I'M PREEE... PRE-POLLIN' - ILM Artist Poll #71 - Tom Petty (discussion/lobbying)

http://i.imgur.com/p5JF7Ao.jpg

40 years now, give or take, since Thomas Earl Petty more or less willed himself and a few friends out of the Gainesville swamp and onto FM radio. Since then, all he's done is release 60+ singles and rack up over a dozen top-40 hits on the way to selling 30-80 million records worldwide depending on how much you trust which record company accountant.

So it's about time ILM decided once and for all: does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

Full discography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Petty_discography

And a little light discussion:
Even the Losers Get Polled Sometimes: Tom Petty DAMN THE TORPEDOES
THE RATING IS THE HARDEST PART: Tom Petty HARD PROMISES POLL
then one day the feelin just died: Tom Petty LONG AFTER DARK POLL
Don't Come Around Here No POLL - The Tom Petty "Southern Accents" Thread
POLLIN' Me: Tom Petty's "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)"
Runnin' Down a POLL: The Tom Petty "Full Moon Fever" Poll
Into the POLL Wide Open: The Tom Petty "Into the Great Wide Open" Poll
Let's POLL Another Joint: Tom Petty WILDFLOWERS

THE SKINNY
1. Rank your top 20 Tom Petty tracks
2. Optional: Rank your top 5 Tom Petty albums (fewer is fine too)
3. Send your ballot in to pollingstones at gmail dot com by end of day Sunday, December 6

Scoring is as per usual (1-5 weight heavy, 16-20 weight light) and everything is fair game. With/without Heartbreakers, with Mudcrutch... even Wilburys if you must :)

awesome!

if you're looking for non-hits to consider voting for, may i humbly suggest this deep cuts playlist i made: http://narrowcast.blogspot.com/2014/07/deep-album-cuts-vol-23-tom-petty-and.html

at least one of those deep cuts is a lock for my top 5

Me too.

oh man!

I'm looking forward to this.

"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" and "Insider" will make my ballot fer sure.

Are we differentiating live tracks? The versions of "The Waiting" and "Breakdown" on Pack Up The Plantation, e.g., are pretty different from the album tracks.

"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" may be my favorite studio album.

My favorite was always Long After Dark, despite some obvious filler.

Phil please note if you're voting for a specific version and I'll do the same in the tally.

Don't sleep on Into the Great Wide Open. In some places it's the Lynne production ethos at its most decadent, but it has loads of CD-era deep cuts ("Two Gunslingers," "You and I Will Meet Again," "Kings Highway," etc).

I kinda stopped following Petty when the Jeff Lynne sound took over, so there are probably lots of excellent later records I'm missing out on.

What am I missing? I do really like the Mudcrutch album. What else is good?

Wildflowers! I don't own She's the One or Echo, but I liked "Room at the Top" when it got AOR play. 2014's Heartbreakers album was as solid as ever.

I just bought Wildflowers, it's $3.99 on Amazon. Echo has Free Girl Now which I loved when it was on the radio.

the two later singles that really stuck with me and will probably be on my ballot are "Swingin'" and "Room At The Top," both from Echoes.

The last two Heartbreakers albums, Mojo and Hypnotic Eye, are really good.

I'm pretty sure I'll consider "Fault Lines."

xpost I need to finally listen to those. "Straight Into Darkness" my fave deep cut, I think. Most underrated/overlooked of Imperial Petty may be the "She's the One" sndtrk. I should revisit "Highway Companion."

Straight Into Darkness is definitely a candidate for this poll's sway, i.e. a relatively obscure album track beloved by fans that places really high.

if you guys haven't read his Paul Zollo "Conversations With..." book, please do! Album by album, track by track discussion. His memory's in better shape than I expected.

Yeah "Straight Into Darkness" definitely top 5 for me. I can't decide whether to spend a long time contemplating this or just knock out a quick list. I can easily come up with 40 contenders for my ballot without thinking too hard about it.

Yeah, that Zollo book is tons of info, and the reason I'm not rushing to read the Zanes book.

