New Tom Petty album dropping "Wildflowers - All the Rest"

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brian Gupton, Jun 2, 2015.

  1. Cookie!

    Cookie! Forum Resident

    Location:
    FL, USA
    Thank you so much! I got a 4/5 on the quiz; I had no idea what the tour that followed the release of Wildflowers was called.

    "There Goes Angela (Dream Away)" is an absolutely amazing song and could have easily have fit on Wildflowers. Perhaps it could have used a more flushed out arrangement in order to be included, but it's really just fine how it is. This and the previously released demo of "You Don't Know How It Feels" have me really looking forward to the upcoming Wildflowers set. One track I'm really anticipating hearing that is bound to be included is Petty's original recording of "Leave Virginia Alone" (which ended up being given to Rod Stewart and released on his album the following year) as I don't believe that has ever even been leaked anywhere.

    In addition, hearing these two recently released tracks got me thinking that it would have been really interesting if Petty had done a true solo album in the vein of Springsteen's Nebraska.
     
  2. Sex Lies And Master Tapes

    Sex Lies And Master Tapes Gaulois réfractaire

    Location:
    Nantes, France
    3/5...

    I choose Levon instead of Ringo and i was wrong about the name of the tour... :hide:
     
  3. It seems to me that this has now evolved into a much bigger project than what people initially thought it would be.First off I thought it might just mean a second disc of bonus tracks.Now it appears we will be getting a really deep dive into the sessions for the album.
    The waiting may be the hardest part but if we are getting a pretty exhaustive box it would have definitely been worthwhile.
     
  4. DolphinsIntheJacuzzi

    DolphinsIntheJacuzzi Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    Don't feel bad. I looked those two up on Wikipedia, for fear if I missed them, I wouldn't get the song.
    Ordinarily, deep dive box sets on individual albums are a hard pass for me. They usually consist of (very) rough demos, lackluster b-sides, and the de rigueur shoddy live show of dubious SQ. But if the early Wildflowers (Super Deluxe?) tracks are any indication, this and the new Prince SOTT box will both be notable exceptions. This box will be under my tree this year.
     
  5. Mooserfan

    Mooserfan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastern PA
    I so hope there’s a surround mix...but I have a bad feeling there won’t be.
     
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  6. TwoAmused

    TwoAmused Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    I was just about to post the same thing. If done well, it could be a top 10 surround mix based on the quality of the songwriting and original album production. Just speculation, but I think the odds of it happening would be higher if TP were still with us.
     
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  7. Sean Murdock

    Sean Murdock Forum Intruder

    Location:
    Bergenfield, NJ
    For anyone looking for some new tea leaves to read, I got this email this morning:

    [​IMG]
     
  8. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident

    [​IMG]
    So I figured today would be a good day to do a bit of a "mailbag dip" and address a few bits and bobs concerning "Wildflowers: All The Rest", mostly regarding format and the curation of that format:

    The "double album" concept: This is in reference to post #530 and how "Wildflowers" was originally sequenced in 1994 versus how it will be sequenced as "Wildflowers: All The Rest". To begin with "Wildflowers" was sequenced as a double album [compact disc] package. There was a twenty-five track song cycle that was prepared by Tom Petty and Rick Rubin and presented to Warners executives as well as several of Tom Petty's familiars in 1994. In 1995, Rick Rubin spoke to Paul Zollo about the double album describing it as such, "Originally we conceived 'Wildflowers' as a double album. And the sequencing took a long time, a couple of months. We went through a lot of permutations of the album just to end up where we did. Originally we were sequencing 25 songs and we ended up cutting ten songs."

    It should be noted that in between cutting those ten songs resulting in the album that everyone is familiar with there were also several other iterations of "Wildflowers" that were considered by it's creators including a nineteen track iteration. Each of these iterations had different track listings and track sequences. That said, in 2019 Adria Petty spoke to Chris Willman of Variety telling him that "We’re actually still like struggling to find the original track listing of that double record" which suggests the idea that "Wildflowers: All The Rest" could've conceivably be sired to it's original 1994 double disc song cycle, although to my knowledge "Wildflowers: All The Rest" will ultimately lean upon the track sequence conceived by Tom Petty several years back which presented both the "Wildflowers" quotient of the collection and the "All The Rest" quotient as their own unique entities although still complimentary of one other.

    Curating "All The Rest": Tom Petty curated the "All The Rest" quotient of the programme prior to his passing in 2017. It contains ten unique selections, one of which is featured twice. So what you will be hearing on the collection as it pertains to those tracks, is essentially the songs that TP selected alongside possibly one notable addition that you likely already have in your collection or at least have heard at some stage in the game.

    The eight-track demos: Originally Tom Petty was lukewarm about expanding "Wildflowers: All The Rest" exponentially beyond it's "Wildflowers" and "All The Rest" quotients. I'll get into this in more detail at a later date, but eventually Tom Petty did agree to incorporate his solo eight-track home demos into the project. As far as curating the demos for the project? It does seem given Adria Petty's comments to David Fricke on 2020-06-25 that there was still work left for her father to do concerning certain aspects of the project once it's scope expanded beyond it's original parameters, work that was eventually left to the capable hands of the Tom Petty Estate.

