i really like this one
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Friday, 28 June 2024 16:39 (three months ago) link
This song is less than four minutes long but feels like twelve. I feel like I'm waiting for my number to come up at the DMV when I listen to it.
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Friday, 28 June 2024 16:48 (three months ago) link
I would have guessed five and change
― calstars, Friday, 28 June 2024 16:51 (three months ago) link
biden just ended his rally with "i won't back down". #inthewild
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2024 17:38 (three months ago) link
more like "I won't sit down"
― calstars, Friday, 28 June 2024 18:29 (three months ago) link
to me, the very worst song I have ever heard by Petty…like, I'm sure that there would be others on records I haven't internalized (I only own Damn the…), but it's smug ("ha ha, this is what it's like for lucky guys with no talent, I'm several orders of superior to hapless schmucks like this caricature I'm presenting"), very very long, plodding, and then there's the video, with Johnny Depp (who did indeed intend to be a rock performer rather than an actor) and thus a hideous cliche.
― veronica moser, Friday, 28 June 2024 20:22 (three months ago) link
Yeah, it might not be Petty's worst song, but it's the one I actively dislike more than any other. (I have never heard The Last DJ.)
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Friday, 28 June 2024 20:24 (three months ago) link
Back then, this song put me off Petty just about for good. Sold the CD back to Aron's Records the week after it came out and never listened to the album in full again until this thread. Listening to this song now, especially with that super-narcotic Lynne beat, it sounds like someone who just got into heroin and thinks they can maintain.
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 28 June 2024 22:34 (three months ago) link
Wow you guys
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 28 June 2024 22:37 (three months ago) link
yeah i like into the great wide open — what a great chorus! I'm not sure if it's totally mean spirited. Maybe a little smug, but remember this was just post hair metal in LA, it was hard not to see a lot of that as just insanely cartoonish and dumb. At the same time, Petty could certainly see himself in there, too ... he waited til he finished high school, went to hollywood ... I don't know, did Tom have any tattoos? And hey, Faye Dunaway does some of her best work in the video.
― tylerw, Friday, 28 June 2024 23:03 (three months ago) link
Yeah I’ve always heard it as more or less sympathetic, in a that’s-the-biz-kid way. I don’t love it or the album as a whole, but the song is likable enough.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 28 June 2024 23:22 (three months ago) link
That big G to C riff is so annoying
― calstars, Friday, 28 June 2024 23:32 (three months ago) link
Listening for the first time. This seems about as decent as Kings Highway... which did pop into my head unbidden today, so I guess it has more hook to it than I'd given it credit for. With this one, I'll say that the generally ploddiness is off-putting, but the "the sky was the limit" and the little guitar thing after that are pretty nice. The A&R man might not hear a single, but I'm not hearing "I'm done with this artist" at all.
This would have been a good candidate for that Varispeed tape manipulation we were talking about a while back. Wake up, guys! Also: the awkward emphasis of "finished high SCHOOL" is a tough way to start. If you're gonna do that, lean into the Dylan of it.
― not the one who's tryin' to dub your anime (Doctor Casino), Saturday, 29 June 2024 03:11 (three months ago) link
Kings Highway sucks!
― calstars, Saturday, 29 June 2024 03:13 (three months ago) link
the lyrics don't cohere for me and the jokes (bart?) fall flat, but the stately beatlesque chords chug along nicely and it's well played, so...i wouldn't turn it off if it came on the radio.
― Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 29 June 2024 04:01 (three months ago) link
― calstars, Friday, June 28, 2024 11:13 PM
why?
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 June 2024 10:15 (three months ago) link
Two Gunslingers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x8dIyRTKHo
― scott seward, Monday, 1 July 2024 11:42 (three months ago) link
One of his best story songs: the gentle Lynneisms suit material about aging warriors tired to death of fighting (a song for our times). I like the descending melody in the "Now, right now, oh yeah" section.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 1 July 2024 12:09 (three months ago) link
The Dark Of The Sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr_LGFe7XeU
― scott seward, Tuesday, 2 July 2024 12:31 (three months ago) link
this sounds like something he wrote for someone else.
van morrison? mark knopfler? just sounds like someone else's song.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 2 July 2024 12:32 (three months ago) link
yeah van morrison? jackson browne?
― Thus Sang Freud, Tuesday, 2 July 2024 12:36 (three months ago) link
Pete Shelley? Grace Jones?
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 July 2024 12:53 (three months ago) link
This is what you'd call a Nice Song. In the Zollo book Petty expressed an interest in performing it live.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 July 2024 12:54 (three months ago) link
It's OK, not really much of a chorus.
Speaking of songs written for/with other people, I nominate his Roger McGuinn duet "King of the Hill" for consideration as a sort of bonus track to this album. It came out earlier the same year, and I like it better than anything on this record.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 2 July 2024 13:12 (three months ago) link
Yeah "80s Van Morrison" was my immediate thought, especially towards the end when we get the "hey yeah yeah!" bits and the "nuuuaaaaarrrh." I can hear the Knopfler too. The solo is once again the best part. Title reminds me too much of "Dogs on the Run," which doesn't flatter this song.
