RIP Tom Petty

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.

So I wrote about the live box for my Substack newsletter this week, focusing on the long, hilarious version of "Gloria" that closes it out. And I excerpted a big chunk of VegemiteGrrl's brilliant piece from when Petty died, so thanks again for writing that, VG.

aw cheers!

"Jammin' Me"!

Kinda regret asking for this for Christmas, now I gotta wait.

this is a pretty great thread of J Mascis doing Tom Petty covers

includes a great karaoke video of Dont Do Me Like That, highly recommended

Happy Thursday, here’s J Mascis singing Tom Petty at karaoke. pic.twitter.com/mZ7ZYRdwjQ

— Scott Heisel (@scottheisel) April 27, 2023

Saw Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs last night with Steve Ferrone on drums (!)

he mixed in a few Heartbreakers songs, including a few deeper cuts
- Rockin Around
- When The Time Comes
- Fooled Again (And I Don’t Like It)
- Refugee
- Runnin Down A Dream

His version of Refugee was slowed way down, it was so great - i posted an older video here for reference, but this is v similar to what he did last night

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgvGyLwPJ0U

The estate just put out a statement saying RR Auction in Boston is auctioning off a ton of stuff stolen from Petty. The auction house won't reveal the source of the materials, but the estate is taking legal action and asking people not to bid on anything.

Eesh, I’ve never heard of that site but searched the webpage for Tom Petty and it looks like someone basically stole his wardrobe. Creepy.

the Live Anthology & Fillmore sets are such a joy

the live recordings for me i think push my already huge Benmont Tench appreciation into the stratosphere
all the ways you can hear so clearly the essential elements he brings to the band, accompaniment, soloing or just flourishes

and the Anthology is wild because if you listen over a couple of sittings it feels like one big concert, there’s so little variation in the band’s quality or performances or sound over the breadth of those discs. Like sewing a mosaic where all the patterns line up perfectly <3

i should listen to those, not seeing petty live is a big regret of mine. certainly had opportunities.

but yeah hell of a band. dylan just played farm aid with the heartbreakers as his band, need to check that out as well.

yeah the live stuff is very fun — the live disc on Wildflowers is cool, too. And yes! Tench really is a pleasure to listen to, he really gets more room to play onstage. I saw him guest with Robyn Hitchcock once in a small club and though he was seemingly unrehearsed, everything he did was perfect.

I've seen him with Jon Brion before, and he got to improvise a lot, a really creative player.

When the Replacements were opening for Petty, Tench would sometimes sit in with them, even as they improvised new songs onstage.

damn the torpedoes is an exemplary organ record, tench tone is incredible and he's a master of using the leslie to subtly build intensity or add emotion

*tench's tone

Tench is pretty awesome all-around - his role in the Heartbreakers may have landed him a lot of outside gigs, but his talent totally justifies it and he's still one of the great sidemen (in studio and on stage) even though he was in a very popular band for 50 years.

ha i like TenchTone ... he should sell a pedal or something.

it really was fortuitous that Petty stumbled across both Campbell and Tench so early on — he lucked out!

Here's the ultimate (not on youtube) Tench clip, playing with Stevie Nicks on SNL in 1981 and stuck doing the more or less sequenced synth part on "Stand Back."

https://vimeo.com/302604378

What a trooper.

It's actually a great performance, considering how little he, Liberty DeVito and Waddy have to do. And whatever Stevie's condition might have been at the time.

Waddy Wachtel is the ugliest man ever born.

I see Tench is playing Prince's two-finger part.

I'm not really a fan of Nicks's solo work, especially after the first two albums, but the stuff she cut with the Heartbreakers is usually enjoyable. I know she said she wished she was in Petty's band instead of Fleetwood Mac, but whether or not she was exaggerating for effect, you can hear how she could've fit in very well with that group.

Not just "Stop Draggin' My Heart" which is basically her vocal grafted on a pre-recorded track, there's a handful of other stuff where Campbell, Tench, maybe Lynch or Epstein are backing her up.

Heh -- I tend to think her first two solo albums are wooden and sodden until she introduces the synths.

