Chuck Prophet’s new album got pushed from May release to August in the hope at the time that a summer tour might be possible, it finally comes out this week and I think over half of it has been released as “singles” on streaming sites. Moreover those who pre ordered from the Yep Roc store actually got their copies back in May on the original release date. I think the strategy is muddled and reduces the sense of the album release being an “event” but when I raise it, I’m made to think I’m being old fashioned. Sigh.
You're not alone. Just tell me when the thing is out and I can listen to it, I don't need months and months of buildup. The two new Trey/Phish studio releases are how I wish every album would be released. If it's good, it will be listened to, whether or not you spend months "pre-releasing" half the album or not.
My expectation is that this will be glorious in appearance and sound spread out across multiple LPs. It will be released just as TP envisioned. As someone who has the original LP, both volumes of the box sets which included WildFlowers, the live anthology, and American Treasure, I have high expectations that I am not worried about the TP Estate fulfilling.
Sad that someone is going to make a bundle on Ebay selling a test pressing of a Wildflowers bootleg: Tom Petty Wildflowers TEST PRESSING Vinyl LP xx/5 ULTRA RARE New MINT 2 LP | eBay
So that looks like a bootleg from TMOQ. so are you saying that somebody is pressing these and trying to pass them off as test pressings? doesn't make a whole lot of sense why they would have printed that on the cover for a test pressing
It does stink a bit. The W's are a different type of font. Weird. And, don't the labels usually have text or handwriting on them?
At this stage, I’ve been pretty solid at just waiting until the album comes out. I know 3 singles was pretty common in the 90s, so I usually stop there, but I rarely listen to individual tracks anyway. The new Taylor LP just dropping was a blessing. Here’s to the WF set!
I don’t really remember more than two before an album release in the 90’s though. (And that was when radio was actually semi-relevant still) I just don’t get the strategy. Put the thing out or don’t, but trying to build up track by track over 2-3 months is just kind of lame. Just release it when it’s finished.
I just want this to be released so I don't have to see the thread title with "dropping" for the next five years too.
I know there is a theory that there is no such thing as bad publicity. But the way "Wildflowers" has been handled -- long before this "All the Rest" project -- is pushing my patience. They are trying to be too strategic, and it is turning me off the whole thing.
The strategy (and I don’t enjoy it either), is that in the present day, an album cycle ends when the album gets released. It’s all about getting people to pre-save/pre-order the album, and a stand-alone single, an album announcement promotional single, and a single at album release, are the standards to build hype along the way. More promotional singles are often added. These “singles” all get heavy streams due to the nature of dropping one track at once, and are more likely to get added to playlists, where their streams grow. The people that will actually listen to the album will still stream it as a whole, and those tracks will get a second bolster from there. Merch based around some of these singles is also pretty standard. It’s all about ££££.
WHEN ZACK SNYDER CAME TO ADORE HER BRAIN So I would be remiss not to pay a little bit of lip service to the version of Tom Petty's "Leave Virginia Alone" that most listeners have been familiar with for the past twenty-five years and that is the 1995 single by Rod Stewart. Stewart released his cover version of the song in the spring of 1995 as the first single from his album "A Spanner In The Works" which saw issue to market on 1995-05-29. This would've put the release of the song smack dab in the middle of Tom Petty/Heartbreakers' "Dogs With Wings" tour and their own success with the single release of "It's Good To Be King". Of note, although most of the public was unaware of it at the time, Stewart's cover of "Leave Virginia Alone" was the first taste of the second/unheard "Wildflowers" compact disc. The song would prove a reasonable success for Stewart, reaching within Billboard's top forty and their top ten Adult Contemporary charts in 1995. In the 1995-05-27 issue of Billboard, Stewart was given the opportunity to speak about "Leave Virginia Alone" and the songwriter behind it and his comments were well...interesting. To begin with in a case of art seemingly imitating art, much as "You Don't Know How It Feels" was an eleventh hour addition to "Wildflowers", "Leave Virginia Alone" was an eleventh hour addition to "A Spanner In The Works". According to