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

Has there ever been a sleeve that looked more like The Modern Lovers but sounded nothing like The Modern Lovers?

wonder if he nicked that cha-yange from Lynyrd Skynyrd. I sure hope so.

i keep tripping on how much Tom Petty and Elvis Costello's careers parallel. obviously both started out around the same time and their commercial fortunes rose and fell in roughly the same years, but also, like, they both started hanging out with a Beatle in the late '80s, they both permanently fell out with a longtime sideman in the mid-'90s.

And yet I can't think of two more dissimilar contemporaries.

a shame Elvis C couldn't keep getting gold albums

yeah obviously EC is on a lower commercial rung. still, both guys on that punk/new wave/mainstream continuum who got compared to Dylan a lot, both "___ & the ___" solo acts w/ equally billed backing bands for most of their careers.

the brain reels at the idea of Elvis C hooking up with George instead.

Elvis: I got this tune, George, and it -

George: No.

Elvis: Yeah, but listen to these ascending chords! What if a Rickenbacker -

George: No.

I do not know how to get a post in the right place. I predicted Free Fallin' would make the top three. Big surprise.

there's a good Costello story in one of the recent Petty books. I'll see if I can dig it up once I'm off Zing.

Weren't Petty and the Heartbreakers part of the '86 spin-the-wheel tour?

the replacements followed up their tour opening for petty by opening for costello. not sure if elvis cribbed any lyrics from them, though.

Costello refined Westerberg's "Letters From Joliet" concept, iirc.

ha!

lol

Petty
We were doing ["Listen to Her Heart"] before the record was out. Actually, we played it at a show in Chicago at the Riviera Theater with Elvis Costello and the Attractions. This would have been '77...

And Elvis Costello stole the ending of that song. And he admits it. [Laughs] He remembered it. He watched us do the ending, and he put it on this song he just wrote called "Radio, Radio." If you listen, it's the same ending. I heard him say that in an interview one time. I thought that was humorous, because I remember thinking, when I heard that song, "Damn, that's exactly like our ending." And he admitted that he took it that night at the Riviera Theater."

I don't hear that at all but okay

Huh, he's right. Pete Thomas added some (very Lynch-y) fills, but otherwise identical. I never would have noticed, but I didn't write "Listen to Her Heart."

It's totally there. Once you hear it you can't unhear it.

For posterity, here's "Listen to Her Heart" as performed in 1977

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGA2amsBIg

and Radio, Radio as released in 1978

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eifljYPFW-E

are we talking about the very very end, like the last 10 seconds? that seems like such a generic song ending to me but what do I know

we are, and it is, but it's also on the nose and Costello's on the record

http://i.imgur.com/A2shVmG.jpg

11. Don't Come Around Here No More – 233 points (9 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/h0JvF9vpqx8

Always thought "Angels Want to Wear My Red Shoes" was a closer Byrds-y comparison.

i am very surprised to see "Don't Come Around Here No More" place so high, but not at all disappointed. My #6 and my favorite story in the ongoing saga of songs traded back and forth between Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks...

So Jimmy Iovine asks Tom for material for a new Stevie Nicks record, and Tom says he doesn't have anything but they should call the guy who wrote "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." Which is how Dave Stewart eventually ends up calling Petty in the middle of the night to come down to the studio and help get a track unstuck lyrically…

Stevie
I was writing madly. I had my little book, and I was just writing, writing, writing. Tom, Jimmy, and Dave were sort of talking. But it was five in the morning, and I was really tired. So I said, "I'm going to go. I'm leaving you guys, and I'll be back tomorrow." I left, and when I got back the next day, at something like three p.m., the whole song was written. And not only was it written, it was spectacular. Dave was standing there saying to me, "Well, there it is! It's really, really good."

And they go to me, "Well, it's terrific, and now you can go out and… and you can sing it." Tom had done a great vocal, a great vocal. I just looked at them and said, "I'm going to top that? Really?" I got up, thanked Dave, thanked Tom, fired Jimmy, and left. That went down in about five minutes.

another version:

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."

I've said this already: I can understand the novelty of the record in 1985 but it's another chapter in Petty's long history of mewled, ugly vocals (YOU TAAANGLE MAAAH EMOSHEEONNNSS)

Also: David Stewart did better with neo-psychedelia with Daryl Hall's 1986 "Dreamtime." Imagine if Hall had sung "Don't Come Around Here..."

