RIP Tom Petty

At minimum, the two-disc version is worth getting to anyone who simply likes this album. (I think it's very good, but it's not even my favorite Tom Petty album - there's four, maybe five others I like more.)

For starters, the mastering is great whether you spring for the hi-res FLAC's, CD or vinyl - they're all better than the standard CD. (FYI, supposedly if you buy the CD's direct from Petty's official website, you get the hi-res downloads for "free" though to be fair the list price is a little higher there.)

But yeah, that second disc of extras is pretty good. There's at least four tracks that should have made the album IMHO - "Hope You Never," "Leave Virginia Alone," "California," "Harry Green," maybe "Climb That Hill Blues" - and the rest are fine outtakes, they would've been good B-side material. I don't think it was a bad idea for Petty to boil down those 25 tracks to a single CD, but almost anything from the outtakes disc would've been preferable to "Hard on Me" or "House in the Woods."

The four-disc "deluxe" edition and the five-disc "super deluxe" edition are pretty good too. Anyone who LOVES this album should consider the "deluxe" edition, the third and fourth disc are programmed wonderfully. If I liked this album more, I would myself - disc three and especially the live renditions on disc four were a good listen. But there's only one demo from disc three that I'll probably come back to ("There Goes Angela" which I would've put on the album as-is - it sounds great even for a demo) and I'm fine with just the studio renditions going forward. The fifth disc on the super deluxe is probably for students and die-hards, and I don't mean that as a put-down, that's just the nature of alternates and rejected versions left behind and this case is no different.

Heard "Leave Virginia Alone," and while in some ways it's kind of boilerplate (down to its Bob Seger vibe), but it sounded great.

This is his stoner record, right? The peak of his legendary pot smoking, right before his heroin addiction kicked in?

Rod Stewart covered LVA the following year.

Four of the outtakes surfaced basically as-is on She's The One, including that wonderful Beach Boys homage "Hung Up And Overdue" (Carl Wilson!)

never noticed how much "Time to Move On" is debt to the sound of Tunnel of Love era Springsteen and proto War on Drugs

yeah there’s a similarity in the seamlessness of the synth pads alongside the rootsier accompaniment

He may have been into heroin already, but nevertheless, I'd still call it his stoner record. It feels like one which is part of its charm.

To be brutally honest, a lot of the album feels boilerplate. Jim DeRogatis gave a scathing 1-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times back then, and while his observations aren't wrong, I think his judgment is way off. The album is very simple, it's not innovative and the musical parts aren't that original, but that's not a fatal flaw here. It's a stoner album in the sense of a middle-aged guy whose life is emptying out and all he can really do is sit alone (alone partly because his marriage finally went to shit) and reflect with the help of some good weed. And part of that reflection is tied to retreat, familiarity and comfort as a means of dealing with everything, so that's what the music feels like - familiar and comforting not as a retread but as a retreat into solace. That may not be my idea of a "masterpiece," but Petty for the most part sells the idea and connects with the listener on nearly every track (there's maybe two I definitely would have ditched) and then some (again, the best of the outtakes).

I think a lot of Petty is sort of boilerplate, which is why it took me so long to really click with him as a great songwriter. It's the subtle touches, the economy, the occasional turns of phrase and certainly the tasteful (but not boring) musicianship, though ironically this album is not particularly economical, which is part of its stoned-ness.

His lyrics are often boilerplate; his melodies are not. His bandleading skills are near genius.

i can't think of any petty record w/o the heartbreakers as his great work

i think that's why i can appreciate this record more than i love it

I opted for the 2-disc version of this and I'm really happy I did. Like birdistheword, I don't think I love the album enough for one of the more expensive versions. But I do want to give the Petty team a lot of credit for not skimping on options here - you can essentially pick your preferred version based on your budget and level of interest, which is refreshing. There was the $20 2xcd version with the album proper and the ten outtakes, a $50 4xcd version that adds a disc of home recordings and a live disc, a $160 5xcd version that adds another disc of alternate versions and a fancy book and stuff and vinyl equivalents of all those options.

