CD Odyssey Disc 1580: Tom Petty

I’ve been reviewing albums by this artist for ten years now – almost as long as the Odyssey has existed. It all started with Disc 293 and “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)”. I guess a decade later, I still haven’t.

Disc 1580 is…. The Last DJ

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover?  Regular readers will know I enjoy a good Giant Head cover, but this is the lesser-known Giant Hair cover. This particular mop of hair looks a bit sere and could probably use some conditioner.

How I Came To Know It: I was digging through Tom Petty’s catalogue a good 15-20 years ago, and buying up everything I’d missed along the way. This was one of them.

How It Stacks Up: I have 16 Tom Petty albums. Of those, “The Last DJ” comes in at #13, bumping “She’s The One” down one spot in the process. This being my penultimate Tom Petty review, there will be no full recap. For those people who find this strange, you are probably using ‘penultimate’ wrong. Please stop doing that.

Ratings: 3 stars

In a riveting scene in Peter Bogdanovich’s 2007 Tom Petty documentary, “Runnin’ Down a Dream” an irate Petty tears a strip off a couple of record execs that are pushing what (in Petty’s view) is a shit song on his buddy Roger McGuinn. It showcases Petty’s long-abiding derision for the empty commercial aspects of the music business.

“The Last DJ” is the album version of that outburst, a hate letter for all that was (and has always been) the worst aspects of an industry that simultaneously fuels great art, but also lines the pockets of some shady characters with other people’s inspiration. The result is an uneven record, where the best moments tend to be fueled by Petty’s angry melancholy.

Things get started with the title track, a song that is both celebratory and tragic. Celebratory because of the titular character, who, “plays what he wants to play” and tragic because he is the last of his kind, in a sea of moral turpitude.

This is the first in a quartet of songs that leads of “The Last DJ” with a lot of criticism of the music industry that is nasty, to the point, and leaves little room for alternate interpretations. “Money Becomes King” is the transformation of art into product, and even the gentle and soothing piano of “Dreamville” which is dreamy only in that it hearkens back to a time when people made music for music’s sake and didn’t sweat the bottom line.

The final entry in this opening salvo is the album’s finest track. “Joe” is sung from the perspective of the Soulless Record Exec, and Petty’s depiction is scathing. “Dreamville’s” soothing tones are immediately prior, and here they are juxtaposed with a gritty grimy blues inspired number. The song has dozens of great lines, but the second stanza sums it up best:

“Go get me a kid with a good-looking face
Bring me a kid can remember his place
Some hungry poet son-of-a-bitch
He gets to be famous, I get to be rich.”

Later in the record Petty expands his theme away from this singular focus, but that flavour of disappointment carries through the record.

A good example is “Blue Sunday,” a song with a gentle quavering guitar, telling the tale of two down-and-outs that find each other at a 7-11. The song is romantic in its way, but mostly it is a weary and worn strum, where peace of mind is little more than a few moments of comfortable silence in a car, followed by a sleep in the back seat. As the chorus reminds us, this blue Sunday is “blue, with shades of grey.”

Musically the record shows a lot of range. At times Petty is channeling the Beatles, and at others he scorches things up like it was early Zeppelin. The playing is solid and Mike Campbell’s guitar is particularly good and grimy on a couple of solos.

Sometimes the experimentation left me wishing Petty had painted a bit more in the lines, but that wouldn’t have caught the restless spirit of a record trying to push past the bounds of commercial expectations. Mostly I liked the way Petty free-ranges around styles, all the while never losing his penchant for penning timeless melodies. This record has deep cuts with chord progressions most musicians wish they could steal for their hits.

But there is only one Tom Petty, and now there isn’t even that. Fortunately he left us with an amazing collection of work. “The Last DJ” proves that even when he was in the depths of anger and frustration, that talent never left him.

Best tracks: The Last DJ, Dreamville, Joe, Blue Sunday, Have Love Will Travel

CD Odyssey Disc 1474: Tom Petty

It’s a beautiful sunny day and I plan to celebrate with a walk, and maybe a drive in my convertible with the top down. Yeehaw!

Disc 1474 is…. You’re Gonna Get It!

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1978

What’s up with the Cover? Tom and the boys are bathed in blue light and looking testy. Are they threatening me that “I’m gonna get it” if I don’t buy the album? Because I don’t respond well to threats, Tom. Maybe they’re just excited that “I’m gonna get it” meaning, buy their album. If that’s the case, a friendlier demeanour is in order.

How I Came To Know It: Many years ago I undertook rounding out my Tom Petty collection, and this was one of the albums I scooped up.

How It Stacks Up: I have 16 Tom Petty albums (I’m a fan). “You’re Gonna Get It!” is solid but competition is tough. I’m putting it in at #9, bumping “Southern Accents” down one spot in the process.

Ratings: 3 stars

Imagine if you were the second of three brothers. The older brother is an astronaut, and the younger brother is a movie star. That’s probably how Tom Petty’s sophomore album “You’re Gonna Get It!” feels. It is sandwiched between two classic records; his debut (featuring “American Girl”) and Damn the Torpedoes (featuring every other hit he wrote prior to 1980).

“You’re Gonna Get It!” has no hits. “I Need to Know” landed at #41 on the charts, but other than that, barely a whimper. This is a damned shame, because it is a solid collection of tunes. The album is similar in style to Petty’s debut, with a raw and rambunctious quality to the songs that he would start to smooth out by the time Damn the Torpedoes came out. The delivery is exuberant garage rock, but in places starting to demonstrate the pleasant jangle that would come later. Think the Who, crossed with the Byrds.

That Byrds-inspired jangle is notable on the record’s best tune, “Listen to Her Heart” which features the big reverberating guitar sound that is instantly recognizable as Mike Campbell. The song is a defiant note to a would-be suitor that Tom’s lady’s not for turning. I love the opening lines:

"You think you’re gonna take her away.
With your money and your cocaine”

I guess that what passed for courting in 1978, at least in this instance. I wonder if the rival would had better luck with, I don’t know, flowers and chocolate?

My other favourite is the opening tune, “When the Time Comes” which has a bit of that same Byrdsian jangle in the chorus, but meshed with a greasy, defiant guitar lick that would have fit right in on “Who’s Next”.

While Petty wears his influences on his sleeve, the record is not derivative. It takes the ideas of earlier bands in new directions, plugging them into brand new melodic structures that are so smooth they only feel like they’ve been around for decades. When it comes to writing a timeless melody, there is no one better than Tom Petty.

Elsewhere, tunes like “I Need to Know,” and “Too Much Ain’t Enough” are pure frenetic energy and “Restless” comes along late in the record to throw in a heavy blues influence. While I have a predilection for Petty’s high head voice, on these harder numbers he employs his signature warble to good effect. It sounds like someone who is out having an old-fashioned good time, with just a hint of skeevy excess on the side. You get the impression money and/or cocaine may be involved.

