Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers 2017 "40 Anniversary" Tour Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by McCool, Apr 16, 2017.

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  1. BluesOvertookMe

    BluesOvertookMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    He's versatile, professional, and easy to get along with. That's all I'll say about that.
     
  2. sgtpppr84

    sgtpppr84 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Midland, TX
    Joe was in great form in Dallas last night. He was totally into his performance and having fun up on stage. I hope to see a full live set from him at sone point.

    Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers sounded great and showed no indication of mailing it in/going through the motions. Tom and the band definitely enjoyed performing and putting on a great show for the crowd.

    All in all, it was well worth the 5 hour drive (each way) to see both acts for the first time.
     
  3. fourfeathers

    fourfeathers Forum Resident

    Location:
    North America
    The Heartbreakers are in a tough place when it comes to setlists. They must feel trapped. The deeper cuts are clearly where they have the most fun, but deep down, they know they'll never be "free" from Free Fallin'. At least they place it in the set so that it acts as the perfect bathroom break for the die-hards.

    They've also been closing with the same five songs in the exact same order for almost a decade now. I really, really hope that by the time this (very lengthy, by their standards) tour concludes, they get a little more adventurous in setlist construction. Having said that, I'm seeing multiple shows this summer and I know I'll go home happy regardless. Perhaps that's why the HBs aim to please the vast majority of people who are just there to hear the hits.
     
  4. blueslover99

    blueslover99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poconos
    It is definitely hypocritical, given his outspoken attitudes about record pricing and his "golden circles" criticism on The Last DJ. But he's not gonna leave any money on the table!
     
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  5. Elliottmarx

    Elliottmarx Always in the mood for Burt Bacharach

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I'm a little disappointed that the 'long jam' is still It's Good to Be King. They've inserted the jam into Tweeter and the Monkey Man and Last Dance with Mary Jane in the past. The jam is brilliantly effective in King but I would love to hear it somewhere else - especially so if a recording were to be made.

    I'm also hoping that Joe Walsh wanders into Petty's set for a few of these dates. Campbell would do well with a sparring partner.
     
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  6. cwd

    cwd Forum Resident

    Location:
    Clarksville, TN
    If I knew they would play "Shadow of a Doubt," "The Waiting," and "Change of Heart," I would drop the major coin to see them in Nashville.
     
  7. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    Especially if he dropped "It's Good To Be King" (why is this a setlist mainstay for arena shows?) and "Mary Jane" for them. :righton:
     
  8. J_D__

    J_D__ Senior Member

    Location:
    Huntersville, NC
    Petty seems to love Learning to Fly. It's ok but would prefer something else. Glad to see You Got Lucky in the setlist.
     
  9. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    A really interesting perspective of the Dallas show by Jeff Gage. Some highlights:

    Tom Petty Forgot About the Heartbreakers on Their 40th Anniversary Tour at AAC
     
  10. windfall

    windfall Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    The whole article is well worth a read. Thought provoking. These tours he does now are such a long way, chronologically and qualitatively, from his heyday. Maybe it really is time to hang up the Rickenbackers. And I speak as one who has always had Petty in his personal top two or three since I first heard him in 1985.
     
  11. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Well I disagree with a number of points in his article including ascribing a quantitative difference between Petty solo and Heartbreakers cuts as there is really negligible difference between the two as Petty has always assimilated the Heartbreakers into his solo work particularly from a live performance perspective. Also "Wildflowers" is Petty's masterpiece by the virtue that he considers it to be so and also how well received the album was in it's heyday both in terms of generating three radio hits for the band as well as one of the most profitable tours they have ever done period. In my opinion, if the band decides to showcase it next year in a theater tour, it will be a brilliant showcase. Needless to say I doubt Mr. Gage will be getting any exclusive one on one interviews with Petty & the boys anytime soon, but the article was thought provoking although it could be argued a lot of the criticisms leveled by Mr. Gage were lost on the casual fans who judging from the majority of Twitter and Instagram responses had a fantastic time at the Dallas gig which is probably as good of an indication as any that there is still some juice left in the tank.
     
  12. blueslover99

    blueslover99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poconos
    I disagree on the solo work. Full Moon Fever was a radical departure in his sound at the time, with vocal dissatisfaction from several band members. Wildflowers started as a solo record during the writing process and it sounds like it. Most of the band are playing on it, but TP purposefully excluded Stan Lynch...creating a very different vibe that lingers in his music to this day.
     
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  13. KinkySmallFace1991

    KinkySmallFace1991 Will you come back to me, Sweet Lady Genevieve?

    If he had included Lynch, we probably would have had about 15 variations of "Come On Down To My House".*

    *I'm NOT in any way, shape or form knocking it. Probably one of my favorite Petty tracks. Tom himself stated in the Warren Zanes book that he didn't want Stan on his "next work" which turned out to be WF, and he "almost started writing for what Stan wanted to do" (paraphrasing here), which is what CODTMH sounds like. Only Stan could've played that track.
     