To be fair, "Edge of Seventeen" and "Stand Back" are by far my two favorites from those albums, and they're both driven by synths.

that SNL performance!!!!!

this was my birthday gift, thank you so much <3

Watch "Nightbird"!

Yeah, holy shit what a performance that is.

seriously, thank you for posting that performance -- (A) what a bunch of weirdos (B) that guy who shows up to dance aggressively with Stevie, what is that?!

i guess he is there to demonstrate what it means to "stand back!"

damn waddy catching strays! leave waddy alone!!!!

Did Flip Wilson host SNL?!?!

Yes, in 1983: https://www.onesnladay.com/2019/02/09/december-10-1983-flip-wilson-stevie-nicks-s9-e8/

Huh, I think I put it at 1981, probably because that's when the video puts it, but yeah, 1983!

it really was fortuitous that Petty stumbled across both Campbell and Tench so early on — he lucked out!

― tylerw, Thursday, September 28, 2023

"he got lucky" was RIGHT THERE

was it Tench who said Tom Petty's greatest strength as a musician was talking people out of going to college? (Campbell wasn't headed that way; Tench very much was and his family was not thrilled at the time)

lmao that is kinda true

Headed back down south
Gonna see my daddy's mistress
Gonna buy back her forgiveness
Pay off every witness

One more time down south
Sell the family headstones
Drag a bag of dry bones
Make good on my back loans

So if I come to your door
Let me sleep on your floor
I'll give you all I have
And a little more

Sleep late down south
Look up my former mentors
Live off Yankee winters
Be a landlord and a renter

Create myself down south
Impress all the women
Pretend I'm Samuel Clemens
Wear seersucker and white linens

So if I come to your door
Let me sleep on your floor
I'll give you all I have
And a little more

Spanish moss down south
Find the heroes of my childhood
Who now can do me no good
Carve their names in dogwood

Chase a ghost down south
Spirits cross the dead fields
Mosquitoes hit the windshield
All documents remain sealed

So if I come to your door
Let me sleep on your floor
I'll give you all I have
And a little more

I'll give you all I have
And a little more

i love petty. highway companion is so good.

did you guys do a petty listening thread? alfred? VegGrrl? i would totally participate in that. group + solo.

i don’t think we ever did a listening thread that I know of (unless i missed it)

group + solo + mudcrutch

petty listening thread

yes please!

I'm not a fully paid-up member of the church of Dolly Parton, but this (from a Petty tribute album) is really fucking good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qvHyFVm20

beautiful

looking forward to this album, lotta good ppl!!

“Petty Country” Track List:

“I Should Have Known It” by Chris Stapleton
“Wildflowers” by Thomas Rhett
“Runnin’ Down A Dream” by Luke Combs
“Southern Accents” by Dolly Parton
“Here Comes My Girl” by Justin Moore
“American Girl” by Dierks Bentley
“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Lady A
“I Forgive It All” by Jamey Johnson
“I Won’t Back Down” by Brothers Osborne
“Refugee” by Wynonna Judd & Lainey Wilson
“Angel Dream No. 2” by Willie Nelson & Lukas Nelson
“Learning To Fly” by Eli Young Band
“Breakdown” by Ryan Hurd feat. Carly Pearce
“Yer So Bad” by Steve Earle
“Ways To Be Wicked” by Margo Price feat. Mike Campbell
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Midland
“Free Fallin’” by The Cadillac Three feat. Breland
“I Need To Know” by Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives
“Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens feat. Silkroad Ensemble and Benmont Tench
“You Wreck Me (Live)” by George Strait

Honestly, the only other things I want to hear from that list are Jamey Johnson and George Strait. It's a real tragedy what happened to Jamey Johnson (short version: he fell, hit his head, and can't write songs anymore). I kinda like Midland but I don't like "Mary Jane's Last Dance."

fuck i didn’t know that about Jamey Johnson, such a great songwriter. i love his albums!

Seeing that Steve Earle is doing’ Yer So Bad’, I have to wonder if is in a bluegrass style?