The band straddles that artful gap between visceral energy and precision, creating a live performance quality, if that live performance happened to be studio perfect.

Near the end of the record, Petty breaks out one more hidden gem, with “No Second Thoughts.” This song, about a woman casting aside her old life and running off into an uncertain future is the definition of yearning. Never spelling the full story out, Petty deploys a series of evocative images: a golden band crushed into the sand, a hand taken, a plea to strike an unspoken evil down. And ultimately, the admission that, “dreams fade, hope dies hard.” It is beautiful stuff.

Because of all the hype over other Tom Petty albums, few will listen to “No Second Thoughts” nor any of the other songs on “You’re Gonna Get It!” and that’s a damned shame. I encourage you to go back in time and discover the many hidden gems on this record. If you don’t recognize any of the song titles, don’t panic. They’re good.

Best tracks: When The Time Comes, Listen to Her Heart, No Second Thoughts, Baby’s a Rock N’ Roller

CD Odyssey Disc 1297: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I was off work today, so no commute time for listening to this next album. Fortunately, I had a few errands to run. By walking to all of them I was able to steal just the right amount of time I needed to give this next record its due.

Disc 1297 is… Echo

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? Tom and the boys lurk in the weeds. They look kind of miserable, but it isn’t like weed-lurking is the kind of activity that puts a smile on your face.

How I Came to Know It: I somehow missed this album when it was released. I discovered it years later while fleshing out my Tom Petty collection.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 16 Tom Petty albums. I had reserved a low spot for “Echo” but it fared better than I expected, bumping four other records down a spot. It still only managed 11^th best in the strong field of records released by one of rock and roll’s greats.

Ratings: 3 stars

One of the keys to Tom Petty’s brilliance is his exceptional range. He can play folksy strums reminiscent of the Byrds, and then grit it out to with a dirty blues riff. “Echo” has strong examples of both styles, although there may be just a bit too much music for one record. As the saying goes, “great stuff – but save some of it for the sequel!”

The writing on “Echo” is what I’ve come to expect from a Tom Petty album; classic melodic progressions that you didn’t know were classic until Tom Petty wrote them down and played them for you. I’ve never heard an artist consistently do more things with three chords than Petty. He is proof-positive that every pop song has not, in fact, already been written.

The unspoken hero of the record is Rick Rubin, who – working alongside Petty and guitarist Mike Campbell – makes some sublime production decisions. The instruments sit evenly in the mix, but even when things get a bit layered and complex everything continues to sound distinct and separated. I’ve long been a fan of Rubin’s ability to make a band sound better without getting in the way of what makes them great in the first place.

On this record, we’ve got heart-wrenching Rickenbacker strums on some songs, right alongside thick and rich blues riffs on others, but everything feels like it belongs with everything else. It helps that this band has been together so long they’ve become a hive mind – like what a perfect jam session would sound like, only with more polish. Petty’s distinct vocals also work to naturally pull everything together. He knows when to employ a gentle warble and when to screech out grimy rebellion based on the individual needs of each song.

My favourite track is the opening one. “Room at the Top” is a song for standing on the veranda of a penthouse and reveling in the euphoria of it all – or is it? The song is triumphant on the surface (the chorus features the repeated declaration of “I ain’t comin’ down!”) but just underneath all the opulence and excess is a deep loneliness. The real story is who’s not in the room, and the song ends with late calls to a loved one and sad disclaimers of “I ain’t so bad” from someone who has no doubt been behaving badly. Proof that sometimes comin’ down is what’s called for.

It is a theme that features heavily through the record, even as Petty repeatedly explores the notion through the lens of defiance. Whether that defiance is healthy is up for debate, but it does generate some of the record’s better music including “This One’s For Me”, “No More” and “Rhino Skin – the latter being a moody atmospheric number that would be equally at home on a Dire Straits album.

Petty’s always been an artist who unapologetically followed his own vision, and on “Echo” he begins to confront some of the repercussions of that character trait. He was going through a lot back in 1999 (recent divorce and battles with heroin addiction) and the songs on “Echo” show him wrestling those demons in real time. While he doesn’t get a clear pin, he manages to fight them off sufficiently to turn them into great songs. “Echo” is an incomplete exploration of regret – one that would be fully realized on the masterful “Highway Companion” seven years later – but it is a good start.

As I alluded earlier, the record is a bit too long at 15 songs and 61 minutes. At the risk of second-guessing the great Rick Rubin, I think I could find three songs to remove that would raise the overall level of the record. Despite that, this record surprised me with how good it was. Over the years I have generally advised casual fans to steer clear of it in favour of other Tom Petty albums. While I still like plenty of his other records more, for anyone I’ve told to skip this one entirely, I apologize. Don’t do that.

Best tracks: Room at the Top, Free Girl Now, Accused of Love, Billy the Kid, This One’s For Me, Rhino Skin

CD Odyssey Disc 1289: Mudcrutch

I’ve been reading some Nietzsche in the bathroom lately and found this passage where he provides his thoughts on music from Ecce Homo interesting:

“I shall say another word for the most select ears: what I really want from music. That it be cheerful and profound like an afternoon in October. That it be individual, frolicsome, tender, a sweet small woman full of beastliness and charm.”

Nietzsche famously loved Richard Wagner, which I assume he found held the right mixture of beastliness and charm. I don’t really know much Wagner, outside of his general reputation that allows me to offhandedly say “Oh, Wagner – yeah he’s pretty good but I don’t have any” when someone mentions him in polite conversation.

Not so for Tom Petty. Ask me a question about Tom Petty and I know things. At least some things. I have all his albums, even to the point of getting into his side projects – such as this next record.

Disc 1289 is… Self-Titled

Artist: Mudcrutch

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? The Unknown Hipster. This cover commemorates all the hipsters lost to jobs that didn’t let them keep their beards or – worse still – those hipsters who had to admit they liked a band that later became popular. In honour of these fallen comrades, we present this faceless hipster in solidarity with their loss.

How I Came to Know It: I was a big fan of Tom Petty so when I heard he was linking up with his old bandmates pre-Heartbreakers I decided to give it a chance.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Mudcrutch albums. This one is the best.

Ratings: 4 stars

Before Tom Petty had the Heartbreakers he was in a band called Mudcrutch. Mudcrutch never made it big in their original early seventies incarnation, but in 2008 Petty brought the band back together and recorded the first of two albums with his old band.