    Beyond The Demos: What I'm comfortable saying at this time regarding material from the sessions that extended beyond the demo stage is this: the "Wildflowers" material was extremely mutable in nature and the sessions themselves spanned a period of around two years. So when you are speaking of the songs that emerged from those sessions, you have a vast selection of what I'd term alternative arrangements from which to draw from. A good barometer of this would be the acoustic version of "Cabin Down Below" which adorns the b-side of "It's Good To Be King". That is a variant in the truest sense of the word. It's not an alternate take, it's an alternative arrangement and one of the key understandings that fans should be aware of when it comes to the "Wildflowers" material is to make the distinction between the two. In working with Rick Rubin, Tom Petty was afforded the freedom to cast his music in a very unique way where tracks would be cut and then re-cut not because there was necessarily anything wrong with the original approach utilized but instead the mutability of the songs themselves along with the openness to the idea that it was possible to approach the same song, several different ways lead to strikingly different incarnations of the same song as it was cast and then re-cast over the period of several months or even years. So I think many fans will find all of that sort of stuff interesting to hear.

    There Goes Angela
    : Also according to Tom Petty's childhood friend Keith Harben, the protagonist of Tom Petty's latest single [There Goes Angela (Dream Away)] is an actual person who was familiar to TP and his friends from childhood. Harben recently shared the following: "I know Angela! I know her well! She lived on our street, me and TP. On the corner of 16th Ave. and 6th Terr. She was a beautiful young girl, a lot younger than us. As youngsters from 6 to 9 Tom and I spent our days finding interesting things to do. No internet, no video games. One of our favorite things to do was play Cowboy and Indians. We had a close circle of friends in the neighborhood. One family had 3 girls and 1 boy. An older sister didn't hang out with us. Her name was Kay and she married Halston's brother Don. That's the famous designer Halston. Another sister Debbie was closest to our age and a brother named DR (we called him peewee). the youngest sister was Angela. You can understand that these kids we grew up with were sort of like brothers and sisters. Angela was quite a bit younger than us but as we grew older she grew up to be a beautiful young lady as were her other two sisters. Sister Debbie liked me and wanted to date me after High School. I tried and she was very pretty and looked like a model. But it felt like I was going out with my sister. Listening to the song I feel like it really fit and the words made sense to me. Angela grew to be equally stunning and I can imagine Tom would see her walking as I often did. She and many other neighborhood kids would often come down to hear the Sundowners practice as she grew older. He may have had a crush on her, maybe we all did. I don't think there would ever have been a romantic connection. May have just been a fantasy! But I feel this is another example of Tom writing about life in Gainesville and this Angela would have certainly and in all likelihood fit the words to this new song!"

    NEXT WEEK: What is it about "Leave Virginia Alone"...and "Batman versus Superman"?
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2020
    ptijerm, Sean, J_D__ and 30 others like this.
  9. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident

    a few more...
    "Wildflowers" has always retained it's own unique sonic quality which is one of the main reasons why it has endured as well as it has. Granted, it's not for everyone but it certainly occupies it's own space within the sphere as I've rarely if ever come across anything that sounds remotely close to it in either the folk or folk/rock genre. The "Wildflowers" sessions as mentioned above wasn't necessarily always about embellishment as much as it was a process of casting. For example, upon the completion of a demo, TP would notate what adornments he thought would be necessary to bring that particular song to completion in the studio. He mentioned to Paul Zollo in 2005, that they actually had a check board in the studio where they would have each song title notated and as adornments were added to each song, they would be checked off. However, there were also many occasions where the concept that Tom Petty would initially have for a particular song would evolve as the sessions progressed [see above]. So, the notion that fleshing a song out by adding adornments was oftentimes weighed equally with the philosophy that stripping a song back to it's essences would allow the intimacy of the performance to take precedence.

    The home recordings are interesting because they seem to mark a direction that the overall project could've taken had TP not chosen to bring the core of the Heartbreakers into the project. Now granted, the home recordings actually do span a significant period of time as they don't all originate from one sitting and honestly not even one time period. So in enough of that, they are a bit of a compromise in that you are seeing a progression within the home recordings themselves because as the songs were being written, the "Wildflowers" sessions were also progressing. That said, they do really hold their own as their own unique entity and because as Adria Petty pointed out a few weeks back the eight-track home recordings were essentially elaborate and complete pieces of work, they do retain an identity all their own.

    My best guess is that they are looking for someone to design something akin to the "Somewhere Under Heaven" promotional film that came out back in 2015. Suffice to say given the excellent work that Martyn Atkins undertook in 1994, they will certainly have a copious amount of footage from which to draw from!



