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

no way. if anything, it's Breakdown turned into a real goddamn song, with duck dunn on bass and the rest of the band on fire.

Good point. But there are some similarities to Here Comes My Girl, they're both track 2, both have spoken verses, soaring chorus.

it's also not a spoken verse! def a track 2 with a soaring chorus tho :)

btw a less ethical pollrunner would have definitely moved "a woman in love" a couple notches up his own ballot to make sure it placed ahead of...

http://i.imgur.com/TNrqjA2.jpg

8. You Got Lucky – 253 points (10 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/mtLpZWNyM0I

i used to think of that as one of his weaker hits but it's got so many vocal and instrumental hooks, that melody that goes from a high keyboard line to a low guitar lead is so cool.

hey it's his song in a minor key!
haha, normally something this dated would wear on me, but you know, good love is hard to find.

the video was a vv big deal at the time. that little intro before the song was a major innovation for a promo vid and obj set TP on a long course of wacky, attention-grabbing videos.

history clearly proves me wrong, but tbh imo the "a woman in love" video tops all of them. (tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream")

(dunno why autocorrect would find "obj" so preferable to "obv"...)

tho i have a soft spot for the Little Nemo conceit in "runnin' down a dream"

I do too but it looks terrible in execution unfortunately.

Love this song, the video, the "good little love is hard to find" bit (or whatever it is he mushmouths his way through there)

There are about five or 6 songs I like more than this on Long After Dark.

I foresee a tie coming up because there are 8 more songs that must be accounted for.

rogermexico otm about the "Woman in Love" video, it's great. I love the song, too -- had it at #10. One of my favorite Petty vocals, especially the "Well all right, do whatcha want" verse.

The ubiquity of Petty's songs on MTV and AOR radio create the impression that he scored lots of hits, but how many posters know he only has three top tens, one of which isn't "Rebels" and the biggest is "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"? He's got loads of top twenties though.

lol one of which isn't "Refugee," that is

http://i.imgur.com/K3MyxPr.jpg

7. Don't Do Me Like That – 318 points (12 votes, one #1)
http://youtu.be/I5sTa2gMlJM

xpost

You're right about the videos exaggerating his pop presence. He has a lot fewer top 10s than Bruce, Seger, Mellancamp, Bryan Adams or any of the other Wilburys.

Also, hooray for "Don't Do Me Like That." Deserved to be the big hit from Torpedoes, just a killer tune and the band is so good on this one.

my #1!

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

6. Refugee – 326 points (12 votes, two #1s)
http://youtu.be/fFnOfpIJL0M

As a New Zealander, it feels like he translates better to New Zealand than Seger, Mellancamp, or Bryan Adams. He's had two number one albums here (Torpedoes, Hard Promises).

American Girl is also what the Senator's daughter is rocking out to right before being abducted in 'Silence of the Lambs'.

Re: Refugee (which I somehow have not heard used ironically even once during the whole Syrian debate) -- I had a friend in college who hated Tom Petty solely because the line about "kidnapped-tied up-taken away-held for ransom" drove him crazy. "It has too many words!"

one of three of his songs that could be #1 for me on any given day, the others being Even The Losers & The Waiting.

I'm not crazy about Refugee, but it has a hell of an intro.

Ever since Amy Ray covered it I've always admired the versatility of "Refugee" as a sort of all-purpose protest song.

according to Iovine in the doc, it took the Heartbreakers days to get the intro right.

agreed Josh.

I am certain of four of the top five but the fifth eludes me. Do not tell me When The Time Comes is not on this list. DON'T TELL ME.

I'm still trying to squeeze 6 songs into the last 5. Looks like the title track from 'Into The Great Wide Open' missed out on the top 40 altogether, right?

re: Refugee, apparently they did like 70 takes, and fired and rehired Stan like 70 times

re: what's coming http://i.imgur.com/Y22tlUZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/bnbGxA5.jpg

5 (TIE). Stop Draggin' My Heart Around – 333 points (12 votes)
http://youtu.be/6UD0c58nNCQ

Yay! I am glad this wasn't $1 since it can only be found on a Stevie Nicks album.

I think it's been added to subsequent editions of the '93 Greatest Hits?

So mad that one of the Bonnaroos I missed was the one where Petty headlined and Stevie came onstage to sing this.

2006?

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

Yep, that was the one.

Out of curiosity I just checked how many of the songs on my ballot were Campbell co-writes. Six, including this one. That's fewer than I would have thought, but actually looking at the track lists, he generally didn't have more than two or three per album. I think of him as being more of a writing presence than he is.

Just noticed that Stop Draggin is tied, so everything is accounted for.

yup - you nailed it upthread, but i wasn't going to let the cat out

Campbell generally only got co-writing credit for tracks that he created on his own and petty then wrote to (obv the arrangements might change by the time the track was fully produced).

obv i'm on record as seeing his contributions going a lot deeper than that. there are a ton of tracks he didn't get writing credit for that can't be hummed without including his parts.

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

5 (TIE). Straight Into Darkness – 333 points (12 votes)
Original: http://youtu.be/oUovjEQri2I
Live, 1985: http://youtu.be.com/yONs2C6od-g

The obscure album track that surprised absolutely nobody with its placement. Easily one of his greatest songs.

And perfect picture!

I can't think of any recent poll results that more completely reflect the collective idiosyncrasies of ILM. Like, I wouldn't expect your average Tom Petty fan to even know this song, much less put it in the top 10.

Every poll is like this, there's always a Sway.

nah there's tons of polls with predictable results but maybe I'm just focusing on the ones I've run

It's funny, I don't think of this as obscure because Long After Dark was the first Petty album I owned, and this one got at least some rock radio play at the time. So it's always seemed canonical to me. As a teenager, it was one of those songs that seemed full of adult knowledge -- I couldn't directly relate to the sense of loss, but it made it palpable as a thing that was in the world to be experienced.

(And Campbell's guitar tone gave at least some idea of what it felt like.)

there may be some debate about "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" being one of Petty's finest songs. however, there should be no debate that "Stop Draggin' My Car Around" is one of Weird Al's least inspired parodies.