Mudcrutch consists of one half of the Heartbreakers (Petty, Mike Campbell on lead guitar and Benmont Tench on keyboards) but swaps in rhythm guitarist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh. The overall effect still comes out sounding a lot like a Heartbreaker’s album. This is no surprise as once again Petty is principal songwriter and band leader. Campbell and Tench also bring their instantly recognizable mastery to their respective instruments.

I didn’t feel like the addition of Leadon and Marsh stood out, although if you listen close the record does have a bit more of a southern mosey overall.

Chronologically, this album falls between Petty’s 2006 solo album “Highway Companion” and 2010’s Heartbreakers album “Mojo.” It fits stylistically between them as well, incorporating some of the folksier sounds of “Highway Companion” with the heavier blues-rock evidenced on “Mojo.”

The record features two traditional songs, “Shady Grove” and the instrumental “June Apple.” “Shady Grove” has Mudcrutch throwing a lot of blues sensibilities into what is ordinarily a bluegrass standard, but it works well, and the band wisely keeps the forward jump to the beat that helps identify bluegrass. “June Apple” takes a more traditional approach, with some lovely call and answer between guitar and organ.

The band also tackles the traditional truck driving song “Six Days on the Road,” infusing it with some grime and boogie woogie which harkens to the narrator’s excitement at the prospect of almost being home after a long drive. You also get a strong sense that in addition to the admission that he’s dodging weigh stations and high on speed, he’s probably also driving too fast.

While multiple band members take turns writing the album’s original tracks, Petty does the lion’s share of the work on this front, and his tracks tended to be my favourites.

“Scare Easy” has the misty ambience of “Last Dance with Mary Jane,” and the echo of Mike Campbell’s guitar evokes the call of a ghostly voice across a lake at night. Petty sings that he doesn’t scare easy, and the song provides the ominous overtones that make the trait noteworthy.

“Oh Maria” is full of both romance and sadness. It is an earnest love song about a woman making hard choices to get by. Maria doesn’t scare easy either, but Petty’s gentle delivery makes it clear she’s a fragile flower all the same.

“The Wrong Thing To Do” and “Bootleg Flyer” round out some of the album’s highlights. Both these songs have a bluesy grit. The sound would be recreated two years later on “Mojo” but that record is a pale imitation of the Mudcrutch offerings, which paint better characters and avoid the bar-band blues sounds that hold “Mojo” back.

Overall, this record demonstrated a lot of range, with songwriting just as solid as most Heartbreaker or Petty solo projects manage. At 14 songs and 56 minutes it is a bit long, but not enough to make me testy. Think of this record as just another great Tom Petty album. A few of the names and faces are different, but his brilliance as one of rock and roll’s great visionary songwriters is once again on full display.

Best tracks: Shady Grove, Scare Easy, Six Days on the Road, Oh Maria, The Wrong Thing To Do, Lover of the Bayou, Bootleg Flyer

CD Odyssey Disc 1109: Tom Petty

From the lowest of lowest to the highest of highs! I left my MP3 player in a glass of uncooked rice last night and hoped for the best and this morning…it worked again!

I can only assume the God of Rock heard my prayers. Or maybe just the ghost of this next artist, who was taken from us too soon.

Disc 1109 is… Hypnotic Eye

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Look deep into this annoying geometric pattern. You’re getting very sleepy…You no longer have any desire to smoke…instead you wish to listen to rock and roll…

How I Came To Know It: I’m a Tom Petty fan. When a new album of his comes out, I buy it. Little did I know that this was the last time I would ever be able to do that.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 16 Tom Petty albums (solo and with the Heartbreakers) and that’s all of them. Of the 16 I put “Hypnotic Eye” in 13^th spot. I still liked it a lot, but the competition was fierce.

Ratings: 3 stars

At some point every music lover revisits the blues, and with “Hypnotic Eye” Petty continues the bluesy journey begun on 2010’s “Mojo” (reviewed back at Disc 708). This time he mixes it in with some fuzz rock that adds even more grit.

Blues are great for feeling low, but they also do decay very well, and “Hypnotic Eye” is at its best when it is exploring the rot in America, whether political or through the eyes of the grim, hard-luck characters that Petty has such a great knack for capturing in song.

The political tracks tend to be the stronger this time. Petty discusses towns rife with corruption (“Burnt Out Town”), and politicians high on their own authority (“Power Drunk”). “Power Drunk” is particularly powerful, with Mike Campbell laying down sweet licks, and Petty’s vocals coming through slick and dirty. The song grows into a heavily reverbed guitar riff that captures the staggering, lurching aggression of a drunk and applies it to politicians equally out of control.

Petty is great at taking larger themes and connecting them to personal experience, and “Hypnotic Eye” is bookended by two such songs.

The record begins with “American Dream Plan B” a song that has that same alcohol party riff, launched this time with a driving quality that suggests progress and confidence. Yet as the song unfolds, Petty shows that confidence is misplaced with lines like:

“Well, I’m half-lit, I can’t dance for shit

But I see what I want and go after it”

And:

“My success is anybody’s guess,

But like a fool I’m bettin’ on happiness”

By the end of the song you realize that this character has bought into the American dream, but that dream isn’t necessarily answering his calls. The character’s cocksure attitude becomes progressively more tragic as the song progresses. You bob your head to the beat, but you feel a little bad doing so.

The end of the album gives us “Shadow People.” A mournful bit of Benmont Tench organ greets you just before the signature Campbell blues riff hits, tipping you off that all that confidence and certainty is well worn through at this point. Petty looks into cars, sees other drivers and wonders what they are up to. Are they just going about their business, or are they distrustful survivalists – hurrying home to stockpile food and guns? Or crazed cultists planning to hasten in an age of terror? We don’t know, but that fear (and some glorious horror style bass lines in the back of the mix) gives the song an undercurrent of anxiety. Petty doesn’t leave us without hope, however, ending the song with:

“Waiting for the sun to be straight overhead

‘Til we ain’t got no shadow at all.”

There’s still time to trust each other. I mean, I would still check for dynamite and tinfoil hats before I got into the car, but it is a nice sentiment.

I would say that the biggest downside to “Hypnotic Eye” is that I oversold it – first to myself and then to friends. When I first heard it I fell in love with its energy and a few key tracks (see below) and I played it a bit too much. On repeat listens it is still solid, but not as interesting as some of Petty’s earlier work.

I also oversold it to friends, some of whom ran out and bought it on my recommendation and then later said “eh…it was OK, but not as good as I expected.” Sorry about that everyone, but even an average Petty album is still pretty awesome, so I’m only a little bit sorry.

Best tracks: American Dream Plan B, Red River, Power Drunk, Shadow People 

CD Odyssey Disc 1101: Tom Petty

Aah, Tom…I miss you so bad it hurts. At least your music is still here and that’ll have to be enough.

