the Hard Promises singles got shafted in the radio era bc program directors already had "stop draggin' my heart around" in heavy rotation
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 11 December 2015 23:40 (eight years ago) link
should have said "AOR era" really
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 11 December 2015 23:43 (eight years ago) link
2. Long After Dark – 60 points (10 votes, one #1 vote)
http://i.imgur.com/KzmHmC6.jpg
Petty: "When I hear it now, it's much better than I thought it was… It's a good little rock'n'roll record with good songs and good playing. But I don't know that we advanced a lot on that record.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 11 December 2015 23:51 (eight years ago) link
my #1!
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:22 (eight years ago) link
I know they were exposed to reggae early on via denny cordell, and put the skank into "depot street" in a novelty way, but imo this is the record you can really hear it on
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:27 (eight years ago) link
Iovine seems like a pretty intense dude
― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:34 (eight years ago) link
So far this has mirrored my album ballot, except I had the s/t debut as my #5.
― Resting Bushface (Phil D.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:40 (eight years ago) link
I picked up LAD for this poll and I'm not quite getting the love.
― "Damn the Taquitos" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:40 (eight years ago) link
Petty's description pretty otm..."good".
― "Damn the Taquitos" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:42 (eight years ago) link
This Rolling Stone interview with Jimmy Iovine is a must-read. His stories of working with John Lennon, Springsteen and Tom Petty are guaranteed to please anyone visiting this thread.
― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:42 (eight years ago) link
I think some of the love is related to the record's perception as a failure, which it's not. It's a solid record with (imho!) a not-great lead single and some exceptional tracks that headz may see as overlooked.
On the one hand it's much less of a mess than Let Me Up, but it's so tight that it can sound a bit samey, like a band that knows what it does so well and is so locked in on that that there's not a lot of room to breathe. In a weird way it's like their "rattle and hum" -- they've taken the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers thing as far as it can go and it's either change or die.
Enter Dave Stewart! Tho maybe it would have turned out better if they'd all gone to Berlin...
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 00:56 (eight years ago) link
dun dun DUH
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 01:45 (eight years ago) link
1. Damn the Torpedoes – 110 points (14 votes, nine #1 votes)
http://i.imgur.com/r0HrAAn.jpg
Iovine: "It's the best-sounding album I ever did. And there wasn't one fucking thing on my mind the entire time we made it. Just that. I was totally single-minded. I've never been the same way in anything I've ever done after."
very interesting bit from the Iovine interview:
"Tom Petty has a voice that sounds like a guitar. If you don't create an environment for it, it sounds small. It's like building the right set for a movie, where you move everything around him, through layers of echo. And in those days, there was no digital delay. It was tapes and 12 hands on the console, mixing."
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Saturday, 12 December 2015 02:48 (eight years ago) link
I had Long After Dark #1 as well?
― campreverb, Saturday, 12 December 2015 03:09 (eight years ago) link
ugh that's on me - point total is correct and the spreadsheet captures #1 votes - it was a cut/paste error :(
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 03:34 (eight years ago) link
some dude that bit is extra-interesting given that petty went dry for full moon fever (lynne's preference) and has stayed with it since
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 03:35 (eight years ago) link
Petty's voice really is a temperamental thing. there are a lot of songs that i came across that were musically/lyrically strong but his voice had an annoying tone on the chorus or something and i just couldn't get into it.
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Saturday, 12 December 2015 03:39 (eight years ago) link
lol that reminds me that rob sheffield had petty second worst singer all time - http://www.villagevoice.com/music/nobody-can-touch-him-6397466
― balls, Saturday, 12 December 2015 06:35 (eight years ago) link
I know there are raps on Petty as a singer, but his singing is one of my favorite things about him, so I guess I just don't hear whatever the detractors do.
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 12 December 2015 13:47 (eight years ago) link
Like I said in the noms thread, if like me you discovered Petty after 1987 the way he sounds on those early singles takes...getting used to.
Wow @ Long After Dark charting this high.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 December 2015 13:55 (eight years ago) link
Iovine thought they'd topped Damn the Torpedoes. "I'll be honest with you," he says. "That album changed me. I thought 'The Waiting' was bigger than 'Refugee.' So when it wasn't a hit, a real hit, it killed me. It was devastating. I felt it was as good as anything I'd ever been near."
Mike Campbell said in the doc that "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" killed the momentum for "A Woman in Love" and the album.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 December 2015 13:56 (eight years ago) link
f like me you discovered Petty after 1987 the way he sounds on those early singles takes...getting used to.
