“The song opens with Mike’s crunchy blues riff and some percussion in the background, most likely a woodblock. One thing that’s slightly surprising is that it’s in C. Most blues riffs are in G or E as they’re way easier to play on guitar, but hey, this is Mike Campbell!” Today’s episode is dedicated to…

“Tom tells Paul Zollo that “Sometimes it takes a lot of work. Sometimes the songs won’t reveal themselves to you until you find the right sound and the right recording of it. And this one was like that. You couldn’t really get everybody grooving the same way until we went over to the piano, and…

“We Stand a Chance is a fantastic way to open the second side of an album. Tom and the boys had a knack for starting side two strong. I Need to Know, Don’t Do Me Like That were side two openers and hey, those are pretty great songs! There’s more than enough going on here…

This week’s episode is my wonderful conversation with Dan Spiess. Dan is the Producer the Tom Petty Weekend, which has run in 2018, 2019, and again this year (and has its origins in an impromptue tribute show in 2017). Dan was very kind to spend a couple of hours online with me and share his…

There’s also another one of Tom’s clever lyrical twists in this one, in that first verse, when he sings “I must be looking over something” rather than “overlooking something”. A simple little bit of wordplay that subtly changes the impact of the line and changes the cadence of how it bounces along. Overall though, it’s…

Tom tells Paul Zollo that it’s “Not one of my great songs. But it’s a good rock song.” I think that simple doesn’t necessarily mean “not great”. The beauty of this song is at least partially down to the economy of it: Let the riff drive the melody. Let the rhythm section keep the tempo…

“It’s one of those sneaky Tom Petty tracks that really burrows its way into your brain and sits there playing itself in the back of your mind. It definitely follows a trusted template and because of that I think it might be slightly overlooked in the catalog.” Today’s episode looks at the third track from…

Hello you lot! I mentioned on social media that this episode would be slightly delayed and that turns out to be correct, but thankfully I’m still getting it posted up on a Wednesday for you! I switched gears a little and decided to publish a conversation I had last week with Megan Volpert, whose new…

When I think about the arrangement of this song, with the synths leading, Mike filling in those gaps with artfully placed licks, and Tom soulfully ripping his heart out for the audience, I think he’s dead on with that assessment. Today’s episode looks at the second track from Long After Dark, You Got Lucky. If…

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, my fine friends. Welcome to the first episode of the fifth season of the Tom Petty Project Podcast! I am your host, Kevin Brown. This is the podcast that digs into the entire Tom Petty catalog song by song, album by album and includes conversations with musicians, fans,…