Disc 1101 is… Damn the Torpedoes

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 1979

What’s up with the Cover? A man and his Rickenbacker. How do I know it’s a Rickenbacker you ask? It’s written on the head.

How I Came To Know It: Years ago I decided I needed more Tom Petty in my life. Once I decided that, “Damn the Torpedoes” was one of the first albums I bought. This copy is remastered, and I expect I bought it shortly after its 2001 re-release.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 16 Tom Petty albums. This one and “Wildflowers” (reviewed way back at Disc 385) are essentially tied for the best, and I tend to lean to whichever one I’ve heard last. Since “Damn the Torpedoes” was heard last, I’m putting it at #1.

Ratings: 5 stars

“Damn the Torpedoes” is one of rock and roll’s greatest albums. It is so massive in our collective consciousness that people think it was Petty’s debut, its collective brilliance somehow temporarily scrubbing our minds of classics like “American Girl.” It shouldn’t be that easy to forget about her, but albums like “Damn the Torpedoes” just don’t come around very often.

The clever mix of boogie woogie, country, new wave and Buddy Holly-esque rock that Petty created on his debut record three years earlier is all still here, but he has learned to boil it down and blend it to the point where it has become something new. If his debut record was the dawn of the Iron Age, then “Damn the Torpedoes” is the invention of steel; stronger, suppler and just prettier to look at.

That’s not to say Tom has lost his edge here – he hasn’t. The opening bars of “Refugee” is sublime and polished, but Petty’s vocals are greasy and hurt-filled, the perfect counterbalance, holding your ear in that middle space until the band kicks into full gear and bridges the gap with the sweet, sweet sounds of rock and roll.

The next track is a romantic crooner of a rock song. With “Here Comes My Girl” the “American Girl” is returned but is now grounded in personal connection. It’s when you realize that the perfect girl is your girl, looking so right and all you need tonight. Ain’t love grand?  Half of this song is Petty just talking, but his jam is so compelling it sounds as artful as the finest crooner.

On “Even the Losers” Petty creates a timeless ballad for everyone who has ever felt like they were on the outside looking in. The song opens grounded in the desires of every person who ever found himself alone with the girl of his dreams, and screwed up his courage to make a move:

“Well it was nearly summer, we sat on your roof

Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon

And I showed you stars you never could see

Baby, it couldn’t a been that easy to forget about me.”

Maybe it didn’t work out in the long term, but Petty chooses to see the glory in the moment, not the failure that follows. Never has a break up song been so damned positive.

All three of those songs are hits, but the record is packed with deep cuts that will draw you in, like old friends that you are happy to hear from again and again. “Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)” has a melody that soars in the high notes at the front end, and then walks down on the back end. It tells the tale of a complex kid with a complex arrangement, but never feels forced or busy.

“Don’t Do Me Like That” incorporates New Wave and a Springsteen-like organ run. Or does Springsteen incorporate Tom Petty-style organ? When you’ve got giants of that magnitude it’s hard to get the perspective needed to see who is taller.

When that song ends Petty immediately switches to a slow moving blues track, “You Tell Me,” and it feels as natural as breathing. It helps to have Mike Campbell on guitar and Benmont Tench on organ, mind you. These guys are also giants on their instruments and both are at the height of their powers on “Damn the Torpedoes.”

The record ends with “Louisiana Rain” a six-minute road trip track that starts with a weird synth sound that reminds you of the Eurythmics, before shifting gears to a slow ballad of a man in the rain, struggling with heartache and bad habits in equal measure. If there is a better song for taking a walk in the rain, I can’t think of it right now.

“Damn the Torpedoes” is a perfect piece of art, wrapped up artfully in nine songs and 36 minutes. It was so short it always leaves me wanting more, but only for the few seconds it takes to skip back to the beginning and push ‘play’.

Best tracks: all tracks

CD Odyssey Disc 1072: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Between my job and volunteer work it ended up being a long day, but I’m getting this review in before it is over.

Disc 1072 is…Songs and Music from the Motion Picture “She’s the One”

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover? A couple scenes from a movie (less on that later), on either side of a shot of Tom doing what Tom does. Also, a whole lot of yellow. That’s right, album cover, I called you yellow. Care to make somethin’ of it?

How I Came To Know It: For the longest time I skipped getting this record, thinking that because it was a soundtrack to a movie I’d never seen, it wouldn’t resonate. Finally I bought it last year. Sorry, Tom – I should’ve had more faith.

How It Stacks Up:  I have sixteen Tom Petty albums, which I think is all of them. I like them all but competition is fierce and “She’s The One” was only able to land at number 12.

Ratings: 3 stars

Usually when I buy a soundtrack it is because I heard the music while watching the film, and having never seen “She’s the One” it was a bit weird reviewing the record. I tried to just think of it as another solid Tom Petty album (which it is) but I couldn’t help but wonder how these songs fit into a movie.

I have deliberately decided not to find out. Whatever mysteries “She’s the One” the movie will reveal to me will have to wait until I see it – this one is for Tom and the Heartbreakers. I will say that I bet “She’s the One” is some kind of romance or romantic comedy, because these songs are focused on relationships, not all of them healthy.

“She’s the One” borrows from a lot of different aspects of Petty’s music. It comes immediately after Petty’s 1994 solo masterpiece “Wildflowers” and incorporates a lot of the sparse and understated indie folk sounds of that record. However, with the return of the heartbreakers the grime and dust of southern rock returns with a vengeance and Petty seems equally willing to explore a blues riff as he is a lilting melody.

Generally I love when Petty showcases his range, but even though “She’s the One” is only slightly overlong - 15 songs in 51 minutes – it feels disjointed. No doubt being a movie soundtrack it had to cover a lot of emotional ground when telling the story of…whatever the hell “She’s the One” is about. Let’s guess it is boy meets girl/boy loses girl, boy meets girl again and it may or may not work out before one of them moves to California. I mean, there is a song about going to California. But I digress…

One of the reasons I eventually bought this record was the presence of a cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Change the Locks.” The Heartbreakers do a solid version of it, but Petty’s vocal delivery is a bit too “Don’t Come Around Here No More” to make it feel as nasty and visceral as I wanted it to be.

Much better are the original tracks “Walls” and “Angel Dream” both of which have multiple versions present on the record and were likely recurring themes in the film. While I didn’t need a whole bunch of versions of both songs, it helped that they were two of the best songs on the record.

 “Angel Dream (no. 4)” is a bit more up tempo, whereas “Angel Dream (no. 2)” is slower and stripped down. “Angel Dream (no.4)” is a rolling tune best suited to thinking kind thoughts about the woman you love while looking wistfully out a car window. “Angel Dream (no. 2)” is more about looking out through a rainy window wondering when that love is going to pull into the driveway. With songs like this, the movie writes itself.