I can kind of understand, it's just hard for me to hear it in that order. To me the later voice is just a natural extension of the earlier voice. And I really love the raw yelp on, like, "I Need to Know." It's almost punky.
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 12 December 2015 14:00 (eight years ago) link
I probably would have said Hard Promises going into this, but I really found Long After Dark to be one of his more consistent releases when putting my ballot together.
― campreverb, Saturday, 12 December 2015 14:16 (eight years ago) link
or Damn The Torpedoe's rather. ugh posting in the am.
― campreverb, Saturday, 12 December 2015 14:21 (eight years ago) link
Re: "Punky"--That reminds me of another thing I learned from the Petty "Behind The Music": In '77, Shelter tried to break him in the UK as a 'Punk/New Wave' guy, which kind of makes sense as he lined up well with the Pub Rock guys (Graham Parker, Edmunds-Lowe*-Rockpile, even Costello).
*Either of whom might have been better producer picks than Stewart.
― "Damn the Taquitos" (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 12 December 2015 14:24 (eight years ago) link
yeah he did very well on early kroq, which ok he was doing well on pretty much any rock station circa 81, but he was still getting airplay from them even after they'd completely made the transition to modern rock and ac/dc and seger were way in the past. i can kinda see it and wonder if that aspect of him helps explain why he thrived when alt-rock hit while mellencamp and esp springsteen suffered (or for that matter why he kinda dips when those two hit their commercial peak).
― balls, Saturday, 12 December 2015 14:47 (eight years ago) link
Wow, yeah. I hadn't made the corollary between Petty's mid eighties slump and Mellencamp and Springteen's commercial peaks.
No one has asked him what might've happened if he hadn't hooked up with Lynne?
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 December 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link
His move through producers post-Iovine is interesting. He was obviously looking for new ways of doing things. I think Rick Rubin was the best match, but Lynne was weirdly in tune with the late '80s pop market. (I say weirdly because it's not like anyone would have predicted in 1983 that the ELO guy would be a major presence five years on.)
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Saturday, 12 December 2015 15:37 (eight years ago) link
Wonder if his Dave Edmunds album would've been a bigger hit in 1989.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 December 2015 16:13 (eight years ago) link
TOM PETTY POLL RESULTS PART ONE: THE TRACKS
• 22 ballots• 113 tracks receiving votes
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 22:55 (eight years ago) link
um, PART TWO dammit
counting down top 40 tracks, with ties sharing a slot in the interest of inclusiveness
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 12 December 2015 22:56 (eight years ago) link
i got a poll at the top of the world tonight
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:00 (eight years ago) link
Even POLLS Count Down
― "Damn the Taquitos" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Here comes my POLL
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:06 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/OuB8elM.png
40. Casa Dega - 60 points (4 votes)http://youtu.be/U6wAR1rVbLs
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:23 (eight years ago) link
kickin' off with a b-side, i like it!
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:33 (eight years ago) link
Petty: Cassadaga is this really odd place in Florida that is filled with fortune-tellers. There are all kinds of psychics and fortune-tellers in the whole town. It's this really small place. And I wrote that by putting myself in the mind of someone who went to Cassadaga. Though I spelled it wrong..."
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:39 (eight years ago) link
Dunno if it still exists tbh
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:40 (eight years ago) link
xpost w/Today I Learned on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassadaga,_Florida
Cassadaga (a Seneca Indian word meaning "Water beneath the rocks") is a small unincorporated community located in Volusia County, Florida, just north of Deltona. It is especially known for having a large number of psychics and mediums, and has consequently been named the "Psychic Capital of the World". [sic]
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:49 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/gUYh1Vp.jpg
39 (TIE). A One Story Town - 63 points (3 votes)http://youtu.be/T9dZSFX5Z8M
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:51 (eight years ago) link
yeah!