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  14. MikeVielhaber

    MikeVielhaber Forum Resident

    Location:
    Memphis, TN
    I don't think lynch was necessarily excluded. I think his absence was mutual.
     
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  15. cgw

    cgw Forum Resident

    Location:
    Upstate NY
    I am interested in seeing Petty when he comes to my neck of the woods because Peter Wolf opens.
    Coincidently Walsh and J Geils were the openers the last (only) two times I saw Bob Seger. Walsh was good but he didn't steal the show from Seger and I wouldn't expect him to steal it from Petty ether.
     
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  16. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Well originally they were all excluded (aside from Mike Campbell) as Petty's idea for that record was to cast the songs individually bringing in the necessary players to render each song as it's own work of art. Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein's involvement in the project is a bit murkier to decipher although at some point the decision was made to involve Tench in the project as the keyboard player/pianist of record as they kept having him come down to work on the record and eventually he was just slotted back in to his familiar position permanently. As far as Epstein's work on "Wildflowers", he essentially shared bass guitar duties with Campbell and Petty. In some regard he's as much of a guest performer on the record as some of the other talents Petty brought in to augment the various tracks.

    The difference between all these scenarios and situations is that when it came to selecting a drummer for "Wildflowers", Petty was shopping the kit from day one. He has gone on the record stating that "Wildflowers" was about "a little bit of freedom" and him 'walking away from the band" or more specifically walking away from Stanley. So Stan Lynch was certainly excluded from the proceedings which may have been the final bone of contention in his relationship with Petty. As Benmont Tench mentions in RDAD, in his estimation Lynch felt extremely put off that the Heartbreakers were making a record and he was being deliberately excluded from the process. Think about that for a second because it's quite key in understanding the fallout that Warren Zanes describes in his book that took place a year later. During the "Wildflowers" sessions, Stanley was still a member of the Heartbreakers and yet was deliberately excluded from a project which differs greatly from his exclusion from "Full Moon Fever" which was more based upon Petty's desire to get those recordings done in a quick and efficient manner. Lynch who extremely vocal about his issues regarding having to play material that he didn't perform on during the "Strange Behavior" tour, infamously telling Petty that "he felt as if he was in a cover band" now was being intentionally excluded from a project which dominated the band's activities for over two years! Then as Zanes details in his book, Petty went to Lynch after the sessions were completed and told him that he "needed him" for the upcoming "Dogs With Wings" tour and perhaps not surprisingly Lynch was non-committal. I'm not trying to make a case for Stanley being hard done by in this situation because honestly I don't think he was, but if he wasn't excluded from the "Wildflowers" sessions he might still be with the band today just based upon the idea that Petty wasn't going to fire him until his hand was forced and what forced Petty's hand was Lynch's ambivalence regarding his involvement with the Heartbreakers all of which began in the wake of his exclusion from the "Wildflowers" project.
     
  17. blueslover99

    blueslover99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poconos
    I agree with you...Lynch was checked out as well. That story is well told in the Zanes book, well worth a read for any fan. It was much more revealing than the RDAD film.
     
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  18. blueslover99

    blueslover99 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Poconos
    Great explanation!
     
    Christopher B likes this.
  19. KinkySmallFace1991

    KinkySmallFace1991 Will you come back to me, Sweet Lady Genevieve?

    I concur. Well done, @McCool .
     
  20. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Newsweek has given us their take on a potential 40th Anniversary setlist. Choices aren't bad, if hit heavy and lacking a bit in modern TP&HB but here is their take:

    American Girl
    Rebels
    Refugee
    Don't Do Me Like That
    Learning To Fly
    Runaway Trains
    I Need To Know
    Deliver Me
    Scare Easy
    You Wreck Me
    Walls
    Listen To Her Heart
    Don't Come Around Here No More
    Here Comes My Girl
    Mary Jane's Last Dance
    Even The Losers
    Room At The Top
    I Won't Back Down
    ==============
    Free Fallin'
    The Waiting

    FULL ARTICLE with track annotations/discussion:
    Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: A Dream Set List for What May Be Their Last Major Tour
     
  21. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Er, isn't this moot since the tour's already underway? Seems odd to put out a "hoped-for setlist" for a tour that's currently on the road! :confused:
     
  22. Tim Wilson

    Tim Wilson Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kaneohe, Oahu, HI
    The thing that strikes me about his setlist is how short it is. I know that not everyone is McCartney, Springsteen, or The Cure when it comes to stamina on stage, but Tom's making his life a lot harder by only playing so few songs: the last 2 nights, only 19 tracks! It's actually a pretty nice mix of solo and Heartbreakers stuff, including a solid handful from Wildflowers (about a quarter of the setlist, right?), but I don't envy the guy having to try to sum up 40 years in so few tracks.