A similar decision is made with “Walls” where the “circus” version is a bit more jangly and up-beat, and “Walls (No. 3)” which feels thin and drawn out, and fills the lyrics with a heartfelt resignation – like no one was at fault, but things still didn’t work out.

Incidentally, there is no sign of “Angel Dream” nos. 1 and 3 nor does either “Walls” nos. 1 or 2 make an appearance. They were either left on the cutting floor of the studio, or preserved for movie-goers only.

More than anything, “She’s the One” reminded me that even when he is constricted to writing for some limited release art film, Petty is a master storyteller that can knock out timeless melodies in his sleep. Whatever the hell the movie was about, the film makers should feel damn fortunate they managed to get Petty to do their soundtrack.

Tom Petty was taken from us too soon, and while “She’s the One” isn’t his greatest work, it was nice to hear his voice again so soon after he left us all and headed out into the great wide open.

Best tracks: Angel Dream (No. 2 and No. 4), Hope You Never, Asshole, Walls (No. 3), California

CD Odyssey Disc 977: Mudcrutch

I was feeling out of sorts this week, but things started to come into focus today and I regained my joie de vivre. Long ago I learned that a half full glass just tastes better than a half empty one, but sometimes I forget. Today I remembered.

Disc 977 is…Mudcrutch 2

Artist: Mudcrutch

Year of Release: 2016

What’s up with the Cover? You talkin’ to me? It’s bear cub street fight! The grainy picture makes it look very old, and makes me think of a couple of Depression-era kids fighting over a dropped quarter or a half-loaf of bread.

How I Came To Know It: I bought the first Mudcrutch album and liked it. I didn’t know they had another one out until I saw it on the new release shelf at my local record store. I decided to take a chance.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have two Mudcrutch albums, but I think that’s all there is. Of the two, “Mudcrutch 2” is second.

Ratings: 3 stars

If the saying “you can never go back” was proved wrong by the original Mudcrutch album, the follow up record released eight years later proves you can even do it twice.

Mudcrutch is the original band of Tom Petty and two Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) reunited with two of their original playing mates – Tom Leadon on guitar and Randall Marsh on drums. When you listen to it you can’t help but wonder if this is what they would have sounded like if they’d all been signed back when they first traveled to California for a record deal.

That sound is a lot like a Tom Petty record, which is mostly a testament to Petty’s incredible talent and force of will. He just makes the magic happen, and all his songwriting talents are on display here. The record is his trademark mix of southern rock, blues licks and anthems for the soul.

The addition of Marsh and Leadon give the record a bit of a university/indie rock feel, although that could just be me projecting my knowledge of the band’s history onto the songs. Then again, the one song written and sung by Marsh, “Beautiful World” had me thinking heavily of other oft-forgotten bands of yore like the Vulgar Boatmen. “Beautiful World” is a life affirming song that makes you wish you were driving in a convertible. It holds its own against the mostly Petty-fueled album, which is no easy feat.

Not so Leadon’s entry. “The Other Side of the Mountain” attempts to mix rock and roll with Americana folk (fueled by banjo and high harmonies) but it didn’t work for me. It lands halfway between the genres without pulling the right elements of each to sit there comfortably.

Mike Campbell’s single entry, “Victim of Circumstance” is better, with an up tempo boogie woogie swing that works even though the song doesn’t have a lot to say. Benmont Tench does an Elvis-esque number called “Welcome To Hell” that made me think of late Alice Cooper when Cooper is feeling goofy. Cooper barely gets away with this schtick and Tench and the rest of Mudcrutch can’t quite make it work.

The rest of the record is Petty doing what he does; effortlessly delivering brilliant rock songs like they grow on trees. The opening track, “Trailer” is the story of how love fails you when you drop everything because you think you’re going to be with your high school sweetheart forever. This song is the grimy dust-covered Southern version of Billy Joel’s “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.”

Rock anthem “Dreams of Flying” carries on the theme of restless youth and uncertain futures. It is like getting back together with the old crew reminds these aging rockers what it is like to be young again. It is followed by “Beautiful Blue,” which calms things down in a psychedelic rock number complete with a haunting piano piece that comes in and out and makes you think of Nick Cave.

My favourite song on the record is the quiet and thoughtful “I Forgive It All.” As the name implies, this is a breakup song grounded in acceptance. People are who they are, and sometimes things just don’t work out. Nonetheless it is a lonely, worthless feeling and Petty captures it well with the line “I ain’t broke and I ain’t hungry, but I’m close enough to care.”

It’s been a while since Tom Petty was broke or hungry, but he hasn’t lost the ability to tap into how that feels. The album even ends with a yearning rock ballad called “Hungry No More.”

While Petty is clearly the driving creative force behind “Mudcrutch 2” the rest of the band make meaningful contributions. Also, you can’t tell these guys haven’t played regularly together since 2008 (when the previous album came out) and for decades prior to that. They are sharp in their vocal harmonies and tightly together on their instruments. It doesn’t sound exactly like the Heartbreakers, but it works. 

Best tracks: Trailer, Dreams of Flying, Beautiful Blue, Beautiful World, I Forgive It All, Save Your Water, Hungry No More

CD Odyssey Disc 871: Tom Petty

The randomness of the CD Odyssey sometimes seems to have a strange magnetism, where I roll multiple albums by the same artist in a short span. Such a trend may be happening with Tom Petty. I reviewed “Southern Accents” only three albums ago and he’s back already. One more and we’ve got a trend…

Disc 871 is….Self-Titled

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 1976

What’s up with the Cover? Would you let your daughter date this man? What if I told you he would go on to sell 80 million albums? Still no? True, he does look like a reprobate, but he is one hell of a singer/songwriter.

How I Came To Know It: This is just another one of Tom Petty’s albums that I purchased a few years back when I was filling out my collection. Having a classic like “American Girl” on it didn’t hurt its chances to make it into the collection either.

How It Stacks Up:  I have fifteen Tom Petty albums (12 with the Heartbreakers and 3 solo). This is all of them except the “She’s the One” soundtrack. I know what you’re thinking - that I must be crazy for not having that one – but don’t worry; I’m sure it’ll happen. Anyway, of the fifteen I do have, I’ll put his self-titled debut in at a solid seventh, bumping “Into the Great Wide Open” down one spot in the process. Sorry ITGWO, but it happens.

Ratings: 4 stars

Raw and rambunctious. Those are the words that came to mind as I listened to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ first release. It is a brazen, groundbreaking collection of songs that has no doubt influenced countless artists in the 40 years since its release.

Only ten songs and 30 minutes long, this album says what it wants to say in a hurry and then switches off the amp and leaves the stadium while the crowd is still cheering. In some ways it is so fast and furious that it is over before it seems I can fully wrap my head around it, but that just leaves me wanting more. This is a far superior approach to albums that linger well past the 50 minute mark and have you looking at your watch by the end.