As opposed to, say, the recent reissue of Goat Heads Soup, which was either the $19 2xCD with the disc of outtakes or the $130 super deluxe version with all the bells and whistles, nothing in between (meaning the only way to get the highly regarded live set was the most expensive option).

I wish more artists would cast a wider net with options like Petty's.

His band leading skills (esp. with the band he is leading) are indeed impeccable and more than make up for any boilerplate lyrics (which is why I put him in a class well above, say, Mellencamp). Aren't all the Heartbreakers (minus Stan) playing on Wildflowers?

yeah i think so but i dunno there are a lot of other people it has a feel more like they are being brought in as session players not as a band though, almost like when gene and paul made peter and ace be session musicians in their own band*

*i think campbell is an exception, based on the bio at least he was treated on a different level than the rest of the band

the whole thing w/a few exceptions like you wreck me doesn't feel very heartbreakers to me

I think that's partly Steve's boring drum parts, tbh.

it's on Twitch via AmazonMusic because 2020 but you can also view the whole thing through the homepage at tompetty.com

this doesn't seem to be the case anymore?

Rod Stewart's cover of "Leave Virginia Alone" is okay - apparently WB asked him to cover it after rejecting several tracks intended for A Spanner in the Works in a failed attempt to make it more commercial. ("Leave Virginia Alone" was the lead single and was something of a flop. Personally, I think the one keeper on that album is the cover of Sam Cooke's "Soothe Me.")

The She's the One soundtrack has a hilariously charming story that encapsulates everything I like best about Petty. He agreed to be the soundtrack supervisor, and normally that would entail him using his connections to get the songs and recordings needed for the movie. (Think of Dave Edmunds with Porky's II or Kendrick Lamar with Black Panther, etc.) But Petty was too embarrassed to go to his famous friends for contributions - he had nothing against the movie, he was just uncomfortable with asking favors from friends. At the same time, he didn't want to let Ed Burns down, so he tried composing as much music as he could, and obviously there's only so much usable material that can be written under that kind of pressure, so he padded things out with those leftover songs from the Wildflowers sessions. He felt really bad afterwards and kind of embarrassed about the album because of the way it came together. Anyway, I like the soundtrack's title single, "She the One (Circus)," and as mentioned, "California" is a real gem that should have made Wildflowers.

His band leading skills (esp. with the band he is leading) are indeed impeccable and more than make up for any boilerplate lyrics (which is why I put him in a class well above, say, Mellencamp).

Mellencamp's a really good bandleader too - I'd put him on par with Tom Petty. Lyrically, he probably has the opposite problem where he swings for the fences most of the time and winds up missing more often than not.

i prefer petty but i think you could make the argument that mellencamp in 2020 is as underrated as petty is overrated

Think of Dave Edmunds with Porky's II

also WHAT????

porky's revenge i guess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porky%27s_Revenge!

I'm sorry, it was actually Porky's Revenge! (complete with exclamation point), which was the third movie. But yeah, it's one of the biggest WTF soundtracks of all-time. Willie Nelson? Carl Perkins? Jeff Beck? GEORGE HARRISON covering a previously unknown Bob Dylan song from the '60s?!?! What the hell are they doing on a Porky's soundtrack???

And I agree, Mellencamp in his old age is underrated. He may not be hitting the same exalted peaks as the good half of Scarecrow, but his albums are much more consistent and much less strained now than they ever were.

Did Mellencamp really have the same band lineup for nearly as long or as many albums as Petty? Aside from Kenny and, for that brief bit, Lisa Germano, they just didn't have much personality, imo. That's why I can name every Heartbreaker but only those two Mellenheads.

GEORGE HARRISON covering a previously unknown Bob Dylan song from the '60s?!?! What the hell are they doing on a Porky's soundtrack???

yeah! this is crazy haha so weird...unfortunately george had such poor taste in 80s production

Nah, there were lots of changes in personnel, but I thought he navigated those well. I would never knock them for lack of personality though. They were knocked for being too derivative of the Stones in the early '80s - that reminded me of similar charges that Petty was too derivative of the Byrds and possibly the Stones as well - but I never listened to Scarecrow thinking it was a Stones copy, and The Lonesome Jubilee certainly had a lot of personality which Springsteen may have liked enough to get his own Appalachian fiddle.