There are a lot of these sort of regional superstar meat and potatoes guys hovering just below Springsteen - Petty, Johnny Cougar, even Bryan Adams for a time, all of whom had fare more hits than Bruce. It's interesting to me how little they seem to occupy the same world, despite dominating more or less all at once. I think the Zollo book has Petty recalling Springsteen saying something nice about him once.

http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-i-m-a-big-fan-of-bruce-springsteen-and-tom-petty-they-re-my-two-favorites-andrew-shue-170571.jpg

he said Springsteen praised "Straight Into Darkness" iirc

Another obscure Petty song that I adore: Ain't Love Strange

xposts She's the One is a weird record. Very "90s," but the influences are as present as ever, shading hard toward Beatles and even Floyd. Feels strangely like a precursor to e.g. Aimee Mann's Lost in Space.

I didn't pay much attention at the time but "Walls" is really good.

it's crazy but i feel like i could put together a defensible ballot that starts at Full Moon Fever

Off topic, but still timely: For years I misheard the lyrics of Jammin Me as "that Trump building outside my door."

wow had no idea there would be so much late-period Petty love here

I don't think I've heard an entire post-Full Moon Fever Petty album, just the singles (some of which I like a lot)

I suppose "Runaway Trains" will make a few ballots, right?

What do we think of "Don't Come Around Here No More"? To me it's a solid production, misjudged Campbell solo (is he imitating Dave Stewart?), awful vocal.

shakey I knew the late period could count on alfred but doing my own listening now and I guess I shouldn't be surprised but there's a good stuff in the records they put out in their Best Record Since Blood on the Tracks phase!

re: don't come around here no more, imho it's great. the backing vox really bring the room together

Stevie Nicks' backup singers.

On The Howard Stern Show, Dave Stewart explained that the title's phrase was actually uttered by Nicks. She had broken up with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh the night before,[2] and invited Stewart to her place for a party after an early Eurythmics show in Los Angeles. Stewart did not know who she was at the time, but went anyway. When the partygoers all disappeared to a bathroom for a couple of hours to snort cocaine, he decided to go upstairs to bed. He woke up at 5am to find Nicks in his room trying on Victorian clothing and described the entire scenario as very much reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland. Later that morning, she told Walsh, "Don't come around here no more."

As a Petty stan I didn't know what to make of "Don't Come Around Here" when it first hit, but I've come to love it. Don't think it will make my ballot, but I love all the production flourishes on it.

'Runaway Trains' starting out top 5 here off the top of my head.

Another She's The One keeper, "Hung Up And Overdue" (BTW, one of Carl Wilson's last recorded harmonies, iirc): https://youtu.be/bSl9ykaiNvw

DCAHNM great, I tend to love when 80s new wave dudes went "60s psychedelic"

lol my wife is reading some Stevie Nicks bio and just recounted that anecdote the other day

xxp

I love the idea that David Stewart has a closetful of Victorian gowns.

yr misreading that anecdote I think

Three songs-for-other-people could make my ballot: "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "Ways to Be Wicked" and "King of the Hill."

I'LL STAND
MY
GROUND
AND I WON'T
BACK
DOWN

Forgot there was actually a video for this one: http://www.artistdirect.com/video/roger-mcguinn-king-of-the-hill/27564

lol Won't Back Down is so irritating - won't back down from what? hating rap music?

yeah but it's got that HEEEEYYYYYYY BABY in it.

never been crazy about it tbh. Or "Free Fallin'" *ducks*

I remember at the late '80s time a lot of Lynch drama - might be in the doc, too - about Full Moon Fever featuring every single Heartbreaker except him. He was not a happy Stan.

I think it's in the Classic Albums doc where it's revealed that during the recording of "Refugee" something with the drums wasn't quite right, so Jim Keltner wandered over during downtime from some other session and added (uncredited) shaker to the track, which gave it that certain something.

Sent!

One thing I've been coming back to is how in the Petty Behind The Music (which was done circa Echo), nobody who'd been in the Heartbreakers--bar Campbell and maybe Epstein--held Petty in much regard. I remember Tench being especially vitriolic, and he was still in the band!