In some ways this album feels like it is all over the place, with elements of boogie woogie, country, new wave and Buddy Holly-style melodies. The opening track, “Rockin’ Around (With You)” has a bit of all four, and has no business working, but somehow Tom Petty’s vision shines through and makes it beat the odds.

I didn’t always enjoy all the competing sounds on the record, but at no point did it cross the line and become self-serving or ego-driven. Even the songs that weren’t my favourites (like the aforementioned “Rockin’ Around”) still impressed me musically.

Right after that crazy opening, the band mellows things out with the bluesy and moody “Breakdown” which manages to have a killer guitar riff, a killer bassline riff and a killer organ riff. Instead of competing with each other, each instrument is made better by the other two. Add in the grit and squall of Tom Petty’s vocal and you have a song that sticks in your head in an altogether enjoyable way.

Of the deep tracks (i.e. the ones you won’t hear on the radio) my favourite is “The Wild One, Forever.” This is a song about desperate and dangerous young love that you might expect to hear on a Springsteen album. The lyrics are simple as they paint a picture of the possibility of a great love:

“Well the moon sank as the wind blew

And the street lights slowly died

Yeah they called you the wild one

Said stay away from her

Said she couldn’t love no one if she tried.

“But then somethin’ I saw in your eyes

Told me right away

That you were gonna have to be mine.”

It doesn’t even matter that by the end of the song that this was a love that only lasted a few hours. In a way it makes it better. This is an album about youthful vigor and restless energy, combined with a prescient understanding that life is short.  Late night love affairs don’t come around every day, so when they do dive in with both feet. Or if you want to be on the safe side, just listen to the song and get a taste of the experience.

When you have an album this short and energized you can do something crazy like put your best song last, which is exactly what Petty does with “American Girl.” Forty years after it was released this song still sounds fresh and full of angst as ever. This is an anthem for all those people who need to run away, even if they can never escape themselves. It isn’t clear what this American girl is running from, but it doesn’t matter. We all want to run from something and similar to “The Wild One, Forever” this song lets you experience what that feels like without having to quit your job.

In a way, these two songs are a microcosm for the whole album. anthems to rebellion, fuelled by an instinctual knowledge that our days are numbered, so you might as well get on with all that youthful indiscretion while you still can.

Best tracks:  Breakdown, The Wild One Forever, Strangered in the Night, Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It), American Girl

CD Odyssey Disc 868: Tom Petty

I had the day off today and while doing some errands I ran into an old friend I hadn’t seen in five years or more and we went for an impromptu coffee. Then I ran into another friend, had another chat, and ended with a visit to the CD store, so it was a pretty pleasant day all around.

At the CD store I bought five albums (two Drive-By Truckers, a Bonnie Prince Billie, an Alejandro Escovedo and another Uncle Tupelo). Based on my purchases lately, it is clear that southern-fried rock is appealing to me, so it is timely that I rolled another album in that genre.

Disc 868 is….Southern Accents

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover? An 1865 painting by Winslow Homer entitled “The Veteran in a New Field.” It is a fitting title for an album where an old rock ‘n’ roller like Tom Petty is trying on the trappings of a new age (the eighties). Tom should have taken a deeper lesson from the painting and noted that the old veteran is relying on a traditional scythe. No need for synthesizers and drum machines to mow down this field of grain.

How I Came To Know It: Some time ago I decided to plunge with both feet into Tom Petty’s discography. I knew “Don’t Come Around Here No More” from the Alice in Wonderland video for the song, and liked it. I was hoping for the best, but to be honest I was just happy to find more Tom Petty to buy. When I like an artist I get a little insatiable.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 studio albums by Tom Petty (some solo, some with the Heartbreakers). Of these, “Southern Accents” comes in at number 9. It is a good album, but Tom Petty has made a lot of good records and a few great ones, so competition is stiff.

Ratings: 3 stars

I had bad memories of eighties production on “Southern Accents” and when I rolled it, I braced myself for a negative experience. Instead I was pleasantly surprised.

That isn’t to say there isn’t some annoying eighties production on this record, because there is. The drums have no oomph throughout, and the horn flourishes on “Make It Better (Forget About Me)” and “The Best of Everything” are ill-placed and awkward.

“Mary’s New Car” is the worst offender, with Petty trying to do his best Cars’ New Wave impersonation and falling far short. “Mary’s New Car” also has the worst saxophone touches. It is like the dung in a wattle and daub house, except it makes everything fall apart, instead of holding it together.

Fortunately, the album features some of Petty’s strongest songwriting and the good songs are very good. They are so heartfelt and honest that they overcome the production to the point where you hardly notice it at all.

The album opens with “Rebels” which compares the rebellion of the south with a disaffected youth in the modern south. The rebel in “Rebels” is loaded with individual faults, keenly aware of his heritage of defeat, and feeling it in his daily life. The music is brash and angry, feeding perfectly into its subject matter.

The title track, “Southern Accents,” finishes side one the way “Rebels” starts it, with an examination of what it is to be from the south. Unlike the brazen “Rebels,” “Southern Accents” is introspective and thoughtful. The character makes just as many mistakes, but seems more resigned to it. The song is laced with a dignity for surviving against the odds, and on your own terms. The character dreams small and slow, but he is earnest:

“Now that drunk tank in Atlanta’s

Just a motel room to me.

Think I might go work Orlando

If them orange groves don’t freeze

I got my own way of workin’

But everything is run with a southern accent

Where I come from.”

The album is most famous for “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” which is co-written with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Stewart knows how to make eighties production work to his advantage, and combined with Petty’s brilliance at turning three chords into something amazing, this song is the perfect blend of new wave and old southern rock. It is rightfully famous, and not just because of the music video.

Side Two (or the second half of the CD, if you prefer) was a bit of a letdown for me, and features all the songs I was complaining about earlier in the review. That said, while “The Best of Everything” is marred by bad horn, it is held together with some well-placed piano bits from Benmont Tench. It ends the whole album on an up-note and reminded me that in the final tally, “Southern Accents” rises above a few mis-steps to land as a solid rock album worth more of my attention and praise than I have given it in the past.

Best tracks:  Rebels, Don’t Come Around Here No More, Southern Accents, The Best of Everything

CD Odyssey Disc 806: Tom Petty

I was so excited to write this next review that I put on a t-shirt featuring the band just to put me that much more in the mood.

Disc 806 is….Hard Promises

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 1981

What’s up with the Cover? Tom’s in a record store looking thoughtful and a little pained. Maybe he’s regretting those ‘hard promises’ he made to himself about only buying that one album he came in for and not browsing around and buying 4 or 5 more. I know your pain, Tom.