I bet Tom would have made a nice Dreamtime!

imho the song only gets better as the years go by and the novelty wears off. petty's vocal doesn't bother me, drum track, wah-wah solo, and backing vox just tremendous.

i can understand why the band didn't like it, but if the Stewart/Petty collab had just stopped there I would have been first in line to demand more. who knew "more" would turn out to be "it ain't nothin' to me" :(

and "Make It Better"

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

tbh "Runaway Trains" felt like more of a gobsmack

didn't vote for it because i trusted the electorate to do the right thing (and just outside the top 10 seems perfect to me) but i like it -- especially the "tangle my emotions" delivery! it goes with "Breakdown" as one of those songs where the unusual texture of Petty's voice and singing style work in favor of the sneering attitude of the lyric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flgG1X05BZw

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

10. Breakdown – 241 points (8 votes, one #1)
Original (fan video): http://youtu.be/pOwlYZ_P7Sg
Live, 1978: http://youtu.be/G1cm0QJ9MSo
Live, 1985: http://youtu.be.com/qNxfPAF1frM

i spoke it into existence! thought that would've been a little higher, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZvLmqjGB2w

Those old enough to remember: was this song a shock in early '85?

The video was on heavy heavy rotation, and obviously it's a creepy video, though not nearly as creepy (literally) as Owner of a Lonely Heart which was also a hit around the same time.

I seem to remember a lot of people hated Southern Accents, it was tagged as an ambitious miss.

would like to jump in to defend Don't Come Around Here No More. I share some of the ambivalence (actually I think Southern Accents is an unmitigated disaster). But after hearing one of the live versions with the extended Campbell guitar freakout intro brought me back around on this song. My #7.

i dunno 5 really good songs seems kinda mitigating

RECAP
40. Casa Dega
39. A One Story Town (tied)
39. Kings Highway (tied)
38. A Thing About You
37. A Face in the Crowd
36. Something Big
35. Time to Move On

34. The Wild One, Forever
33. Nightwatchman
32. Love is a Long Road
31. Walls (1 shoutout for Circus, 1 shoutout for No. 3)
30. Dogs on the Run

29. You Don’t Know How It Feels
28. Insider
27. Runaway Trains
26. Southern Accents (tied)
26. Mary Jane’s Last Dance (tied)
25. Learning To Fly (1 shoutout for Live w/Stevie Nicks)

24. Wildflowers
23. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
22. Yer So Bad
21. Crawling Back to You
20. I Need To Know

19. I Won't Back Down
18. You Wreck Me
17. Runnin' Down a Dream
16. Free Fallin'
15. Rebels

14. Jammin' Me
13. Change of Heart
12. Listen to Her Heart
11. Don't Come Around Here No More
10. Breakdown

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST: http://open.spotify.com/user/dustradio/playlist/2VZLJQ5wrhbDspcOy9Y0mR

http://i.imgur.com/V41mNT1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rxcW7Bn.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YElRxj4.jpg

Six outstanding Tom Petty songs that will not be in this poll:

Ain't Love Strange
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
Letting You Go
No Second Thoughts
Red River
A Self Made Man

Time to Move On
All Mixed Up
You and I Will Meet Again

"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" is pretty great

Time to Move On was at #35

Yeah, for me it's about that moment in the chorus when the bass and drums bear down real hard before that I'VE HAD ENUUUFFFFFF

12 of the songs I voted for (including my top 4) have already showed up. I know my #5 will be showing up soon, too.

whoops missed it! xpost

man Wildflowers is the best collection of songs Rick Rubin ever produced in the nineties, isn't it?* I listened to it today and was hard pressed to find a song that's out of place or mawkish or terrible. I suppose I could shorten it, but I'm not sure where to start.

* I actually like Jagger's Wandering Spirit a lot.

Speaking of Wildflowers, what's up with the impending Wildflowers II? It's supposed to be a bundle of session outtakes that was to be added to a deluxe edition of the album, but recently has been mooted as a separate release.

Good point Mr. Pollrunner. Part of the problem for me is the production/arrangements on Southern Accents. But that just points to my larger problem with this album. I just don't buy it, the way I do Southern Rock Opera or Good Old Boys for example.