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

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.

Kings Highway sucks!

― calstars, Friday, June 28, 2024 11:13 PM

why?

Two Gunslingers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x8dIyRTKHo

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 Dark Of The Sun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr_LGFe7XeU

this sounds like something he wrote for someone else.

van morrison? mark knopfler? just sounds like someone else's song.

yeah van morrison? jackson browne?

Pete Shelley? Grace Jones?

This is what you'd call a Nice Song. In the Zollo book Petty expressed an interest in performing it live.

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.

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.

*stifling

All Or Nothin'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-lJXljp1YM

also doesn't really sound like a tom petty song! maybe he wrote it for Sir. George.

I like the bridge. A bit of a throwaway, though. I prefer this album's second side.