How I Came To Know It: As is often the case with artists I really like, at some point I make a decision to drill into their back catalogue. I discovered “Hard Promises” while doing this with Tom Petty, knowing nothing about the album beyond the fact that “The Waiting” was a single I’d heard on the radio.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 studio albums by Tom Petty (some solo, some with the Heartbreakers) and I like all of them to various degrees. I like “Hard Promises” a lot. So much so that I’m going to bump “Long After Dark” (reviewed back at Disc 542) down a peg and put it fourth overall.

Ratings: 4 stars but almost 5

With some artists it is worth your time to delve into their entire music collection. Tom Petty is one of those artists, and “Hard Promises” is probably the best example why.

If you were to buy Petty’s 1993 Greatest Hits album you would get exactly one song from “Hard Promises.” If you splurged and bough the two-disc anthology he released in 2000, you would get two.

Don’t get me wrong, though. “The Waiting” is an exceptional song, and has rightly survived into our collective musical consciousness 34 years after it was released and the anthology’s second choice, “Woman in Love” is pretty amazing too. Both songs are incredible compositions exploring opposite ends of a relationship. “The Waiting” is about waiting around at the chance to finally be with the woman you desire. It uses well-placed minor chords to perfectly capture this unresolved frustration every guy has experienced.

“Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)” is the other end of the relationship, when a woman is leaving you and you don’t know why. The narrator of the song doesn’t get it, but you get the sense from both the music and lyrics that she was never truly his in the first place. Petty’s drawling delivery is perfect for frustrated waiting and broken-hearted confusion in equal measure.

But “Hard Promises” is so much more than these two hits. Following on the Heartbreakers’ classic record “Damn the Torpedoes” it shows that they aren’t a fluke of the music industry, but instead clever songwriters who know how to tell the tales of ordinary men and make them feel like epics.

“Nightwatchman” is a song about the sort of person who takes that sort of job. Few nightwatchmen live for their work, but there they are out in the darkest hours, putting their lives in danger for little more than minimum wage. The song incorporates a funky guitar riff that vocalizes the restless energy inside this person, dreaming of doing something else one day.

“Something Big” is the perfect song to follow “Nightwatchman.” It tells the tragic end of someone in a cheap motel trying to make a score and get out of his hand-to-mouth existence. It isn’t clear by the end of the song whether he meets his end through violence or overdose, but the fuzzy blues riff makes it clear it didn’t end well.

The album is pure rock and roll, but finds a lot of range within that genre. In addition to the aforementioned blues and funk riffs, the album treats you to fifties harmonies on “Letting You Go” and folksy ballads on “Insider.”

Regardless of what facet of their sound they are exploring, Petty and the Heartbreakers nail it. Like Bruce Springsteen, Petty understands how to make chord choices that and emotionally underscore his lyrics, delivering universal truths through individual characters who come alive for the 3-5 minutes of the song, but leave us thinking about them long after it ends.

The production on “Hard Promises” is perfect. There are a few odd flourishes of organ and piano in places, but only in just the right amount, like a dash of oregano adding flavour to a sauce. Petty sings with conviction and honesty and Mike Campbell once again reminded me that he is one of the most underrated guitar players in rock.

“Hard Promises” affected me in a deeper way than I expected, and reminded me to play it a lot more often than I do.

Best tracks:  The Waiting, A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me), Nightwatchman, Something Big, Letting You Go, Insider, The Criminal Kind, You Can Still Change Your Mind 

CD Odyssey Disc 708: Tom Petty

Welcome to Sunday, gentle readers! Sunday is both the best and worst day of the weekend. It is relaxing and laid back, but at the same time you can feel the start of the work week just around the corner, ready to mess with your mojo. Speaking of mojo…

Disc 708 is…. Mojo

Artist: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Year of Release: 2010

What’s up with the Cover? A bunch of words and some “photobooth” style shots of Tom Petty (who has been taken over by a beard in recent years) and the Heartbreakers (who have not).

How I Came To Know It: I am big fan of Tom Petty so I basically buy his albums when they come out. That’s what happened here.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 15 Tom Petty Albums. Of these, “Mojo” is not one of my favourites and I’ll rank it 13^th.

Rating: 3 stars

“Mojo” suffers a little by being sandwiched between two really good Tom Petty albums: 2006’s “Highway Companion” and 2014’s “Hypnotic Eye.” Despite this, I found myself enjoying it more on this listen than I have previously.

The first thing you notice with “Mojo” is how bluesy it is. It is so bluesy that I’ve decided to tag it both rock and blues. It isn’t Howlin’ Wolf or John Lee Hooker or anything, but the influences are obvious from the opening track, “Jefferson Jericho Blues.” Some songs just put the word ‘blues’ in their title but really aren’t blues – this isn’t one of them, and there are plenty more on the album (“Running Man’s Bible,” “Candy,” “US 41,” and others) that also deserve that designation.

The best of these is “Running Man’s Bible” which has that low, gritty sensibility that the blues always seem to have. These are songs that make you feel like getting out of bed at noon and skipping a shower. It is clear that guitarist Mike Campbell relishes playing the blues licks as well, and his guitar is as good on “Mojo” as any of the band’s earlier work.

Petty’s voice has also held up very well over the years; one of the advantages of never being known as a great vocalist to begin with, I suppose. And like other great but vocally limited songwriters (Steve Earle, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt) he knows how to write a song that lands nicely in his wheelhouse.

In addition to bluesy songs, there are atmospheric ballads that paint vibrant pictures of the many characters you might run into out there in the lonely strips of American highway in between cities.

“The Trip to Pirate’s Cove” is a great lowlife road trip track with a dreamy quality that evokes empty stomachs, low gas tanks and cheap motel sex with strangers; in this case the actual maids working there.

There is also plenty of introspection, including the gentle, understated “No Reason to Cry,” and the stark but hopeful “Something Good Coming.”

The up-tempo blues-rock tracks alternate with these more introspective songs. While both are good in their own right, the effect feels like two different albums that have been shuffled together. It doesn’t help that the record is 15 songs long and over 64 minutes, making it hard to get your head around all the music. I would have preferred “Mojo” to have been split into two albums each half the length, and more musically cohesive.

However, if anyone can take a sprawling mess of styles and turn it into a panorama of American life it is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Listening to “Mojo” again made me realize that I didn’t give it enough time when I first bought it, and I’m resolved to get it into a more regular rotation in future.