    Also speaking of tea leaves, for those Tom Petty/Heartbreakers fans who patron Spotify, you may have noticed over the weekend a new entry crept onto the official Tom Petty Spotify channel in the form of a new playlist entitled "Tom Petty Essentials". It's basically a "best-of" playlist and one that seems to have been curated rather quickly as several songs appear twice in the song cycle sourced from both "The Best of Everything" compilation and the original albums they were sired to. However, there are some interesting tidbits including a Martyn Atkins mid-nineties era photograph of TP gracing the track listing, a little blurb about "You Don't Know How It Feels" featuring a sunflower emoji along with the "Wildflowers" album taking the pole position in the listing. Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

    Well I'd personally phrase it as "expanded upon" rather than evolved because Tom Petty did bring certain aspects of this project to completion prior to his passing. He had a vision of what he wanted and that to my knowledge is going to be honored with this particular collection.

    Better than the waiting...better off is the search
    * #comefindalltherest

    *sorry mate you opened the door
     
    Last edited: Aug 12, 2020
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  10. Dhreview16

    Dhreview16 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London UK
    Hi - what’s the latest on what’s coming out on vinyl and when - in short ? (Apologies if it is in one of the previous posts, I’ve lost track....).
     
  11. cwitt1980

    cwitt1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    Carbondale, IL USA
    I don't think there's been an official word of how it will be packaged and presented just yet. All the past Petty projects have been on vinyl so I'm not worried about that.
     
  12. WarEagleRK

    WarEagleRK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chattanooga, TN
    McCool, you are killing me with this information. I can not wait for this to get released.
     
    Sean, J_D__, laf848 and 9 others like this.
  13. ryan de topanga

    ryan de topanga Forum Resident

    Location:
    Topanga CA USA
    Me too ;-)
     
    supermd, Sean, bigal00769 and 13 others like this.
  14. Jeff Bramwell

    Jeff Bramwell Forum Resident

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC
    Honestly, getting an official track list alone is gonna feel like Christmas.
     
    Sean, J_D__, longdist01 and 7 others like this.
  15. JayB

    JayB Senior Member

    Location:
    CT
    Hopefully soon!!!!
     
    Sean, J_D__, longdist01 and 2 others like this.
  16. Hooodo Man

    Hooodo Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    Yeah, I've been waiting on this for ages. Such a shame Tom did not get to tour behind All the Rest. :( sounded like an interesting concept - touring with multiple guest vocalists and playing the whole album through the 25 tracks...
     
  17. J_D__

    J_D__ Senior Member

    Location:
    Huntersville, NC
    Petty used to be part of RSD but, this hasn’t happened since his passing. I’m not sure of anything Petty related at this point. Let’s hope for vinyl:)
     
    Matthew Tate likes this.
  18. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    While I am loving all of McCool's posts, I'm not hearing anything from him that sounds remotely optimiistic about releasing it any time soon. Many of his posts talk about the vastness of the whole project in terms of time and the various permutations. I am NOT saying he's hiding anything, just that there seems to be lots of stuff and multiple ways it could be presented. Maybe it will be released in multiple forms. Lots of hands and hearts in this thing, and every one of them is just as passionate as all of us here, if not more. It would be cool to have during this horrible period in our country, but I just don't think so.
     
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  19. McCool

    McCool Forum Resident

    I think the concession needs to be made that there is also a great deal that goes unspoken be it viewed right or wrong. For example, my barometer has always been that once information regarding Tom Petty/Heartbreakers has been published, then it has entered the public forum and is therefore free for public dissemination or discourse. For me it's just a matter of having regard for those who actually make a living at providing and/or breaking news to allow them to have the exclusive in terms of being able to go about the business of their profession without any degree of interference from those who don't have any skin in the game. So a roundabout way of answering your question would be that while there may be information known to certain parties up the chain [sometimes referred to as ubers], this information ninety-nine percent of the time is not going to be publicly shared until a journalist puts a byline to it, out of regard not only for the people involved in getting the music to market but also the good folks who quite frankly work hard to make connections to get the exclusives for the fans.
     
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  20. wiseblood

    wiseblood Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, MA, USA
    Pre-COVID-19, you must have been a real hit at parties.
     
  21. domesticmachine

    domesticmachine Resident Forum

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    Reliving Wildflowers will be like Christmas All Over Again!
     
  22. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    ????????????o_O
     
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  23. Billy_Sunday

    Billy_Sunday ... formerly ThirdBowl

    Location:
    Santa Cruz, CA
    Sometimes a dose of objective reality is viewed as a wet blanket. Perhaps that's what the previous comment was getting at.

    Personally, I'd be much obliged to converse with you at a party sometime! :)
     
  24. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    Oh, okay. I get it, thanks. I was wondering how the leap of logic went from Tom Petty to party guest.:) The internet is fascinating sometimes.
    I think the next time my wife's family has a party (I have no sibs or parents, thanks to covid), we'll all just stand around wondering what to say and where to start!
     
    Billy_Sunday likes this.
  25. Mooserfan

    Mooserfan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Eastern PA
    Holy *@#$ man, I am so sorry.
     
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