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

I was really surprised when Wildflowers came out and was excellent because I'd found the Jeff Lynne era so boring.

had two post-Lynne albums in my top five.

Everything about Jeff Lynne production is indeed super boring, but many of the songs on FMF are among Petty's best and succeed despite being LYNNE'D!

Can't say the same for ItGWO.

GTFO

I only put one Lynne-era track on my ballot (but King's Highway would have made my top 30).

Of the roll-out so far only voted for "A Thing About You," which is one of my favorite TP rave-ups. But much love "One Story Town" and "Something Big."

i think the 80s Lynne production works better on some songs than others (and more often w/ Wilburys than w/ Petty solo) but there are some undeniable songs from that era (3 on my ballot). the new ELO album is really good and manages to fuse the '80s Lynne sound with the classic ELO sound and somehow not come off totally dated.

I don't find the Lynne production obtrusive, and to my ears it wasn't like Petty traveled a great distance from 'Runaway Trains' to 'Love Is A Long Road'.

"Something Big" was one of the toughest cuts on my ballot. Great song, great phrasing on the vocal... I get why Dylan liked it so much...

http://i.imgur.com/scf4n9E.jpg

35. Time to Move On - 84 points (3 votes)
http://youtu.be/u5o582N3wOQ

in middle school, the year Wildflowers was released, i took an elective music class that was partly about movie musicals and we had a group project where we'd basically take songs we liked and 'wrote' a 'musical' picking songs that tied into the plot. i barely remember what songs i picked, but i remember one of the kids in our group, James, picked "Time To Move On" and that was part of the denouement at the end of the story.

here are the Cougartown episodes named after "Something Big" and "Time To Move On":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl2IrXKqfvE
http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-5/episode-7/time-to-move-on.html

lol someone was going to go there eventually

and "A One Story Town":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaCccRdsKCU

[b]Petty[/]: [i]there's a really funny line in it: "nauseous adrenaline/Like breaking up a dogfight." [Laughs] I was really pleased with that. To get those lines into a song that's pretty was really hard. [Laughs] But it worked out really nice.

holy hell bbcode

http://i.imgur.com/tfqMH3d.jpg

34. The Wild One, Forever - 85 points (5 votes)
http://youtu.be/UbdlHgyIZfM

the first song i voted for to make the big list!

Cougar Town!
http://www.tbs.com/videos/cougar-town/season-6/episode-7/the-wild-one-forever.html

Time To Move On was real high on my ballot. One Story Town and A Thing About You as well. One Story Town should have been the single, if not for the "shit" in the chorus.

Excellent rollout

Will any post-Wildflowers tracks make it in?

i voted for 2!

so did I!

Same.

the first song i voted for to make the big list!

― Shkreli, Martin & Wu (some dude), Sunday, December 13, 2015

me too. I think we said all there is to say [heh] on the nominations thread but i love "the wild one, forever" in spite of its unfinished quality (and i take tipsy mothra's point that in this case the form reflects the content, if not intentionally.)

Per Petty, he was going for "a chorus like The Rascals would have done," which I find charming.

http://i.imgur.com/mUVcB0f.jpg

33. Nightwatchman - 88 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/k4zL5vPs7Ho

We sure love Hard Promises!

so, anybody else like Roger McGuinn's 1991 album Back to Rio? Solid collection of songs, tom and the heartbreakers are all over it, iirc

gah back FROM rio

http://i.imgur.com/rls8MbP.jpg

32. Love is a Long Road - 93 points (4 votes)
http://youtu.be/ZfS6Nl962Qg

I didn't know if this was gonna make it, love this song.

I suspect the opening synth figure is what anti-Lynneists have in mind.

nah, I'm anti-Lynne and I dig it. the change make this one. like, when it finally gets to the G as it rounds into the chorus.

also the way he changes up the melody on "maybe one more chance"

That was my #11. I really rate those deeper FMF cuts a lot higher than some people, clearly.

Driving home through rural Texas after a rainstorm, listening to Wildflowers, which is sounding soooo great in such a context.

it is a great-sounding record. two years of long hours in the studio for tom, rick, mike and a few others.

in the zollo book petty says "I think it's maybe my favorite LP that I've ever done... that's the one that really gets me when I hear it. I can kind of go, 'Wow, I'm really proud of that. That came out exactly like I wanted it to."

http://i.imgur.com/1CYAnHn.jpg

31. Walls - 104 points (5 votes - 1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
http://youtu.be/ZfS6Nl962Qg

great song

Love Is a Long Road was my #3, and I'm largely anti-Lynne, but it's one of Tom's best songs and I can't imagine it sounding any different than it does.

i let my hatred of edward burns blind me to "Walls" when it came out but I'm glad I got to hear it again for this poll. just a straight-up great song, with or without lindsey buckingham

Petty:
I wrote that for the movie at the Chicken Shack [Ed - his post-divorce bachelor pad in Pacific Palisades, more or less a log cabin with actual chickens]... I think what kicked it off was Johny Cash said to me one day, "Some days are diamonds and some days are rocks." And I took that line, and wrote the song...

[Lindsey came up with the harmonies]. Yeah, it was all him. He came down and did it in one session. I kind of just sat back and watched him go. Just going, "Yep - that's what I would've done!" [Laughs]

wrong link for "Love Is A Long Road."

Casa Dega is so good

wrong link for "Love Is A Long Road."

― welltris (crüt), Sunday, December 13, 2015

balls! thanks for the heads-up.

"LOVE IS A LONG ROAD," CORRECT LINK: http://youtu.be/qOpuB5aSVF4

just checked my master sheet and it's correct there so I don't even know how that snuck in!

I was the shoutout for "Walls #3": It was the version I fell in love with on the radio. One night the DJ talked about how there was another version of the song; he played the openings of both, before deciding on-air that #3 was the 'correct' version and would be the one they'd continue to play.

'Circus' was the version in the video so i think of that as the main version and the other as the remix or whatever. not really sure which i prefer, but i'm kind of indifferent to the song overall. "Hope You Never" was the She's The One track that stuck with me.

Bucky is also on "Climb That Hill" and "Asshole", because nothing quite says "1996" like Lindsey Buckingham harmonizing on a Beck obscurity in a Edward Burns movie.

She's The One the album is quality goods.

Remembering how much I like "Walls" was my favorite thing about this poll.

http://i.imgur.com/76JHFgz.jpg

30. Dogs on the Run - 113 points (5 votes)
Original recording: http://youtu.be/x19fW4yC324
Live, 2014: http://youtu.be/bTBTBNx4NZU

lovely song, i'm sitting here listening to it like "maybe i should've voted for this"

Good lord.