Best tracks: Running Man’s Bible, The Trip to Pirate’s Cove, No Reason to Cry, Don’t Pull Me Over, Something Good Coming

CD Odyssey Disc 583 and 584: The Traveling Wilburys

It has been a while since I’ve reviewed an album that was actually two albums in one package.  The last two times I remember are way back in the early days with Townes Van Zandt (at Disc 43) and Kris Kristofferson (at Disc 54).  Both times I reviewed the albums separately, but I called them by a single disc, and I wish looking back I’d given them each their own number.

So when I rolled this album that’s exactly what I did.

Disc 583 and 584 is….The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1 and 3

Artist: The Traveling Wilburys

Year of Release: 1988 (Volume 1) and 1990 (Volume 3)

What’s up with the Cover? The original covers featured weathered old photos of the band, and Volume 1 also had the logo for the band.  This is a reissue of both albums together, and they went with just the band’s logo and a silver background. I don’t love it, but given that because of his death Roy Orbison was pictured in the band for Volume 1, but absent for Volume 3, putting any kind of a photo would have been awkward.

How I Came To Know It: I don’t honestly remember.  I originally had Volume 1 on tape, but I don’t remember when I got it.  Given the year it came out, it could have been my last foray into the “Columbia House” mail order system.  Anyway, for years I had it on tape and for years you couldn’t find it on CD until 2007 when they put out this re-issue and I snapped it up.  The re-issue was my first experience with Volume 3.

How It Stacks Up:  The Wilburys only have two albums and this is them.  Of the two, I’d put Volume 1first.

Supergroups are all the rage, but all supergroups take a backseat to the Traveling Wilburys.  When your band is composed of Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison and Roy Orbison it is hard to go wrong.

Traveling Wilburys Volume 1

Rating:  4 stars

The Wilburys came together first in 1988 for Volume 1, and looking at my CD collection now, it was an inevitability that I would love what I heard.

Totaled we have 41 other CDs with these guys doing their own work; 16 Dylan albums, three ELO albums (Jeff Lynne’s band), 15 Tom Petty albums, including his one record as Mudcrutch and seven Beatles albums (that’s where George Harrison comes from, fyi).  The only Wilbury I don’t have something else by is Roy Orbison.

Recorded in a style that is deliberately ‘old timey,’ Volume 1 features lots of tight strumming in a very American folk, jangly style. The songs themselves, however, are ‘Wilbury’ originals that still sound current today.

Part of this is the production, which is handled by Jeff Lynne and George Harrison.  I’ve always been an admirer of Jeff Lynne’s ability to get a crisp, rich sound.  Even his little ELO-like synth flourishes in the background of “Congratulations” are restrained and serve to add a nice depth to the music.

The boys harmonize beautifully throughout the record and it is clear by the way the songs are arranged (often with different Wilburys taking a verse each) that the rock star egos were parked at the door.  They have similar voices overall, and where they differ it is in a good way.  Dylan adds grit, Lynne and Harrison’s voices are a bit more breezy and airy and Petty delivers his lines with his famous high nasal voice that is always oddly soothing.

Above it all there is Roy Orbison, his quavering near falsetto delivering power exactly where it is needed.  When he cuts in with “I’m so tired of being lonely/I still have some love to give” on “Handle With Care” the whole song descends another giant step deeper into heartbreak.

Each voice gets its turn in the sun, however.  Orbison soars in “Not Alone Any More” and Dylan sings a a dusty and grimy tale of robbery and ill-considered desire in “Tweeter and the Monkey Man.”  Mostly though, the guys take their turns on lead within each song, without ever having the songs come out sounding busy or disjointed.

The album fittingly ends with “End of the Line” which is a song filled with the wisdom of five guys who have done a lot of living, and have concluded that things are never so bad if you just take life as it comes.

As this is a reissue there are two bonus tracks on Volume 1, “Maxine” and “Like a Ship” not on the original release. “Maxine” is intended to sound like an old Irish folk song but it doesn’t really work, and is marred by some oddly placed hand clapping.  That’s weird, because hand-clapping almost always works, but not here.

“Like a Ship” is similar in style to “Maxine” but works far better.  Maybe I just have a soft spot for a sea shanty (which it is) but I really like this song and wish it had been on the original album.  Either way, it is here now.

For a good while getting this album was very hard indeed.  I sold my cassette copy for $20 around 2004 (pretty good if you think about the market for tapes at the time) and the CD was worth more like $80.  Now that it is widely available again I encourage you to get out there and get it.  The songs will be just as good as you remember them.

Best tracks:   Handle With Care, Last Night, Not Alone Any More, Congratulations, Tweeter and the Monkey Man, End of the Line

Traveling Wilburys Volume 3

Rating:  3 stars

As I mentioned earlier, I have no Orbison albums, but there is no question his absence on Volume 3 is significant.  Despite the valiant efforts of the other Wilburys to overcome this and deliver another classic what they manage is merely good, not great. 

Orbison sadly died before Volume 3 could be recorded.  Apparently Del Shannon was considered to replace him, but he committed suicide before that could happen.

OK – enough with the sadness and on with the music.  The tight guitar strumming is still present as are the strong harmonies, and Lynne and Harrison again deliver good production value.  What is missing is Orbison’s high vocal, and in its absence the songs feel like they have a ceiling on their sound.

The band also seems more self-conscious about making an old-time traditional roots album.  As a result the songs sometimes come off as a bit derivative rather than the timeless quality they have on Volume 1.

That said, there are still bright spots.  “If You Belonged To Me” has a very pretty harmony and because it is hearkening back to an earlier musical style I can even forgive its archaic way of expressing love as ownership.

“Cool Dry Place” was also a guilty pleasure.  The lyrics are a bit kitschy, but I love the idea of aging rockers singing about their struggles to find a place to house all of their instruments where they won’t get damaged by water or other perils. I can imagine all these guys have collected a ton of “favourite” guitars in their decades of playing, and this would be a real – although hardly tragic – problem for them.  The song is fronted by Tom Petty’s and the style is totally reminiscent of his “Full Moon Fever” feel.  It sounds a lot like that album’s “Zombie Zoo” but instead of making fun of some young clubber, Petty turns his sights on himself.

As with “Volume 1”, “Volume 3’s” reissue has two bonus tracks.  In this case they are both remakes.  The first is an old classic, “Nobody’s Child” first recorded by Hank Snow in 1949 (if Wikipedia is to be believed – and I’m pretty sure it’s never wrong).  The second is the Del Shannon classic, “Runaway.”

I liked both of these, with “Nobody’s Child” delivered with heart and honesty, and “Runaway” is brilliantly performed and all the more tragic because of the circumstances of Del Shannon’s death.

While “Volume 3” compares poorly to “Volume 1” when you listen to them both side by side, it is still a good album and worth a listen from time to time if you want to, you know, have even more opportunity to hear four music legends performing together.

Best tracks:   If You Belonged To Me, Poor House, Cool Dry Place, Runaway