― campreverb, Sunday, 13 December 2015 00:55 (eight years ago) link
love the hooky lead guitar wail on the chorus
― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:15 (eight years ago) link
nice! love em both
― lute bro (brimstead), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:25 (eight years ago) link
re: that wailing guitar, I really really wonder what petty's career might have looked like if he'd gone solo (as the label wanted) rather than stick with the gainesville guys who became the Heartbreakers. impossible to say, but i suspect it would have been much smaller. campbell's leads really function as a second vocal, to the extent that most of the tracks are nearly impossible to hum without including his fills.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:29 (eight years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/tzbfP6z.jpg
39 (TIE). Kings Highway - 63 points (4 votes)http://youtu.be/OdqDeBzqlP0
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:30 (eight years ago) link
back from rio > into the great wide open
― lute bro (brimstead), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:36 (eight years ago) link
zuh i don't know why i thought jeff lynne was involved in the former
― lute bro (brimstead), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:37 (eight years ago) link
well tom and the heartbreakers are on it, anyways
― lute bro (brimstead), Sunday, 13 December 2015 01:38 (eight years ago) link
TRACKSEven the LosersStraight Into DarknessThe WaitingAmerican GirlDon’t Do Me Like ThatStop Draggin’ My Heart AroundYou Wreck MeDogs on the RunI Need to KnowA Woman in LoveBreakdownRunaway TrainsChange of HeartWallsRebelsA Thing About YouThe Wild One, ForeverFinding OutWildflowersFree Fallin’
ALBUMS Damn the TorpedoesLong After DarkWildflowersHard PromisesTom Petty and the Heartbreakers
― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Friday, 18 December 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link
collections always get short shrift in these things but YES, if anyone hasn't checked out the Live Anthology it's on Spotify and it is fantastic.
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Friday, 18 December 2015 17:47 (eight years ago) link
File "Change of Heart" as the Tom Petty deep track this poll has lead me to re-discover. It was actually a single? Anyway, interesting that "Long After Dark" has both beloved deep cuts.
The poll also led me to re-read Christgau's reviews of Petty, which even when they're positive are pretty ouch. That rabbit hole led me to consider Bowie a potential analog: too many great, iconic songs to be just a singles artist, more uneven records than his reputation might indicate.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 19 December 2015 22:09 (eight years ago) link
working a Darlene Love concert tonight, and during soundcheck a guitar tech played the "You Wreck Me" riff on a really nice guitar/amp, brought a smile to my face
― thomp etty (some dude), Saturday, 19 December 2015 23:03 (eight years ago) link
It's a fun song to play with a band
― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 19 December 2015 23:04 (eight years ago) link
Love the ghastly near-howling vocals on the chorus of "change of heart"
― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 19 December 2015 23:06 (eight years ago) link
Wish zing had a "find in page" function.. Any talk of that "surf" album by the Stingrays or whatever?
― lute bro (brimstead), Saturday, 19 December 2015 23:07 (eight years ago) link
I mentioned it, yeah. One time I saw Petty he left the stage for a bit and let Mike lead a surf medley for a long while.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 20 December 2015 02:26 (eight years ago) link
Wow, this unveil was really fun. Loads of welcome surprises, deep cuts and minor hits. You can tell that many of the participants were familiar with a large fraction of his discography, as opposed to a few of the more recent results threads (like Nirvana and Queen).
Also I can't believe I wasn't the only vote for "Asshole" (my #6).
― billstevejim, Sunday, 20 December 2015 22:08 (eight years ago) link
I voted for it!
― "Damn the Taquitos" (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 20 December 2015 22:45 (eight years ago) link
heard "Jammin' Me" on the local classic rock station for the first time today. they're having a 'No L weekend' with no song titles with the letter L in them (dad rock x dad jokes!), so maybe eliminating "American Girl"/"Don't Do Me Like That"/etc. made them dig deeper with their Petty selections. the next song was "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" so it was kind of a weird Dylan twofer as well.
― i got a really big steen, and they need some really big zings (some dude), Sunday, 20 December 2015 23:40 (eight years ago) link
You could have a real strong Tom Petty rock block of songs without L
The WaitingRefugeeBreakdownStraight Into DarknessI Need To KnowStop Draggin' My Heart Around
― kornrulez6969, Monday, 21 December 2015 02:55 (eight years ago) link
Into the Great Wide OpenChange of HeartDon't Come Around Here No MoreI Won't Back DownRunnin' Down a Dream
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 21 December 2015 03:47 (eight years ago) link
INSIDER
How are y'all still sleeping on this?
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 21 December 2015 05:34 (eight years ago) link
i mean hey, it ranked. it was in the top 10 of non-hits!
― i got a really big steen, and they need some really big zings (some dude), Monday, 21 December 2015 05:44 (eight years ago) link
(and contains no Ls)
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Monday, 21 December 2015 05:53 (eight years ago) link
Guitar nerd stuff: I brought "Straight Into Darkness" in to my guitar teacher, and we were weirdly thrown off by what is largely a simple song. At first we thought it was tuned down a half-step, which Mike Campbell likes ("Boys of Summer"), but it still wasn't right. Turns out that to the best of our collective observation, the recording is totally out of tune! Guitar, piano, organ ... all off, together, like it was slowed down (or even fucked up) in the mastering.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 14 January 2016 21:54 (eight years ago) link
Josh-interesting! I grabbed my guitar last night to see if I could reproduce it, but at least rhythm wise, I was able to play along with the recording tuned down a half-step (which is how I usually keep my guitar tuned).
