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Post by Not a real doctor on Jul 30, 2018 10:54:46 GMT -5
Southern Accents (1985)
Southern Accents is a difficult album because it falls thematically in such a strange place. Is it a celebration of shit-kicking, racist southern culture, or is it a set of stories about those people viewed from an insider who was really an outsider’s perspective? Later in life, Petty disavowed the use of Confederate iconography on the album’s tour so for me this one works better if I approach it like The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down: not so much a celebration of the alleged “southern heritage” but a sketch of a certain kind of person that if you spend some time in the south, you’re bound to run across. TNTDODD was written by a Canadian and sung by an Arkansian which gave it that insider/outsider feeling and with Southern Accents I see Tom Petty both yearning for the good parts of his southern roots (specifically his recently deceased mother in the titular song), and taking a more outsider view of the people he (based on the Warren Zanes book and Bogdanovich documentary), never really fit in with before leaving for sunnier locales.
That said, it’s a middling album for me in the pantheon, there are a few songs I really like, a few that are the sort of “okayish character sketches we see on all his albums,” and some that are just meh and also suffer from some pretty terrible, of-its-time production.
If you have a chance, you should definitely watch this short MTV documentary/interview. Seeing him do the “Lucky” character here always makes me smile and think of my brother and I and this little inside joke/character we do based on this guy we worked for doing stone masonry when we were younger.
Anyways, on to the muzik:
Rebels: This is the toughest one out of the bunch to get behind on its face but like I said above, based on Petty’s later comments, I listen to this one as a story about those people that is neither praise nor judgement, just a presentation of who the are. The album track suffers from terrible production but the live version in the youtube playlist is lightning.
It ain’t nothing to me: Meh…I am not a big fan. It’s “Jammin’ me” but not as badass as Jammin’ me. Live version helps and has a prett solid groove, but overall, it’s a skipper.
Don’t come around here no more: Holy hell, out of left field comes this one and I love it. The song itself, the video, all of it. It’s hard to get a live version loud enough to simulate how great of a job they do with this one, how much the crowd gets into it, and how powerful Ferrone’s drumming is (yeah yeah, I know he’s no big Stan Lynch but he does a great job). Always a favorite when I’d go see him.
Southern Accents: A good first side closer. This always seemed to me like the most (abnormally, even) personal song in the canon. It nails what it’s trying to do in every single way with a portrait of a lonely loser that has just enough self-awareness to be truly broken. Howie on the mandolin:
Make it better (forget about me): Eh, no comment. Actually, no, this one should’ve been on Long After Dark.
Spike: One of the weirder songs to ever make it on an album but it also has its kin in earlier songs like Same old you and Strangered in the night. The live versions with the extended story of the Cypress Lounge are the best.
Dogs on the run: My personal favorite on the album and I’m not sure why it wasn’t a bigger hit. I haven’t been able to track down a live and rockin’ young Petty version of this one but I’d love to. The slower version in my previous post is a good one though.
Mary got a brand new car: Thematically it fits on this album but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The commentary from Spike applies, but Spike is good and fun, this is not.
Best of everything: It’s a perfectly cromulent album closer, and a song I quite like. It captures the yearning and sadness of a failed relationship as well as he’s done in any other song but I really think this should’ve been the first side closer with Southern Accents finishing it out. The heartbreak in this one is just one more regret in a series of them that’s going to culminate in a broken down old drunk grasping at one of the few good things he ever had in his life that’s gone.
So, this is an album with a complicated and difficult theme and some questionable production choices but I appreciate what Petty was trying to do here with putting together a sweeping story of who he is and why he is, even if the execution may have crumbled under the weight of ambition.
Next up: we’re really into an era of terrible production and a little bit of creative stagnation but there are some redeeming numbers on Let me up.
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Post by Not a real doctor on Aug 29, 2018 17:15:21 GMT -5
Even though I'm not writing anything, I can say I've listened to the next album more times than is healthy. Maybe I'll put some Labor* in over the holiday weekend and get the next one up. *see what I did there
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Post by Not a real doctor on Sept 2, 2018 20:18:55 GMT -5
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987) I never cared much for this album but I’ll admit that after a number of listens bordering on maybe 50 or so, it’s grown on me. Like a lot of records in the late 80s/early 90s, its production choices are certainly “of its era” which maybe isn’t the worst thing in the world. Made after the band had spent a significant chunk of time touring with Bob Dylan and playing as his backup band, its lead single was a Petty/Dylan collaboration and its “wordier than a normal Petty song” lyrics reflect its cowriter’s influence. We continue to see the themes of losers, small towners, the angsty brokenhearted, and the shiftless dreamers that make up Petty’s songwriting canon on display throughout and really, isn’t that what we’re here for? Well, it’s what we’re for, and this one delivers, sometimes.
Before we get into the album, enjoy this:
I’ve never heard, read, or seen anything about it, but I imagine Stan Lynch would have fucking hated Bob Dylan. I’m too lazy to make a playlist myself but links are with each son. Anyway, on to the festivities!
Jammin Me: It’s a solid rocker, with a solid “the overwhelming nature of this modern media landscape” theme. Hilariously dated cultural references abound.