(To be clear, I don't think consistent personnel is a requisite for assessing someone's stature as a bandleader. Changing personnel took nothing away from Duke Ellington, that's for sure.)

I'm sure they're fine or good, but mostly I mean that I can't name any of the players because I would never necessarily want a player that played like Mellencamp's guitarist or keyboardist or bassist, whoever they are. But Benmont, Mike, Stan et al. were and remain first-call players for others I think because they have personality, as hard to pin down a trait as that may be. Ergo, there's not much of a band for Mellenhead to lead, per se, because there's not only no real band, there's no real distinguishing characteristic of the players he picks. I could say the same thing of someone like, for example, John Hiatt, whose albums (as much as I know them) only perk up depending on who is playing on them. (Though he generally remains a good songwriter no matter what.)

But Benmont, Mike, Stan et al. were and remain first-call players for others I think because they have personality, as hard to pin down a trait as that may be.

here are kenny aronoff's credits, scroll through them...then after your finger falls off and you have it surgically re-attached, come on back and tell me how he wasn't as much of a "first call" session guy than stan lynch.

https://www.allmusic.com/artist/kenny-aronoff-mn0000081149/credits

huh i didn't know this guy had been w/mellencamp the whole time

https://www.depauw.edu/news-media/latest-news/details/34229/

I called out Kenny specifically as an exception! That guy is a session ace.

Stan moved on to successful songwriting, actually, iirc.

Yeah, Stan Lynch did an interview where he talks about his life post-Heartbreakers. I didn't read it all - it was a subscription-based site and only an excerpt was made available to everyone - but by that point he had already done some notable work with Don Henley (like he co-wrote "The Last Worthless Evening" and played on that track, "The Heart of the Matter" and a few others). So after he was fired, Henley called him, commiserated and said "I know what you're going through - I was 33 when the Eagles broke up." IIRC, Henley was starting work on a few projects, including the Eagles reunion, so he asked Lynch to fly to his home or studio and meet him. As soon as Lynch gets there, Henley says, "welcome to the next phase of your life," and then there's more that was behind a paywall. But yeah, Lynch went on to write and produce, even giving away his drums because he didn't want to play them anymore after getting fired by Petty. He even landed a #1 country hit somewhere down the line (forgot who recorded it).

I won't argue that the Heartbreakers were a better band than any collective Mellencamp ever had playing for him, but I thought Mellencamp ran his bands really well - just watch any of his concerts and see.

FYI, the mastering engineer for the new Wildflowers reissue posted a ton of info that might be helpful for consumers and audiophiles. This may be long, but I'll paste it all in a separate post.

Notes from the mastering engineer:

• Nothing on the original album was remixed. It was mixed to analog 1/2" tape in 1994 by Richard Dodd. That is the one one only stereo master for "Wildflowers." No one wanted to change that.

The original vinyl in 1994 was cut from the 16 bit 44.1K digital 1630 CD master. The 2015 vinyl was cut for the first time, from the 1/2" analog master. The 2020 vinyl was cut from the same master and used the same EQ and level as the 2015. The reason why it was recut for this release was that Record Industry lost some of the metal parts, and needed to make fresh parts from new lacquers. If there is any difference it is due to the lathe and the "Je ne sais quoi" factor.

