The Tom Petty Project

I’d said in the closing to last week’s episode that I get a strong connection between this song and the Jeff Lynne era of Tom’s work. So, close your eyes, listen to the first four bars, and imagine coming out of Too Good to Be True and into this song. It feels as natural a transition as anything in the catalogue to me. I think it’s partially the blend of those two acoustic guitars panned left and right sitting underneath that crunchy electric part from Mike. The tempo, bounce, and feel of this just screams Into the Great Wide Open era to me.Song: https://youtu.be/2_JOAHA2tpkDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

This is a very grown up song and as we discussed on Wildflowers, it’s a song that wouldn’t resonate as much with a person in their teens or early twenties as it would with someone who has lived and lost. You need that weight of experience to truly feel the bone-weariness that Tom projects at times and the hesitant accusations he ends with. It’s a collage of emotions and narrative dissonance that perfectly fleshes out what a broken relationship feels like even when a new, healthy one is coming into focus.Song: https://youtu.be/OjC1Idf9w_4Live at the Fillmore '99: https://tinyurl.com/2wtkm3jdThis episode is dedicated to the memory of Margaret "Cookie" Donnelly Obituary. You can read her full obituary here: https://tinyurl.com/28dr58p7Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

In Conversations with Tom Petty, author Paul Zollo tells Tom that he finds the song has “kind of a British, early Beatles sound” to which to Tom replies “Yeah. It’s funny how you see these influences go round and round, because I was thinking of Don Everly, that sort of melody. But it does have a mid-Sixties British sound. And he was obviously influencing them.” Paul then observes “Like one of those old songs, it’s very short—under three minutes.” and Tom tells him “Yeah. It’s great when you can get it all in, in that amount of time”Song: https://youtu.be/cu9-BjUAvNYDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

Lyrically, we get this short story, in typical Tom fashion where he’s just giving us the outlines and parts of a narrative. We start out standing by the highway in boots and silver spurs. And we end on the interstate across the Georgia line, which is maybe a teeny nod back to Tweeter and the Monkey Man. In fact, here’s an idea, maybe the protagonist of this song is actually Jan! I can imagine her heading south after the fiasco in Jersey, but it sounds like she found trouble again in Nevada and headed back east! It’s an incredible lyric to come up with on the spot, as I say and it’s obviously gone on to be a lesser known single that is adored by Pettyheads. It’s a song that lends itself well to themes of not going down without a fight while at the same time depicting a somewhat desperate character who is going down anyway! Fabulous writing. Or in this case, ad-libbing!Song: https://youtu.be/ew6Cg6pUApE Official Video: https://youtu.be/I4vJM4L2D2ULinks mentioned: Red Hot Chili Peppers - A Face In The Crowd (Live) : https://youtu.be/qD37E7rtxbs Sammy Davis Jr drums : https://youtu.be/i3FqyPeUaDERefugee (album version) : https://youtu.be/YbWDV72oQlo?t=50Refugee (live version, 2012) : https://youtu.be/2sW4msX2q_E?t=114Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

I love the line “She’s a sweet young thing. Brings me dreams in a box she made for me”. That’s a very Petty-esque little piece of imagery that he throws in early to add to the very dreamy quality of the piece. In Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom tells author Paul Zollo that “The words changed several times in that song. But I finally got it to where I liked it. I think I worked on that one a lot more than any of the others.” And where we were talking about Free Girl Now sounding much more spontaneous lyrically, this one does have that quality of being a more considered lyric. I don’t think many people would come up with “Brings me dreams in a box she made for me” off the cuff.If you want to listen to the track before listening to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/-IIX0nGyfyAYou can find my appearance on the Booked on Rock podcast here: https://youtu.be/Gkea4Xc_2uQYou can find Megan Volpert's wonderful book, "Why Alanis Morissette Matters" here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/9781477330876/Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

Sonically, you could definitely hear this one sitting happily on Mojo. But I also sometimes feel that this is the most Wildflowers-sounding of all the songs on Echo. If you found out that it was another of the songs that hadn’t been included on that album, it wouldn’t really surprise you. In Conversations With Tom Petty, the only thing that Tom tells author Paul Zollo about this song is that “That’s great. That should have been a single. I don’t know why they didn’t put that out as a single”.If you want to listen to the song before you listen to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/eA7YT103Ocw Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

 I, along with I’m sure many of you Pettyheads, consider this one of Tom’s finest works. It’s an absolute masterpiece in songwriting, lyrical precision, and arrangement. As Tom tells Paul Zollo, “It was a great example of The Heartbreakers at work. On my own I would have never arrived at that arrangement of the song. But they really took it somewhere that I would have never got to by myself.” The mixture of light and shade the contrast of hope and despondency, of cynicism and vulnerability make this track a powerhouse of pure emotion. It’s one of those where every single note is placed to perfection, every musical decision supports the construction and delivery of the song and the sum of its incredible parts gels into this perfect five minutes of music that moves me as much today as it did the first time I listened to it!If you want to listen to the song before you listen to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/nQFCF9KESicAnd make sure you check out Richard Hearn's brilliant website Paragraph Planet here: https://www.paragraphplanet.comDon't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts

Like Songs and Music for She’s The One, somewhere around half of the songs on Echo were never played live. Tom tells Paul Zollo “I was kind of glad to get to another place after Echo. I was kind of glad to get somewhere else. I don’t know why, but I kind of felt like we came back into the sun after that.”And this idea of a darkness hovering over this period in Tom’s life definitely permeates through elements of this record.Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyprojectBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.socialInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyprojectYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyprojectThreads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyprojectAll music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.comThe Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".Producer: Kevin BrownExecutive Producer: Paul Roberts