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

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.

A Face In The Crowd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_umeMtV4QU

so what you're saying is: this album rules.

i can still hear this song in Walgreens and i'm okay with that. its a good song.

seriously though Runnin' is next which makes this 5 really good songs in a row.

Out in the streets
Thinking aloud

I’m all about that simple 3 note guitar part in the chorus

yeah side 1 of this album whips

I don't love either of the last two, they're fine but feel more like sketches. But that's also how I feel about a lot of the album, obviously the legions who made it his best-selling record didn't see it that way.

nice warm 12-string bath at 2:10.

That three-note hook is creepily hypnotic. Sinister.

god i love petty when he's sad and galaxy brained. this one reminds me of "it's good to be king" on wildflowers. so morose.

jeez "Love Is A Long Road" is more of a Tom Petty ripoff than that Sam Smith song! I feel like someone should have pulled him aside regarding that chorus.

so far this first side reminds me of this space i've been in where i'm years-deep into a relationship and things are getting hard and confusing and really real and i'm doing a lot of self-excavating and ending up in these places where i'm asking myself "what's the point", going deep in the deep end and holding my breath too much. also maybe depressed. i haven't been good about keeping up with this thread so i wonder if there were traces of his depression in the music before this album.

but god he made some glorious and brilliant 'i'm actually depressed' songs. my favorite tom mode. wildflowers has some great ones. i was thinking i can't wait until we get to that one because i'm actually familiar with it. one thing about wildflowers though is he's really weird about women on it. like he can't help turning into his dad or something.

god i love petty when he's sad and galaxy brained. this one reminds me of "it's good to be king" on wildflowers. so morose.

― he/him hoo-hah (map)

I had no idea -- I can hear the sonic connection.

booming posts, amp

*map

thanks :)

re: Depression in Petty's lyrics - I think "Straight into Darkness" fits the bill.

"Face in the Crowd" - agreed about that three-note guitar figure. The Lynne signatur of a steady, brightly chugging drum track is a little distracting here. Something about this is a little too clean and "pro" for me. Oddly it almost makes me think of a deep cut on one of the last couple REM albums. It's an okay song though. I'm surprised to realize it doesn't close out Side A!

side one isn’t over until you hear “hello cd listeners…”