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