S2E7 I Need to Know

Transcript

(* Note - the transcript is as-written before recording. I usually change a few sentences or words here and there on the hoof as I'm speaking.)

Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, my fine friends. Today we’re continuing with episode seven of the second season of the Tom Petty Project Podcast, which by my count makes this episode 23 overall, if you include the trailer! As always, I am your host, Kevin Brown! For those of you who may be listening for the first time, this is the podcast that digs into the entire Tom Petty catalogue song by song, album by album, including conversations with musicians and fans along the way.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas in whatever way you celebrate the holiday, or if you didn’t celebrate at all, that you’re healthy, happy, and living life to the fullest. If you can’t say any of those things, don’t forget that it’s OK to be down, or to be going through a rough patch. Life can be tough and even Tom went through some dark periods, but managed to bounce back. If you are experiencing any difficulties in your life, I urge you to find help and to talk to someone. Never think that you’re on your own. I believe that music is the greatest mood enhancer in the world. Better than any drug, it’s a way of escaping our situation and connecting to something greater than ourselves. Anyway, that got a little heavy, but I wanted to make sure that you’re all OK out there! 

Today we’re talking the iconic lead track from side two of the second album, I Need to Know. Like Breakdown and American Girl from the debut album, this is a song that is seared into the public’s consciousness, as a radio staple for decades. If, for some reason, you’ve either never heard the song before, let me be the first to welcome you to our planet and wish you well during your stay. I kid. Go check out the link the episode notes if you want to listen to the song before we dig into it. Then come back and I’ll be waiting right here for ya… Annnnnnd we’re back!

As I was doing the listen through for this episode, what struck me was that this song has a pretty similar groove to it as Dog on the Run, the live track from the Live Leg EP. I wonder if that’s another reason why that song was dropped from the live set and not recorded in the studio. I Need to Know is a quicker tempo but it shares what I’d call a feel, or a mood. The cadence of the lyric is similar, the chord progression is similar and it all feels like a case or partial cannibalization that songwriters often employ. Take from one idea and put it to better use in another. I know that Tom told Paul Zollo that this song was influenced by Wilson Pickett’s seminal 1966 classic, Land of 1000 Dances, and when you listen to that song, you definitely hear the influence, so I’d be willing to bet that both songs took some rhythmic inspiration from the same source.

I Need to Know comes out all guns blazing. The familiar balance of Mike and Tom’s guitars in the left and right channels, with Ron and Stan’s rhythm part thundering through the centre is augmented by Benmont’s piano and organ in the background. This sets up the intent of the song immediately. There’s no sense of subtlety here. It’s a rock n roll song and you know that it’s going to bring the heat from the very first bar.

Lyrically, I Need to Know is another song I find really interesting. Two very short verses accompanied by two much longer choruses, a rapid fire guitar solo and final chorus. The lyrics are tonally very similar to most of the songs on side one of the album insomuch as they describe a protagonist who is unsure of the status of his relationship. That opening line, “well the talk on the street says you might go solo”. What a great band-oriented metaphor for a potential breakup. “Good friend of mine saw you leavin’ by your back door”. This adds an element of intrigue suggesting that the love interest isn’t being up front about their intention to leave. So, “I need to know”. Tom’s vocal delivery sits between that all out frustrated howl and his mid range. It’s not an angry performance and it’s not a wounded performance. It finds that “indignant” tone perfectly. It’s almost matter of fact. “Just tell me what you want. I just need to know.” Again, his way of finding exactly how to deliver the vocal in a song blows me away pretty much every time. We also get that multi-part rock n roll scream at 1:33. That’s where all the pent up frustration actually comes out, leading into a pretty killer Mike Campbell solo in the major key. It’s another Chuck Berry-esque solo, as with Too Much ain’t Enough. Ironically, it’s exactly enough. And it’s one of the solos that Mike played pretty much exactly the same way live, and it’s because that solo is an integral melodic part of the song, not some free-form fret shredding virtuosic display. Just Mike Campbell being one of the best damn rock n roll guitarists in history.

I remember reading that when the Beatles recorded Helter Skelter, Paul McCartney had been listening to The Who and was blown away by how loud Keith Moon’s drum sound was. He kept telling Ringo to hit he drums harder and after many many takes, we get the immortal line “I got blisters on my fingers!” This song has the same sort of rhythmic fury and Stan is really wailing on those tubs. Drums sound different when they’re being hit hard. Listen to The Who or Led Zep and you can hear the power and bottom end coming through the skins. You get that same intensity on this song and it’s not accidental. As far as pure rock fury goes, you have to have that thundering rhythm section or the song would just fall flat and the indignant nature of the song would be lost. But, as with everything Stan Lynch played, it’s not one-dimensional. Alongside the granite-splitting kick and snare hits, you get a really controlled hi-hat where he’s bringing it from open/sloppy to tight and light and every place in between. Playing at two different volumes like that really isn’t easy but Stan pulls it off incredibly well. I think he’s often underrated as a precision drummer, maybe because of his explosive personality, but he has a really deft touch around the cymbals, which for me is always the hallmark of a truly excellent drummer.