Runaway Trains: Total sleeper hit of the mix. The Beverly Hills Cop verse give way to an absolutely beautiful chorus. I unabashedly love it in all its Heartbreakers lovelorn glory. The Damage You’ve Done: Feh, this one is definitely filler, It just passes you by in the most unoffensive way possible. It'll All Work Out: What a beautiful little song. Sure it’s derivative of “Best of Everything” off the last album and some of the lyrics are pure cheese “hmmm, we gotta rhyme something about eyes with leather…weather?” but I don’t care. Side note, no wonder he was always so skinny in the 80s, it was always a million degrees back then and everyone smoked
My Life/ Your World: Eh…it’s Spike without the charm. It moves along slippery enough but I don’t love it. “Angry” Benmont Tench’s organ work is a highlight. Think About Me: I would have sworn in a court of law that this one is off Long After Dark. It’s got that teenage swagger from the early albums but the cleaned up sound that came after Southern Accents. Not bad, not great (are we sensing a theme). All mixed up: Put this one up there with Runaway Trains in the “thought it was way too 80s but it’s grown on me like a rash.” Man, the singing and handclaps, synth horns, there is nothing to not love here. Self Made Man: If you can prove to me that this isn’t the exact same song as “Something Big” off Hard Promises, I’ll eat my hat. Ain’t Love Strange: Sooooooooooooooo forgettable. Everything you need to know is right there in the title. How Many More Days: This one’s a solid rocker, but it feels much more like a demo than a fully realized song. The fade-in doesn’t help. Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough): Doing their best stones impression here and although it’s not bad, it’s still a very generic “rock song.” Despite listening to this album many, many, many times, it still bleeds into the previous track sonically and thematically enough that I genuinely thought they were one song. Well, that’s it for this one, and I’m glad I got through it. Next up: A resurgence like you’ve never seen with Full Moon Fever (full disclosure: it’s an album I used to like a lot more, we’ll see what a revisit does).
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Post by Some Kind of Munster on Sept 2, 2018 20:36:37 GMT -5
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987)
I've never actually heard this album and the only song here I'm really familiar with is the version of "Jammin' Me" from the Live Anthology (which I can't recommend highly enough, even for the most casual of Petty fans), but it's somehow become one of my favourite Petty songs, ridiculously dated references and all
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Post by Not a real doctor on Sept 2, 2018 21:26:31 GMT -5
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987)
I've never actually heard this album and the only song here I'm really familiar with is the version of "Jammin' Me" from the Live Anthology (which I can't recommend highly enough, even for the most casual of Petty fans), but it's somehow become one of my favourite Petty songs, ridiculously dated references and all Despite Jammin' Me being a decent hit, this is the only album with no representation on the "Mary Jane's Last Dance" greatest hits album. And I will echo your support of the live anthology, I sprung for the big kne with the book, the record, the whole shebang and I regret it none.
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Post by Some Kind of Munster on Sept 2, 2018 21:35:54 GMT -5
I've never actually heard this album and the only song here I'm really familiar with is the version of "Jammin' Me" from the Live Anthology (which I can't recommend highly enough, even for the most casual of Petty fans), but it's somehow become one of my favourite Petty songs, ridiculously dated references and all Despite Jammin' Me being a decent hit, this is the only album with no representation on the "Mary Jane's Last Dance" greatest hits album. And I will echo your support of the live anthology, I sprung for the big kne with the book, the record, the whole shebang and I regret it none. Nice! I just have the basic 4-CD set, but I later learned there was a 7 LP version and I'm really wishing I'd held out for that
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ArchieLeach
AV Clubber
I talk too much, I worry me to death
Posts: 289
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Post by ArchieLeach on Sept 3, 2018 8:01:15 GMT -5
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) (1987) I never cared much for this album but I’ll admit that after a number of listens bordering on maybe 50 or so, it’s grown on me. Like a lot of records in the late 80s/early 90s, its production choices are certainly “of its era” which maybe isn’t the worst thing in the world.
This is the only Petty album I ever bought when it was current, and it may be the most I ever paid for one of his records (not counting the box set Playback). You knock it for its dated sound, but at that time "Jammin' Me" was as pure an old-fashioned rock song you could find anywhere. Like so many of his records, it varies between a small number of strong songs and others which are what they call in the classical world "variations on a theme" - AKA, "more of the same." The Rolling Stone review name-drops Exhile On Main Street as an influence, and there's no doubt that the title track was, ahem, "inspired" by the Stones' "Soul Survivor" - it has the same lyrical theme, the same slide guitar moans, and even a chord change is borrowed. That review was written by Anthony DeCurtis, who exists as a keeper of the guard but who can't be relied upon for close listening. If he had been listening closely, he would have recognized "Runaway Train" as a rewrite of Don Henley's blockbuster of a few years before, "The Boys of Summer," another song guitarist Mike Campbell had a hand in making.
Tom Petty will always be a spiritual cousin to John Fogerty in my mind, but their careers had a crucial difference. Fogerty's genius spilled out during a 5-year period, resulting in a catalogue stunning in its high concentrated quality. Petty's muse was more leisurely, with the difference between his best and his most mediocre efforts being hard to explain, yet somehow obvious. It's always a comfort to hear his voice, and his band. But this album falls between his two most creative periods, the Big Jangle of his first four Jimmy Iovine productions and the compact productions found on Full Moon Fever, Into the Great Wide Open and Wildflowers. Unlike Southern Accents, it didn't have cutting-edge videos or large themes. It was a loose, shaggy dog rock album. It's ironic that for a talent who pretty much presented himself as a loose shaggy dog, it's the most forgotten record of this first decade or so of work. But I remember it, and I like it for its liveliness and good humor.
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Post by Not a real doctor on Sept 3, 2018 9:06:46 GMT -5
Welcome back to another episode of Jammin' Me Talk on Sirus 978, notarealdoctor radio. Four of thr five times I saw Petty live they opened with "Listen to her heart." Which, is a flat-out fantastic opening song. However, I would have liked to have been able to see a couple others like:
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Post by Not a real doctor on Nov 5, 2021 12:46:57 GMT -5
Despite being on hiatus for several years, the juices are flowing. It's fun to see some things that would show up in later songs (lines that are just too good to not use somewhere else) in these demos:
I can't decide if I'm going to do Into the great wide open next or do full moon fever to stay with the chronology. We'll see.
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