Podcast: The Tom Petty Project

oin Kev Brown as he digs into Tom Petty’s catalogue, starting with the first track from the debut Heartbreakers album, all the way through to the final song from Mudcrutch 2. Along the way, there will be special episodes dedicated to outtakes, b-sides, and other Tom Petty related material. This podcast is in no way affiliated with the Tom Petty estate and all rights to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch, Stevie Nicks, and the Travelling Wilbury’s are the property of their respective rights holders.

Episode 100 (with John Paulsen)

John Paulsen takes the reigns on this week’s very special 100th episode as Kevin becomes a guest on his own podcast! The boys talk about Kevin’s background with Tom Petty, how the format of the show, and John makes Kevin play his own game and answer some Petty Trivia questions. Kevin then reveals his answers…

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Ain’t Love Strange

Ain’t Love Strange is short, punchy, and has a really catchy, hummable chorus. I adore Benmont’s piano tone in this one and I think it’s one of those really lean, enjoyable pop songs that doesn’t ask a lot of you in the way of listening and doesn’t overstay its welcome. Check out the song here:…

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A Self-Made Man

There’s an awful lot going on in this simple, short little song. So much so that I’ll be honest, I missed almost all of it before I sat down to really analyze it. I don’t know if I’d ever caught that odd, missing-a-bar timing between the verse sections, or the switch back to more conventional…

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All Mixed Up

This is essentially an R&B song that would have benefited so much from a full, real horn section. While I’ve said previously that I don’t love horns and Tom Petty, for some reason, I think the synth in this track really pulls it down and makes it sound terribly dated. I also think this could…

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Think About Me

This is a very simple, very straight ahead rock n roll song. It’s not meant to do anything other than get your feet moving and your face smiling and it knocks that out of the park. It’s almost like the older, cooler cousin, of Anything That’s Rock n Roll. The cousin with the leather jacket…

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My Life/Your World

The song for this week’s episide, My Life/Your World, has always reminded me a lot of Stop Draggin My Heart Around. It’s got the same tempo, same basic groove and the instrumentation sounds similar in a lot of places. The lyrics are a little disjointed but have good moments. Mike’s guitar work is pretty great…

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It’ll All Work Out

In Conversations With Tom Petty, Paul Zollo quotes Tom saying that this is one of his favourites and that it’s a “durable” song. He tells Paul, ‘I was going through a crisis at the time with my marriage. My first marriage was on the rocks. I was separated, though it was later reconciled. So I…

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The Damage You’ve Done

“There’s nothing wrong with a solid album track. It’s like the gravy at Christmas dinner. You wouldn’t want it as the main course, but the meat would probably be a little dry without it. The Damage You’ve Done is a fairly unremarkable track in the Heartbreakers catalogue and it doesn’t stand out much on this…

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Runaway Trains

“After passing on what would become Boys of Summer during the Southern Accents sessions, Tom was clearly ready to try to use a less typical Heartbreakers groove brought to him by Mike Campbell. One of five co-writes on the album, this song shares a definite mood with Boys of Summer, with it’s minor key verse…

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Jammin’ Me

Season seven is here and season six is but a faded memory! Today’s episode covers the lead track from Let me Up (I’ve Had Enough!), Jammin’ Me. When Paul asks Tom, “When you write with Bob, is that something where you’re exchanging lines?”, his response is “Yeah, just like you’d think. I remember we would…

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