The songs with Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics almost earned a spot on Do Ya Think I'm New Wave. In retrospect, they were a dry run for Tom's radio-friendly collaborations with Jeff Lynne.
In the other corner, there's the "back to basics" LP Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), which was reportedly written in the studio. Changing your working methods and cleansing the creative palate can yield interesting results. On the other hand, if you go to work with nothing planned, you may have little to show at the end of the day. The single "Jammin Me" was a scattershot word salad of misdirected spite. That spitefulness resurfaced with the petty grievances of The Last DJ.
If you write about the Old South with nostalgia and affection, you can always claim that your intentions were misunderstood. But it's hard to misread the signifiers of the Pack Up The Plantation tour that followed Southern Accents: the rebel flag framed by white pillars, and the title itself. I fell out of love with TP because of the tears for the Lost Cause; because of songs like "Rebels" and "Spike"; and because he neglected the talents of his lead guitarist to the point that Mike Campbell gave away one of his best songs.
The opinions expressed by me (Jonder) may not represent those of Stinky, who has once again compiled two fine Homemade Live Albums with plenty of bonus tracks for listeners to enjoy. And the caption for today's post is not meant to be taken seriously.
Southern Accents - Homemade Live Album
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mediafire.com/file/b9bdgfkdfs39g8m/TP_HB_SA_85_LIVE.zip/file
Let Me Up - Homemade Live Album
https://www.mediafire.com/file/f290n6o2gh7584a/TP+HB+LMU+87+LIVE.zip/file
I love JAMMIN' Me. Any song that pisses Eddie Murphy off can't be all bad.
ReplyDeleteEddie apparently took offense to the lyric:
Take back Joe Piscopo.
Take back Eddie Murphy,
Give ‘em all some place to go.
Joe Piscopo, I'm told, was simply happy to have been noticed.
Thank you for taking the time to compile these awesome sounds!
ReplyDeleteThanks again team Jonky! You are going the extra mile and then some! Mike Campbell definitely deserves more recognition as a guitarist than he gets. Now that you have slogged your way through his "difficult" period ... it'd be a shame to stop here!
ReplyDeleteNo guarantees, Mr. Dave, but you never know when you're dealing with obsessives!
ReplyDeleteI think MrDave's just trying to see if he can get you to do it. He probably doesn't listen to any of this stuff. I bet he's still spinning your Bangles collection and wishing that Susannah Hoffs was single.
DeleteWait a sec -- are we actually supposed to listen to any of this stuff?!? I thought the point was to just have it! Oh Susannah!
DeleteMr. Dave:
ReplyDeleteIn the dream world Jon & I inhabit, we're not only hoping visitors will listen to this stuff, but that they’ll listen to them in the order we present them in... We both burn our mixes onto CDs and take them for a drive before sharing them--and the order of the tracks is intentional and something we (co-)miserate over.
Speaking of which, the legendary Kirsty MacColl stepped in when U2 couldn't decide on a track order for their JOSHUA TREE album. When she presented them with the tracks in the order she suggested (which many readers may be familiar with) they were flabbergasted and all agreed that it was PERFECT. They asked her HOW she decided on the order, and Kirsty said: "Easy! I went with my favorite song, my second-favorite song, my third-favorite song..."
It's not a new idea that track order has importance and significance. I believe it was comedian Greg Behrendt whom I heard say about 15-20 years ago that the FOURTH song on a mixtape that you make for a girl is the POINT of the mixtape. That rang true with me.
But you guys do whatever you want with our compilations—we just appreciate it when you comment on them! :)
I made many the cassette mixtape back in the day and fretted over song choice, transitions, flow etc. and my indie rock band agonized over the song choice and order for each side of the several cassettes we "released" back in the 80s so I can certainly relate and appreciate the thought and effort involved in creating these compilations. I heard somewhere in the 80s that the 3rd song on the first side of an album is supposed to be where you put the "hit" but that doesn't seem to hold up at all, lol.
DeleteMy listening habits have changed so much now that I don't have to select individual albums/cassettes/cd's to listen to and get off my ass to flip them over! I remember back in the 90s reading an interview with Lou Barlow where he was asked what albums he was listening to and he said something like "I don't really listen to albums anymore, I just listen to different songs I put on tape" and I nearly blew a gasket at the audacity of not honoring the artists' visions and efforts in creating each new release. Now I can't keep up with all the music that I download and just listen to things on shuffle so I don't have to agonize over what to pick or not pick to listen to so I've done a complete 180.
BUT I'm going to listen to (some) of these in the order you presented them now since you guys have toiled to create them for our benefit. Thanks for everything you guys do -- I do appreciate it!
This is not a original observation that I'm about to make, but it's interesting to think about how the medium affects the listening experience. Musicians used to fret over which song should be the opener ("side one, track one"), which was best for the end of side one, and what should serve as the finale at the end of side two. Mixtapes gave us all a say in the matter. With the age of CD's came the concept of "front-loading" -- put your best songs first, because casual fans may not sit still long enough to hear the entire album (which was expanded to almost 80 minutes).
DeleteNow we can shuffle, or let algorithms introduce us to new songs that we might like. I had a friend who "blew a gasket" when he found out that I don't always buy an entire album from Bandcamp. I stream the album a few times, and buy the songs I like best.
I wonder too about these expanded reissues. It's great that you can hear alternate takes, demos, and songs that were left off the album. But what if someone like Tom Petty wasn't satisfied with that song, and didn't think it fit with the vision he had for his album? In the case of Long After Dark, Tom wanted the song "Keeping Me Alive" to be on the album, but producer Jimmy Iovine didn't like it, so the album as it was released did not represent the artist's vision.
As one of the guys in the dog collars, Spike never bothered me one bit. People used to throw things at me out of passing cars...like D batteries. Songs are words, words don't hurt as bad as a tossed battery. :)
ReplyDeleteDraftervoi:
ReplyDeleteWe're glad you survived "getting the business" Energizer Style to join us here!
I almost lost my job (in the early 80's) for shaving the sides of my head like Joe Strummer! It's hard to imagine hairstyles and dog collars being so shocking now!
I think "Spike" bothered me because I felt disappointed by Tom. Years later I read that he had intended it to be sung from the POV of an intolerant, reactionary redneck, instead of "this is what I, Tom Petty, think about punks". But when you hear the cheers that he's getting on the live album, it's hard to separate the actor from the role that he's playing, so to speak.
ReplyDelete