• Everything else you hear on the other discs was mixed digitally "in the box" in Pro Tools. Therefore, the source for the mastering is digital: 24 bit 96K (except the home recordings which were recorded on ADAT, a 16 bit 48K digital format). Everything (except the original album) was mastered by converting the Pro Tools digital output to analog (as I bring my Pro Tools rig to mastering*), then going through Chris Bellman's board at Grundman Mastering and then going back to digital: 24 bit 96K for the Hi Res, 24 bit 44,1K for iTunes, streaming, and dithering to 16 bit for lower res streaming and mp3. A third pass was made at 16 bit 44.1K for CD (all using Lavry converters). The 24/96 has the highest dynamic range. This was the source for the 24/96 Hi-Res downloads, as well as the Vinyl. The 16/44.1 CD has the second highest dynamic range, as we decided to master CD differently this time. It should really sound good, but still have a level that isn't that far below the original "Wildflowers" CD. The 24/44.1 "streaming" version has the lowest dynamic range, but is at a level that we came to after years of messing about to see what sounded the best on a phone, iTunes, car radio or other playback mediums, when put up against other songs from other artists. Tom was adamant about making sure his songs wouldn't "disappear" when heard in this context.

(*The one thing I do that is different than everyone else I know, is that I actually bring my Pro Tools rig into mastering with Chris and we cut from that. That way we can adjust any individual element of the mix when we're mastering. Better control than just using EQ, compression and level.)

The 24/96 Pono "Wildflowers" had the same EQ and level as the new 24/96 "Wildflowers." It should sound essentially the same. If you liked that, you'll like this.

• Disc 2: "All The Rest" was as Tom conceived and finished it in 2015. We did not want to alter it in any way. "Climb That Hill Blues" shares similar lyrics as "Climb That Hill," but is a different melody and just guitar and vocal. Tom loved this and wanted it on the disc.

Disc 2 also has remixes of "California," "Hung Up And Overdue," "Hope You Never." The version of "Climb That Hill," however, is a different, earlier version than the one on "She's The One." It was was cut during the "Wildflowers" sessions along with those other songs.

• Disc 4 is all live material, mixed from multitrack sources from concerts as early as 1995 and as late as 2017 (no "Saturday Night Live" performances). Designed to flow together as one show, imagining the kind of set list Tom would come up with. The live version of "Walls" was so good, and fit into the setlist so well, that we all decided to include it, even though it technically isn't a "Wildflowers"-era song.

• Disc 5 has some great, earlier, more "rock" versions of some of the songs, some with Stan on drums. "Wake Up Time" and "Don't Fade On Me" are the same takes that were on "An American Treasure." They fit in well with the sequence on this disc. "Lonesome Dave" was not included, so we could fit in some more unreleased material (i.e. "You Saw Me Comin'"). "Girl On LSD" is the same master as the b-side, but it was remixed to fit in with the other new mixes on this disc. (If you're into "hi-fi" and dynamic range, you'll like this mix.) Stan Lynch's drumming on disc 5 is wonderful. My favorite drum fill of his on that disc is the transition from 4/4 swing to 3/4 rock, on a familiar song coming out of a very cool alternate bridge.

Finally, these discs are jam-packed with material. They are all sequenced to "tell a story". We all put a lot of thought into song selection and song order, as Tom was the master of the album art form.

• With support from Warners and Amazon, I was able to upgrade my studio and make an Atmos mix of "Wildflowers" and "All The Rest" (the first 2 CDs or 3 LPs in the box set). It will initially be available for streaming on Amazon Music Plus, through their Echo Studio speaker, and in binaural mode through headphones. Their idea is to get everyone into it at an entry-level price point.

I love Mellencamp's work as bandleader. C'mon! He had Kenny Aronoff and Larry Crane for most of the eighties.

And, sorry, Harrison needed a producer, and he was best served by Lynne.

This isn't particularly apropos of anything but reading about Stan's post-Heartbreakers work made me think of it. I have a friend who used to live near Mike Campbell on Kauai and got to be pretty tight with him. My friend's a musician and he would get invited to these epic jam sessions at Campbell's house. (He also got to know Bill Kreutzman — who kept trying to give him acid — and Glenn Frey. Quite the little aging rocker community on Kauai.)

Anyway, my friend said that he asked Campbell if he'd ever thought about doing a solo album. (This was before Petty died.) Campbell said he had at one point, and had said to Petty, "I was thinking maybe I'd cut my own record one of these days." Petty just stared at him blankly and said, "Why?" And that was the end of that.