Ron is locked completely in synch with Stan on this one again too. That boom-boom cha boom-boom cha kick snare pattern is matched perfectly by Ron’s bassline. It’s probably Ron’s best performance on the first two albums too and if you listen to what he’s playing on “I don’t know how long ,I can hold on”. He’s playing a super cool double time root fifth alternating pattern that gives that push through that middle section of the chorus more character. In the verses, all he’s doing is sitting on the root notes of the chord progression and mirroring the kick patter, which gives more space to the vocals and lets them move around the groove without overcomplicating things.

Benmont was always mixed quite low on the first couple of albums. Not sure if Denny Cordell just wasn’t a piano/organ fan but other than a couple of notable exceptions, you don’t often hear those parts predominantly. For the most part, Benmont is again just augmenting the groove and putting a little roll into the rock. But, in the chorus, we get that glorious call and response between the lyrics and piano “I don’t know how long” “I can hold on”, If you’re making me wait”. The piano is brought to the front and echoes the melody line. That’s an inspired touch. 

I already mentioned the guitar solo and what I love about it is that it really broadsides you. The guitars up to that point are very rhythmic and restrained. A simple chord pattern, with Mike and Tom operating in similar, yet distinct spaces in those left and right channels, but then when the solo hits that key change, everything just explodes and it becomes a guitar song, before relinquishing control back the vocals and the lyrics again. The piano through the solo is also pretty full on rock n roll with some great slides down the board.

Once we get out of the frenzy of the solo, we go into the chorus again and we’re getting those background “I need to know” vocals again, which drive the point of that title lyric home hard. The outro features a killer, killer drum part that’s easy to miss from Stan too. That last four bars, he’s not playing a kick/snare/tom double time out, he’s going 2-2-2-2 on the kick snare. As a drummer, that’s not a way I’d necessarily think of playing that. You can be damn sure I’m going to be stealing it for one of my own tunes in the future though!

It’s time, once again my friends, for some Petty Trivia! Where I get to ask you questions that range from lyrical, to musical, to the downright incidental!

Last week’s question was this: Tom Petty’s 1992 Christmas song, Christmas All Over Again, was recorded for the charity album “A Very Special Christmas 2”, but can you tell me which charity the album was raising money for? The answer is the special olympics. Tom was one of only two artists on the record who recorded an original song, rather than covering a standard or another artist’s track. It was also the lead track on the album and Tom very generously donated the rights to the song to the charity so that they were able to take all the profits from its use. An understated gesture that Tom didn’t need to make but did quietly and humbly. All the more reason to love the man.

For this week’s question, I’m giving you a Pettyhead easy pitch. What three albums were recorded on the MCA Backstreet label?

OK, back to the song. I Need to Know is obviously one of the Heartbreaker’s most instantly recognizable songs. It rips through your eardrums in under 2 and a half minutes and has a direct intensity and drive that makes it perfect fodder for rock radio. Another timelines song that has endured because of how easy it is to listen to, it’s a perfect encapsulation of Tom’s ability to get in, rock your socks off, and get out again, leaving you breathless and sated. The song was a live staple until the early nineties, then brought back for both The Last DJ and Highway Companion tours. The song was also covered extensively by the only girl in the band, Stevie Nicks, who joined the Heartbreakers on stage for the Live from Gatorville concert to rip through a killer version of the song. I’ll add a link to that version as well as one of Stevie’s solo covers to the episode notes so that you can check those out. Despite going on to become one of the band’s best-loved songs, because it was released pre-Damn the Torpedoes, it still only reached number 41 in the US charts and didn’t make the waves it likely would have if it had been released once the band had really exploded into the public’s consciousness. 

OK folks, that’s all for this week. I’m going to give I Need to Know a 9 out of 10. It’s not the most complex, the most challenging, the most emotional, or the most lyrically or musically impactful song Tom every wrote, but it retains that X factor and is bolstered by a superb, simple solo and a fantastic chorus. It’s also one of the first songs that any Tom Petty tribute band is going to learn and always play, so je ne regrette rien! It’s a song that is on pretty much every Tom Petty fan’s playlist and again is still aired regularly on rock radio the world over, for a very good reason. It’s balls out, pure fun rock n roll!

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Petty Trivia

QUESTION: For this week’s question, I’m giving you a Pettyhead easy pitch. What three albums were recorded on the MCA Backstreet label?

ANSWER: The answer is the trio of albums that marked the band’s collaboration with producer Jimmy Iovine; Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises, and Long After Dark. Even though Southern Accents also had Iovine as a producer, that record also saw Dave Stewart producing and Tom and Mike taking more of a prominent role, so I always think of those three albums as the Iovine trilogy. They’re a really cohesive, thematically progressive set of songs which define that early period of Tom’s explosion onto the wider scene.

Lyrics

Well, the talk on the street
Says you might go solo
A good friend of mine
Saw you leavin' by your back door

I need to know, I need to know
If you think you're gonna leave
Then you better say so
I need to know, I need to know
Cause I don't know how long I can hold on
If you're makin' me wait, if you're leadin' me on
I need to know

Who would've thought that
You'd fall for his line
All of a sudden
It's me on the outside

I need to know, I need to know
If you think you're gonna leave
Then you better say so
I need to know, I need to know
Cause I don't know how long I can hold on
If you're makin' me wait, if you're leadin' me on
I need to know
I need to know, I need to know
If you think you're gonna leave
Then you better say so

I need to know, I need to know
Cause I don't know how long I can hold on
If you're makin' me wait, if you're leadin' me on
I need to know
I need to know
I need to know
Baby, I need to know

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