    Rockin' Around (With You)
    Mary Jane's Last Dance
    You Don't Know How It Feels
    Forgotten Man
    You Got Lucky
    I Won't Back Down
    Free Fallin'
    Walls
    Don't Come Around Here No More
    It's Good to Be King
    Time to Move On
    Wildflowers
    Learning to Fly
    Yer So Bad
    I Should Have Known It
    Refugee
    Runnin' Down a Dream

    Encore:
    You Wreck Me
    American Girl

    The big problem for me is the one that Gage notes in his review linked above: Tom and his hardest core fans may think of Wildflowers as his masterpiece, but y'all are all wrong. :laugh: It's Damn the Torpedoes, which only gets one track out of the 19. :confused: I can one million percent see why he'd rather not be doing a bunch of songs off that album on most tours anymore...it's not like Dylan doesn't go MOST shows these days with no songs from, say, Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61, and rarely more than 4 from the 20th century at all...but for the 40th anniversary of The Heartbreakers? I think you've either gotta go for a Heartbreakers-heavier setlist, or call the tour something else.

    I mean, this is perfectly fine as a 2017 Tom Petty setlist, but for a tour billed as The Heartbreakers 40th anniversary, I'm with the reviewer above. This fails that test on the most basic level. If he didn't want to feature The Heartbreakers front and center, FINE. Do whatever you want, Tom, with God's blessing and mine, not like you need either one of us to care. But c'mon. This feels kinda passive aggressive. :laugh:
     
  23. windfall

    windfall Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    Passive aggressive or just a bit lazy?
     
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  24. jumpinjulian

    jumpinjulian Forum Resident

    I bought a ticket to Milwaukee night two yesterday! Very excited. I'm coming from Australia to see 3 Ween shows, Beck, Willie's 4th July picnic, Outlaw Festival - also Milwaukee which is why I can fit Petty into my trip.
    I feel very lucky the stars aligned here- he's not been to Australia since 1986, and shows no sign of ever returning. So I'm happy he's playing the hits!
    Also checked out Chris Stapleton who's supporting- his album is great.
     
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  25. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident Thread Starter

    You bring up some great points particularly that if there was one occasion for the band to celebrate the earliest successes, this would be it! However it's important to note that an important shift took place within Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers around the time of 1989's "Strange Behavior" tour and they have never really looked back since. Essentially their entire sound changed at least in terms of their approach to making records. I referenced this earlier when I stated that there was negligible difference between Petty's solo work and Heartbreakers tracks in that once the Heartbreakers get a hold of material by Petty whether written specifically with them in mind or for his own means, they adapt it to their style. All one needs to do is to pick up a copy of 1991's "Take The Highway Live!" VHS and listen to the arrangements of the material Petty and Jeff Lynne crafted for "Full Moon Fever" and "Into The Great Wide Open" to see how the live arrangements of those songs differ from their studio counterparts.

    That being said, it's hard to deny there was a shift in philosophy around this time period which ultimately impacted the context of their live performances. Petty has gone into some detail over the years about how once influences like Lynne, George Harrison and Rick Rubin were brought into his life, he began to see music much more from the perspective of an artist rather than a performer. Essentially according to Petty, it was this shift in philosophy which sowed the seeds of discontent between himself and some of the other members of the Heartbreakers who just wanted to play rock and roll as they had for years both on record and on stage. Most of the band came around to Petty's way of doing business, whereas Stan Lynch didn't and was ultimately dispatched. Petty's longtime manager, Tony Dimitriades notes in RDAD that "Petty was writing mellower material and for Stanley to maintain his position in the Heartbreakers, he had to perform these songs on stage". This is a crucial point to understand not only because of how it impacted Petty's relationship with Lynch but because the shift in philosophy informed not only the sound of the records Petty was making but the performances he was giving in support of them. Again hearkening back to the "Take The Highway Live!" VHS, you'll notice that while Petty has already began to incorporate much of his new melodic sound into the setlist, he is also making concessions to the other members of the Heartbreakers. Benmont Tench gets a chance to feature with some solo boogie woogie piano, Lynch gets to rock out with a cover of the Count Five's track "Psychotic Reaction", the kind of material that in itself hearkens back to an earlier incarnation of the Heartbreakers. However with the emergence of "Wildflowers", Petty finally had the masterpiece he was striving for in hand because it was arguably a record far more potent than it's predecessors as it covered so many facets of the appeal of what the Heartbreakers could do. It was a superior record to "Damn The Torpedoes", because it wasn't mired in one style and therefore lent itself to be incorporated into a more dynamic setlist. It also had the appeal of not being too far removed from the material Petty had crafted with Jeff Lynne, in that the "Wildflowers" songs wouldn't clash harshly with the "Full Moon Fever" material when juxtaposed next to one another in a setlist. Essentially after a few years of moving various parts around, Petty had not only a masterpiece of an album but the format for a setlist which he has used ever since which is based around the melodic material he crafted between 1989-1994, book-ended by some harder fare usually culled from his earlier successes and more recently albums such as "Mojo" and "Hypnotic Eye". So while I agree that it does make sense from a functional perspective for the band to incorporate more selections on this tour from albums like "Damn The Torpedoes" or "Long After Dark", those records and more specifically the sound of those records haven't informed the live performances of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for a long time now. Sometimes it's hard to reheat a soufflé.
     
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