an article penned for Billboard by Melinda Newman, Stewart already had his record mastered and set for manufacturing when he was given the opportunity to record the Tom Petty composition. "It was for Tom Petty's album and he took it off it was too close lyrically to something that was a hit beforehand, and his managers couldn't persuade him to put it on the album" explained Stewart. While much has been speculated over the years by Tom Petty/Heartbreakers fans regarding why certain "Wildflowers" tracks made the cut and others didn't, it seems that Stewart's explanation as to why "Leave Virginia Alone" did not end up on "Wildflowers" places itself soundly within conventional Tom Petty logic. Petty was always his own harshest critic and appraiser and would oftentimes jettison tracks off of records not because of their lack of potential for either sales or airplay but sometimes because they were either too commercial or in this case possibly a retread of somewhere he'd already been. That said it is hard to think of a track in Tom Petty's catalog that is a true doppelganger for "Leave Virginia Alone", although "Mary Jane's Last Dance" did have a similar winding tale attached to it, musically they are extremely different. So the song was offered to Stewart's management by Tony Dimitriades and Stewart admittedly was initially lukewarm to the song. "It absolutely went by me." Stewart would later tell Melinda Newman "It took me two or three good listens. I had to be persuaded to do it, in other words. But now I'm glad we did." Interestingly Newman also asked Stewart for an appraisal of the song author's asking Stewart if he was a fan of Tom Petty? "Not really. I must admit, no I'm not. I don't mean that to sound disparaging. He's a very good performer though." Of note, this past February Rod Stewart's YouTube channel finally uploaded a high quality version of the music video for "Leave Virginia Alone" which was a pleasant surprise given that for years the only version available for viewing looked to be taken from a very low quality VHS rip. Interestingly I think it's worth offering that even a cursory view of the music video for "Leave Virginia Alone" would draw more than just slight comparisons to Tom Petty's music videos of the period particularly the Peter Care directed "It's Good To Be King". The two music videos seem to bookend one another extremely well. Maybe a young Zack Snyder who directed "Leave Virginia Alone" was a Tom Petty fan?
More stuff I did not know! I'm itching to hear Tom's version. Rod's version isn't terrible, but has that slick/polished sound that he received and retained when he went to Warner Bros in 1975 with Atlantic Crossing. Although Rod isn't a fan of Tom, his former Faces bandmates, the late Ian McLagan (who was a HUGE influence for Benmont, supposedly), Keith Moon's replacement in the Who, Kenney Jones (born on the same day as Ron Blair) and now Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood (who got up and jammed with the Heartbreakers with and without Bob Dylan on the 1986-87 "True Confessions" tour) were.
Ive heard of this song for years but this is the first time I actually heard the Stewart (or any version.) and to quote someone. Am I a fan of Rod or this version? "Not really. I must admit, no I'm not. I don't mean that to sound disparaging. He's a very good performer though."
I can see why Tom left it off the record. It's just not very good. Maybe Tom's version will be better.
re the Stewart cover above...first, had no idea this existed....and glad to hear the recording tho it's a bit....flat, low energy. It is also a prime example of the video making whole experience MUCH WORSE....watching Rod wanly mug and gesture his way through this makes it harder to listen. It also, tho I kinda like it, SOUNDS like Rod didn't think that much of the song himself. Not sure why he went to any trouble to add it.
Supposing that the job was posted by someone who’s done this before and figures $125/hour for the editing, they think it will take 24 hours to edit. They’ll probably take a week to gather applications, a week or two to weed out the bad ones, another week to secure commitment from a contractor to do the work, 3 days to do the work, and 7 days of back and forth. They want the video 5-6 weeks from when they posted that listing.
Maybe I'm alone on this, but I've always liked the Rod Stewart version. I'm a fan of both artists, and when I first heard this song 25 years ago, I thought it was the best thing Rod had done in years. Love Rod, but God, his later years have been patchy. When I found out it was written by TP, I thought, "Wow. Maybe Rod ought to ask TP for songs more often." YMMV.
Rod you know he does pick some strong material. Gotta give him that. And he can still bring it. I dont think his voice has lost its luster.