I feel like a broken record, but that steady, steady lifeless 4/4 drum beat is really stifliny all these songs. They're not like, deeply flawed compositions, but none of them sound like anybody urgently needed to write or perform them. If the band could sound a little more "live" or free to make decisions I don't think I'd notice that as much. We're getting dangerously close to karaoke band territory imo.
― the last visible dot (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 2 July 2024 23:41 (three months ago) link
*stifling
All Or Nothin'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-lJXljp1YM
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 13:03 (three months ago) link
also doesn't really sound like a tom petty song! maybe he wrote it for Sir. George.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 13:05 (three months ago) link
I like the bridge. A bit of a throwaway, though. I prefer this album's second side.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 13:19 (three months ago) link
i'm getting the impression that this album is very underwhelming for most people here. you were the only person to even comment on that gunslingers song, alfred.
i still think if i listened to this whole album in one sitting i would enjoy the experience more. i never really thought this before, but TP really does think of creating an LP experience. the vibe. its not just some singles and some solid deep cuts and some filler. i mean, it is...but the whole is bigger when heard as a whole. if that makes sense. this is especially true of the albums later on. just my opinion. i think we can all agree that he had his share of throwaways.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:23 (three months ago) link
Well, it's also a holiday week and I hear politics got spicy too.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:25 (three months ago) link
Oh yeah I forgot all about about this one, it rules, imo!
― brimstead, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:29 (three months ago) link
hey I like Two Gunslingers! especially the fast "I don't wanna fight no more" bit
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:30 (three months ago) link
i'm getting the impression that this album is very underwhelming for most people here.
Yeah, I've been refraining from comment because I don't like any of these songs. They all sound like alternate takes of each other and they all suck. Jeff Lynne is a goddamn aesthetic war criminal. But because I like Petty generally, I'm just waiting to get to discussion of Wildflowers. (I know we have to talk about "Mary Jane's Last Dance," from the greatest hits album, but I don't really like that one either.)
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:46 (three months ago) link
One of my favorite Petty songs is coming up on the second half of this one.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:48 (three months ago) link
i wonder what Petty with Nile Rodgers would have sounded like. or Bill Laswell! maybe they would have made him sound like a Mick Jagger solo album though.
Dave Stewart and Jeff Lynne were not the most exciting people he could have ended up with but he probably just liked them. got along with them. it happens.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:52 (three months ago) link
A reminder that Lynch and Tench were not happy recording ITGWO.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:53 (three months ago) link
He should have worked with Pete Anderson (the guy who produced all of Dwight Yoakam's early albums).
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:58 (three months ago) link
they probably got treated like session people. jeff lynne is only really going to care about TP's opinion on anything. he's used to being in bands with 50 members who had no say. probably. i just made that up. then again i don't know the name of anyone else in ELO so it sounds right.
x-post
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 15:58 (three months ago) link
agreed that every single one of these albums has played better for me at the end when I put it on as a whole. maybe goes back to my thinking of them as a great bar band who got greater - at heart, you kinda wanna be there for the set and the overall vibe they create.
― the last visible dot (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 16:45 (three months ago) link
i don't know the name of anyone else in ELO so it sounds right.
poor Bev Bevan
― Pierre Delecto, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 16:46 (three months ago) link
yeah also that violin guy. mik kaminski.
― Thus Sang Freud, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 17:00 (three months ago) link
i couldn't think of anything to say about two gunslingers. the pacifist vibe seems so...quaint. i'd say ok boomer if i weren't a boomer myself. sort of.
― Thus Sang Freud, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 17:02 (three months ago) link
oh right bev!
― scott seward, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 17:25 (three months ago) link
that one disco-y track from southern accents makes me feel ok that he never worked with nile tbh
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 3 July 2024 17:29 (three months ago) link
You Want it All has a little more oomph to it than most of these tracks. It's not just the crunchier guitars... the piled-up sound towards the end is really nice. The handling of "aa-aaa-aaa-aa-aall" is the most I've liked Lynne's production on this whole album.
― the last visible dot (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 4 July 2024 11:16 (three months ago) link
All The Wrong Reasons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x7osTT2b7g
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 July 2024 12:22 (three months ago) link
An attempt to rewrite "Free Fallin'"?
I admire how the melody zigzags and the bouzouki.
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 July 2024 12:30 (three months ago) link
"all or nothin'" -- nice ominous chords that i wouldn't have thought were in his vocabulary. was there a co-write on this?
"all the wrong reasons" -- yeah comparisons to "free fallin" are inevitable -- same tempo, similar melody in the verse, same ringing open chords. this one doesn't have its reach but there are some nice individual lines like that horizon/sky one.
― Thus Sang Freud, Thursday, 4 July 2024 12:49 (three months ago) link