Their dynamic is fascinating. It's clear Petty respects their chops, and he's said how proud he is that all of them have done terrific work playing, writing, and producing for others; but on the other hand I get the sense that Tench wanted to write stuff w/Petty but was ignored (the only song they wrote was Rosanne Cash's "Never Be You"). Stan too. Stan has the demeanor of a big ass kid who's goofy and an asshole but tells shit like it is. I wonder how the others regard Campbell.

by the way: good song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWKV2OzRtxE

Got mine in, decided to leave "Ways to be Wicked" off since it's really not part of the Petty "canon" as such. It wasn't really hard to come up with 20 songs in any case, and my top five were never even in doubt anyway!

Goddamnit, Tom Petty sucks. What the fuck is wrong with you people?

stfu

In your heart, you know I'm right.

mariah needs you to stfu

don't come around here no more

i'm getting out. i really just don't think he's worth a damn.

i hope trolls like yourself populate any thread where you wish to sincerely discuss an artist you enjoy

alex in nyc has posted worse messages.

"I (Don't) Need To Know (Your Challops)"

oh wow you were on the STP thread being a dick too. seriously, take a break from posting.

yeah dude you're camped out on like nine other threads, take a hike

i never meant for anyone to take it personally. sorry.

gonna stand our ground

i was goofing. i just thought people would attack ideas, not me. i was goofing. sorry. i want no part of this.

xp. gonna leave.

in any case, it's dumb that people like tom petty, anyway.

carry on.

where do you stand on campbell?

i was goofing. i just thought people would attack ideas, not me. i was goofing. sorry. i want no part of this.

xp. gonna leave.

Your self-pity would make more sense if you seriously thought "Goddamnit, Tom Petty sucks. What the fuck is wrong with you people?" is an 'idea.'

like it's any worse than jackasses popping into the mariah carey thread, and contributing nothing, and talking about how much they hate her.

jackasses posting when you were knee high to a grasshopper

get over it.

bye!

you're mad because i don't like tom petty, and was kidding around about how much i don't like tom petty.
give it a rest, cunt.

i don't hate tom petty. i just dislike him.
i could learn to like him, if i tried.
i just thought it was funny how much i dislike tom petty. i thought my sense of humor was obvious. forgive me.

monster mash, you are stan lynch and I claim my 5

i'm not getting mad on the internet about tom petty.
eh.

let's drop it.

alex in nyc never got shit for doing similar things.

fucker doesn't even love music.

"let's drop it" = I'm going to post two more times.

i like all of you on a personal level.
i was a little drunk.

i am incredibly sorry.
i like all of you on a personal level.

i'm truly bad at talking about music i dislike.

i am new to ilx. i am here to shoot the hay over music, and to goof around on the other boards, and to make friends -- i am incredibly lonely, and often drunk.
that's all.

sorry. sorry! i just don't like tom petty! sorry for being a dumbass and using expletives.

dude fuck off

you're a jerk.

did I miss anything?

hey monster mash i know you have issues and that's a shame but it doesn't make you special, it just makes you human. it also doesn't make you a loser. but that doesn't mean you aren't one. explore yr options.

Even the losers get lucky sometimes.

just sent in my ballot! I got down to a point where there was a song I was dying to add but nothing I could bear to swap out and just hit 'send' so i could stop hemming and hawing over the decision.

Got it! Thanks everyone!

Polls remain open until I wake up tomorrow :)

the waiting is the hardest part

This is still open? Cause I'm strongly resisting the urge to send in a ballot that consists only of tracks from Southern Accents.

Southern Accents has some amazing songs that would really benefit from a re-recording, preferably live in the studio with the current band.

technically closed and pretty much fully tabulated, but it would be easy enough to add one more ballot if you zip it in asap

Nah, it's all good. If I was gonna play along, i'd wanna do it right.

Roll-out begins tomorrow am Pacific time

YOU RANK ME BABY, YEAH YOU RATE ME 1-2 - ILM Artist Poll #71 - Tom Petty (results)

Excuse me, but I actually "got shit" for quite a lot, and I do indeed love music, so let's please refrain from that bullshit, shall we? Thanks.