Runnin' Down a POLL: The Tom Petty "Full Moon Fever" Poll

"a face in the crowd" is really underrated

i should also admit i never was particularly turned off by the Jeff Lynne's prod. i can appreciate it's shortcomings, but a lot of people did a lot worse with "rock" music in the 80s imo.

"Mind With a Heart of it's Own" verse made me lol when I was 12

Well I been to Brooker and I been to Micanopy
I been to St. Louis too, I been all around the world
I've been over to your house
And you've been over sometimes to my house
I've slept in your tree house
My middle name is Earl

never really been a fan of that post-ELO supershiny Jeff Lynne production style either

― Jesus, the Czar of Czars (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:24 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^ this. Same problem plagues Harrison's "Cloud 9" for me.

Anyway, "Face In The Crowd" is my dark-horse (lol no pun) favorite on this record. Low-key, understated, gets a lot of mileage from a very simple riff. It gets great response in concert, too.

xxxp i would vote in a long after dark poll.. i predict "you got lucky" landslide, tho

Followed closely by "Change Of Heart," which may actually be a better song.

Straight Into Darkness is best of all.

That's a pretty song, but it doesn't go anywhere: there was a little girl he used to know, and she went straight into darkness, period. He's not good enough of a singer to fill an underwritten song with resonance.

"out the window of the 747, man there was nothin', only black sky"

gonna disagree again on his singing. i think it carries a lot of emotional undertow. but i'll save further discussion of that song in particular for a long after dark thread, cuz it's my favorite on that record too.

http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2750174464

Let me try that again.

http://cheezburger.com/View.aspx?aid=2750174464

Oh come on!

Since it won't post, I'll just describe it. It was a funny lolcat, which for all you old timers out there, is how the youth of today expresses themselves.

Picture an adorable, furry super duper cute cat. And on the bottom of this picture, imagine some text, suggesting that the cat itself is speaking!

Now imagine that this particular cat is familiar with Tom Petty's Long After Dark album. And as a fan, he wants to weigh in. So he says "Straight Into Darkness Is A Wonderful Song!"

i think you mean, STRATE IN2 DAKRNESS ROOLZ!!

ah, and there's the new username i've been looking for.

Lookit what I missed.

this is a great album and i don't know what to pick yet. but it needs to be said that all the guitar solos are fantastic. mike campbell otm.

yeah, this is the first album i really LOVED as a kid. like some people on this thread, I fell out of love with Lynne production at some point in the 90s, but have recently fallen back in love with it. Those acoustic guitars are just golden. Dunno what I'll vote for.
Hadn't heard of the Petty live box set until this thread! Very cool -- and only $19.99 for four discs at amazon right now. Petty -- always looking out for the common man. Take that, Springsteen!

Imagine a picture of an adorably cute tan kitten. But this kitten has a sour expression on her face, as if she is being exposed to something extremely displeasurable or distasteful. Her eyes are squinted half-shut, and her nose is wrinkled up in a most adorable fashion.

Now, below this charming picture is some stark white text, creating the illusion that the cat is speaking directly to you, saying:

I find the hallmarks of Jeff Lynne's production style, ie heavily compressed acoustic guitars and reverbless vocals, to be overly antiseptic, and quite frankly, more than a little distasteful.

Hmm.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Free Ballin'" it is for me.

So what happened to the Long After Dark poll promised by tipsy?

We decided it's definitely "Change of Heart" or "Straight Into Darkness"

i would talk on the internet about all this underrated petty record tho

which one? He has so many, apparently.

Another vote for "Face In the Crowd." Had this album since childhood but that song really only struck me a couple years ago.

Isn't this album one of your personal faves, croup?

definitely my favorite Petty full-length, but not in my top 200 albums or anything

Voted "Running Down A Dream" -- could've voted for any of the single though, I think.

"Free Fallin."

But as Alfred knows, I'm really a first 3 Petty LPs (plus Greatest Hits and "Jammin' Me") kinda guy, and too old to change my ways.

oh i was waiting til this one was over to do that one. but i guess we're close enough, a few hours overlap is ok. coming up...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

haha for the "Zombie Zoo" vote.

Double-duty "dadrock" album: Both my dad and grandfather (an octogenarian!) owned a cassette copy which they kept in their cars.

Free Fallin' has become such a fixture in popular culture that it's easy to forget what a masterful song it is. It's eating me alive this morning.

runnin down a dream imo

"Depending On You" finds its way into my around-the-house oeuvre quite a lot, because I have a very syntactic mind and so when someone says "I am depending on you" I end up singing this song back to them

lol

I can't remember if I voted in this or not, but the first five and Yer So Bad are all so fantastic I'd have a rough time picking a favorite. (Today it would be Free Fallin', but who knows what it would be tomorrow.)

"Free Fallin'" is by far one of Petty's weakest singles.

It's the second worst song on this record

lol RONG

I just don't like the shape of the melody--it's facile, nursery rhyme-ish. The song lacks tension and gravitas.

what a great album

It's supposed to lack tension. It's not a tense song. It's meant to float. In fact, every criticism you just levied at it is intentionally part of its make up. xp

I can see that, I suppose I just don't think Petty does that style very well. My favorite songs of his are his more urgent ones. I think the timbre of his voice and his delivery make his attempts to do the style you detail cloying--it wants to float, but it ends up just being sticky.

It depends on the song. I think Free Fallin' works very well, but I think You Don't Know How It Feels is as flat as a pancake.

I didn't even realize it was you who revived this thread... Sorry for pooping in yer cereal.

It's all good. I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

FREEEEEE FAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLIN'

I associate "Free Fallin" so much with my early childhood that it's hard for me to approach it from a critical songwriting perspective. It's just always been there.

"A Face in the Crowd" is almost ominous.

My most-listened-to Petty album, though not my favourite (that would be Southern Accents). Because it was in my CD collection during high school, it was one that friends would always want to put on when they were over.

petty was too old, and i was too young, for me to buy this when it was released, so it's wonderful now to know the hits yet get to hear the whole thing with fresh ears

"A Face in the Crowd" is almost ominous.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, August 15, 2014 8:01 PM

it's totally ominous, disassociative

this album is like 29 minutes long! that rules

zombie zoo is a great closer

I wanna buy a 12 string guitar just so I can sing “Yer so bad” at the top of my lungs. Best pre-chorus ever