streamers.

I own four Taylor albums btw

maybe i have heard that sam smith song in the past but would undoubtedly have reacted to that oleaginous vocal approach before noticing any similarities to "i won't back down."

I heard some pop song the other day that sounded like such a direct rip off of Marvin Gaye. Was that the Bruno mars one?

i don't think i've ever heard the sam smith song but i do remember the lawsuit. which apparently didn't make me curious enough to go listen to the song. i can't listen to people with voices like that. i don't even know what that voice is trying to do. its demented.

A species of gay dolorousness drives me mad. Smith sounds better on dance tracks where the producers can turn him into another noise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ASUImTedo

The similarities are sufficient to understand why Smith had to give writing credit. But I did always wonder how much he had even heard the song. Just guessing it was not nearly as ubiquitous in the UK.

As for the song, it’s sturdy, I’m never mad to hear it, but has never been a favorite.

Same.

In Conversations With... Petty was coy about the "label head" who rejected FMF for not having hits.

The label head was Irving Azoff.

it is absolutely plausible, and furthermore absolutely likely, that a gay briton in his 20s in the 2010s would have never heard "free Fallin" in his entire life, which would hold true for every single individual involved in the production "Stay with me." Which is to say, English people in general do not fuck with Tom Petty, particularly english people born in the last 30 years; although, please english ILXors, set me straight if I am in error and Tom Petty has a strong foothold in daily life in the UK comparable to the U.S.

that damn Jeff Lynne sound. when the Beatles anthology new songs came out, even 11 year old me was like “no, no, not Jeff Lynne, stay away!”

FMF went top ten in the UK, but, yeah, I believe Sam Smith.

i know we already had this moment but i'm never not swept away by 'free fallin' even though like everyone i've heard it so many times. lily dale's last post about it is perfect. also one of the great l.a. songs. the twelve-string solo section still shocks. not even r.e.m. got so obvious about loving the byrds.

'i won't back down' always moves me too. petty's underdog persona. doing the right thing in spite of the world beating you up. nothing generic about it, just universal. the older i get the more i love it.

as far as sam smith goes, i have good will toward him. i don't think i've actually heard the song though? idk. i'm glad he's having the career he's having. boo the straight version of sam smith, the shape of you guy whose name i can't remember atm, though. fuck that guy.

i saw the "latch" youtube embed and had to double check what thread i was in lol

Tom Petty and Mike Campbell singing "Latch" sure would've been something!

Irving “been drinking his” Azoff

Never heard that Sam Smith song before, but if that's all it takes to lose 12.5% of songwriting, I'm surprised modern pop singers have any money left. I could totally believe that he never heard that song, and the similarity was coincidental. There are only so many combinations of 3-note phrases over common chord progressions.

it was bullshit

booming map posts btw

I like the Johnny Cash cover

Love Is A Long Road

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AilA-M6N5U

this one got a major boost from its inclusion in the first trailer for grand theft auto vi last year. now one of his top 5 on spotify.

this is one where lynne’s production really works for me

ha, I wondered why Spotify had it so high.

Solid album track IMHO, very much playing to Petty's strengths --- I feel like it could have easily shown up on Hard Promises. Maybe it's the searing guitar lines, or the "loooooooove" vocals (which take me back to "A Woman in Love"). Or, in terms of general early-80s vibes, the way that opening riff sounds quite a bit like Billy's "All For Leyna." And there's just a pinch of Petty's old strangled delivery ("to try and save my soul!"), appropriately used to convey the desperation described in the lyric. Happy to see him using this project to get back in touch with his home base, even while he tries on a fresh 90s sound elsewhere.

sort of late who-esque? very classic rock. something about the synth and the steady bpm.

it really does just remind me of "a woman in love". not in a bad way. but that's the first thing i think of when i hear it.