(sorry, Kreutzmann)

if i remember from the Petty bio, Tom literally wouldn't let Campbell release (an already recorded) solo album because it sounded too much like a Tom Petty record.

Yeah, supposedly. I could have sworn Benmont told a similar story once? Maybe not. I think Petty was pretty possessive of Campbell, as well he should have been. I wonder if he had him on at least some sort of right of first refusal contract, if not something tighter?

(*The one thing I do that is different than everyone else I know, is that I actually bring my Pro Tools rig into mastering with Chris and we cut from that. That way we can adjust any individual element of the mix when we're mastering. Better control than just using EQ, compression and level.)

that sounds like both a terrible idea and a fantastic idea, possibly both.

How would it be terrible? I don't doubt it might be, I just don't have the knowledge or experience to judge whether it would be.

terrible only in the sense that it suggests he's obsessing over every detail past the point of sanity, still tweaking a mix that he presumably had already finished. sometimes you just have to stop. also, there are more than few mastering engineers out there who'd want to murder him, 'cause now he's mixing on their time.

but if he and the mastering engineer have a good relationship, which they obviously do, and if they have unlimited budget, which they probably do, then fantastic, you can get that much closer to whatever sound you have in your head!

Dirty Knobs album is great, like a Tom-less Heartbreakers album but a bit messier & swearier - fave track “Fuck That Guy”

i still hate the name

but I love Mike Campbell 4ever

The 2009 Live Anthology is one of the greatest things ever, and now there's another 4CD set coming in November, culled from 20 shows(!) they did at the Fillmore in San Francisco in 1997, that looks like a fine companion piece. (There's also a 2CD version, but if you're buying this, as I am, why wouldn't you get the whole thing?

Track listing:

CD 1

Pre-show (spoken interlude)
Around and Around
Jammin’ Me
Runnin’ Down A Dream
Good Evening (spoken interlude)
Lucille
Call Me The Breeze
Cabin Down Below
The Internet, Whatever That Is (spoken interlude)
Time is On My Side
Listen To Her Heart
Waitin’ In School
Let’s Hear It For Mike (spoken interlude)
Slaughter On Tenth Avenue
Homecoming Queen Intro (spoken interlude)
The Date I Had with That Ugly Old Homecoming Queen
I Won’t Back Down
You Are My Sunshine
Ain’t No Sunshine
It’s Good To Be King

CD 2

Rip It Up
You Don’t Know How It Feels
I’d Like To Love You Baby
Diddy Wah Diddy
We Got A Long Way To Go (spoken interlude)
Guitar Boogie Shuffle
I Want You Back Again
On The Street Intro (spoken interlude)
On The Street
California
Let’s Hear It For Scott and Howie (spoken interlude)
Little Maggie
Walls
Hip Hugger
Friend Of The Devil
Did Someone Say Heartbreakers Beach Party? (spoken interlude)
Heartbreakers Beach Party
Angel Dream
The Wild One, Forever
Even The Losers
American Girl
You Really Got Me
Goldfinger

CD 3

Mr. Roger McGuinn (spoken interlude)
It Won’t Be Wrong
You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man
Eight Miles High
Crazy Mama
Everyone Loves Benmont (spoken interlude)
Green Onions
High Heel Sneakers
John Lee Hooker, Ladies and Gentlemen (spoken interlude)
Find My Baby (Locked Up In Love Again)
Serves You Right To Suffer
Boogie Chillen
I Got A Woman

CD 4

Sorry, I’ve Just Broken My Amplifier (spoken interlude)
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Honey Bee
County Farm
You Wreck Me
Shakin’ All Over
Free Fallin’
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
Bye Bye Johnny
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
It’s All Over Now
Louie Louie
Gloria
Alright For Now Goodnight (spoken interlude)

The 2-CD set is just spoken interludes.

Having Fun With Tom On Stage

oh damn i think i want this?

Dang, this does look good. Disc 3 looks interesting.

i've heard a few of these shows via bootlegs and yeah, they smoke.

the Fillmore covers alone are killer, but yeah, super excited for this

My copy of the Live at the Fillmore box arrived today and it fucking rules.