― campreverb, Friday, 15 January 2016 15:30 (eight years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CYtH66jVAAEDqMk.jpg:large
― tylerw, Friday, 15 January 2016 15:32 (eight years ago) link
xpost We totally did try tuning down a half-step, and for a minute it sounded OK, but then we noticed it was out of tune with the piano and organ, too, and we realized that there was no way they tuned those down (on purpose). Then we listened to the live version, and the guitars are in standard!
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 January 2016 17:09 (eight years ago) link
yeah I found the same thing on the live, I had to capo to match that.
― campreverb, Friday, 15 January 2016 17:15 (eight years ago) link
varispeed is an awesome thing.
― fact checking cuz, Friday, 15 January 2016 21:05 (eight years ago) link
But isn't that usually used for more conspicuous effects? The Petty track sounds pretty straight forward, except for being pitched down to some mysterious key.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 January 2016 22:35 (eight years ago) link
a lot of bands used to use varispeed just 'cause they liked the sound of instruments and/or voices sped up or slowed down a tiny bit. i don't know if petty used it that way, but it wouldn't have been unusual if he did.
― fact checking cuz, Saturday, 16 January 2016 01:41 (eight years ago) link
Zanes' Petty book is excellent, one of the best accounts of how bands work I have ever read.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 01:00 (eight years ago) link
I wanted 40 pages about Let Me Up though.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 1 March 2016 01:05 (eight years ago) link
Eh, I got enough.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 02:02 (eight years ago) link
This has been a good resource for me this morning.
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 15:43 (six years ago) link
4 years… if I had this one back, I would have rated “room at the top” a lot higher. I guess when it came out I didn’t know enough about the world or about Petty to pick up what it was putting down, but at the moment I can’t think of another song by anyone that captures the moment of knowingly choosing to escape into a high any better, self-pity and all. plus campbell straight rips on it.I wish Amos Lee’s take was available anywhere. I only saw it the one time but it felt like the only cover I’ve heard that really nailed it, Jason Isbell included.RIP
― poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Saturday, 2 October 2021 04:13 (two years ago) link
this set by Mike & Benmont at Tom’s 70th birthday special was so good, made me miss him all over again but also: I still marvel that these incredible folks were part of his ~band~ for crying out loud. Like Elvis, yknow? he was so good that THESE are the guys who make their career backing him up when they can set any stage on fire in their own right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URr83yI-tQM
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 2 October 2021 04:29 (two years ago) link
Peter Bogdanovich's four-hour documentary is on Kanopy, and I've been watching the whole thing sporadically today. I was a little skeptical that it needed to be four-hours because the band's existence was never eventful the way Dylan, the VU, the Beatles, etc. were culturally or just as news, but it's highly entertaining so far. Petty himself is just a naturally good storyteller and these are good small anecdotes, one after another.
Anyway, I missed this poll, but if I had to rate the albums, using Rolling Stone's 5-star scale:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976) ****You're Gonna Get It! (1978) ***Damn the Torpedoes (1979) *****Hard Promises (1981) ****1/2Long After Dark (1982) ***1/2Southern Accents (1985) ****Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987) ***Full Moon Fever (1989) *****Into the Great Wide Open (1991) ***Wildflowers (1994) ****
can't rate the rest as I don't know them as well
― birdistheword, Sunday, 23 January 2022 23:27 (two years ago) link
Upon revisiting, I'd actually downgrade Hard Promises and Full Moon Fever to 4 stars apiece. Very uneven albums, they're like half great and half forgettable.
Anyway, after seeing that Petty doc, I got curious and dug deep into all things Tom Petty. Besides listening to the albums, I started digging for articles and found this harrowing, angry one on Howie Epstein's death, published in his hometown magazine. This could've been a documentary on its own, but I think it gets 10 or 15 minutes in the doc (which to be fair is not an insubstantial chunk compared to other topics covered by the same film - but it still means losing most of the details): https://www.milwaukeemag.com/HeartBreaker/
― birdistheword, Wednesday, 26 January 2022 01:49 (two years ago) link
Aw, that's a sad story. Poor Howie. Super talented guy.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 26 January 2022 04:06 (two years ago) link