S4E8 - Insider

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. Welcome to the seventh episode of season four 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, and people connected with Tom along the way.

Before we dig into this week’s episode, I wanted to give you a heads up about a couple of great guest episodes that I’ll have for you at the end of this season. First of all, I had a chance to speak to the absolutely marvelous Janet Lovell, who many of you will know well from the Tom Petty Nation. I’m going to break that episode in two for sure as Janet showed me a ton of her memorabilia and a lot of that won’t make the audio edit as it’s really visual. Janet and I spent two hours chatting about Tom and what is music means to us and as with every Tom Petty fan I’ve spoken to so far, it was a pure joy to share that passion with someone. The other conversation I had was with Jeff Slate, who’s an accomplished musician and journalist who has personal connections to the Heartbreakers and wrote a beautiful tribute to Tom for Esquire magazine the day after we lost him. Most of you will have read this piece without necessarily knowing the author. Jeff shared a ton of great stories with me and we wandered off down tons of different musical rabbit holes that end up in interesting places. So those two (or three) episodes will release at the end of this fourth season and of course we’ll have the album wrap episode with my compadre John Paulsen.

So now that the updates are out of the way, let’s dig into the gigantic third track from side two of Hard Promises; Insider. Don’t forget to look for a link to the song in the episode notes and give it a listen before we dig in.

In the outro to last week’s episode, I called Insider probably the best song any band never released as a single. And y’know, that might be a little over the top. Maybe there are other tracks that could claim that title but I can’t think of another Tom Petty song that wasn’t released that I think definitely should have been. One reason it wasn’t released as a single is that the band simply didn’t release ballads, or mid-tempo songs, as singles early on in their career. When talking about Insider with Paul Zollo, Tom says “They always wanted something more upbeat for the singles.” He mentions that Free Fallin was the first time he ever had a ballad out as a single. The other factor to consider is the background behind this song. As Tom relates to Paul in Conversations with Tom Petty “Stevie came to me around ‘78 and she was the absolutely stoned-gone huge fan. And it was her mission in life that I should write her a song.” He goes on to say that “We were a little wary of Stevie. We kind of saw this big corporate rock band, Fleetwood Mac, which was wrong, they were actually artistic people”. Later on, Stevie approached Tom about producing her first solo record, Belladonna to which Tom tentatively agreed. Tom notes that dealing with girls in the studio is completely different than dealing with guys and Tom told Stevie that he definitely wasn’t the best man to lead the project and recommended Jimmy Iovine who took over the project. Jimmy then beseeched Tom to write a song for Nicks’ album and Tom went away and wrote Insider.

He tells Paul Zollo, “The title came as I was writing, if I remember correctly. It just came out of the verse. I wrote that on my own at home. I remember spending a good day on it.” Let that sink in for a second, Insider took Tom one day to write. He goes on to say how much he loved it and that “Jimmy just flipped over the song. He thought it was incredible. He said ‘God, when I asked for a song, I didn’t expect this!” So Tom cuts the song right then and there on guitar and lays down vocals with Stevie before taking it back to the band to finish up the arrangement and additional instrumentation. At this point, Tom recalls “I was really attached to it. And it really hurt me when I did the track and the vocals. So I said [softly] Stevie, I can’t give you this”. Nicks reply was “Well I can relate to that. I completely understand. I’ll take something else.” The something else that Tom gave her was Stop Draggin My Heart around, though that song had already been cut for Hard Promises. So Jimmy Iovine had Stevie come in and lay down vocals over the completed track, replacing Tom’s lead on the verse and singing harmony to Tom’s lead in the chorus. On Howard Stern’s show in 2017, Jimmy says that he told Stevie that she’d recorded an album that noone would ever hear because there wasn’t a hit on it. Stop Draggin My Heart Around went on to become huge solo hit for Nicks, propelling her into superstardom outside of Fleetwood Mac.  As Jimmy tells Howard Stern, he told Stevie, “If a woman sings an aggressive guy’s lyric, that can’t miss.”

So, back to the second reason that I would speculate that Insider wasn’t considered for release. The first two tracks from Hard Promises, The Waiting, and A Woman In Love are released on April 20th and June 29th of 1981. Stop Draggin My Heart Around is then released on July 8th. It makes sense to release the two lead tracks from the album as the first two singles and if you were going to release it, Insider as the third. However, there’s now a gigantic duet between Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks already flying up the charts, so it would have been difficult to convince the record company to release another one, even though it’s the stronger of the two songs in pretty much every way. This is also why Insider didn’t end up on Greatest Hits and why, arguably, it’s a far lesser known Heartbreakers song than it should be outside the dedicated fan base.

Quite an incredible origins story for an incredible song.

Insider starts out with that very simple acoustic guitar progression, accompanied by a Benmont organ lead which backs off into a low-octave suspended part through the first part of the first verse Ron Blair is also adding in the bottom end right from the off, to fill out the sonic space and in the second half of the verse, which is basically a pre-chorus, Stan comes in on the drums. The organ sits back in the pocket still and there isn’t a huge build at this point. We do get a big trademark Stan Lynch drum fill into the first chorus and Mike then brings some very delicate broken chords over that chorus progression. I’ve been trying to figure out what that guitar is that he’s playing in the music video for this one and it really looks to me like an old National Steel with a pick guard. I’m going to have to consult my guitar nerd friends to see if I can track down exactly what model it would be! But the lead has that lovely trebly sound you can get from those guitars.

Insider isn’t a song that complicates itself musically yet there are still some really interesting little twists in it. If you listen in the second verse/pre-chorus, Benmont throws some fat piano chords in that are brought forward only in certain spots so they’re easy to miss. If you listen after the line “I'm the lonely, silent one” leading into the next line “I’m the one left in the dust”, you can hear that nice bass-y piano come in to fill in the space between those two phrases. Another nice little touch, which Tom often used, was leaving a bar or two at the end of a verse or chorus. At the end of the first verse, you get an 4/4 additional bar of that root A chord, but after the second chorus, you get a 6/4 count (a measure and a half) leading into the bridge. I hadn’t ever noticed that until tonight and I’ve started to always listen for those things and I had to count it three times to make sure I was hearing it right.

Into the bridge, the song moves into leading with the piano playing those broken chords and adding in the organ during the build out. Again I’m struck by how expertly Jimmy Iovine was able to get the absolute best out of Benmont’s keyboard parts on pretty much every song. The keys are definitely doing all the heavy lifting in this song in terms of adding colour and filling in space between the main chords. No solo for Mike here and if you think about the difference between this era of rock n roll band and the hair metal guys of the eighties and early nineties, there would definitely have been a cheesily soulful guitar solo here. The video would also have switched to black and white and been thrown to a windswept cliff, possibly with a high shot of an eagle circling the crashing waves. You know, pablum! Thankfully, Tom always, without fail, avoided those awful cliched tropes and found a way of giving each section of a song the right amount of weight or personality. Even with no lyrics during that middle eight, the harmonies and then chord progression add all the drama you need. It’s another ten bar bridge with the last chord held for three bars and both Benmont and Stan providing the big finish back into that stripped back final verse. And I’ll talk about the lyrics later, but what a final verse to drop the tempo back into. That lead off line along is better than most songwriters will ever write in their entire lives and it’s just one of so many perfect lines in this song.

Alrighty, it’s time for some Petty Trivia!

Last week’s question was this; In which of the following countries did the Heartbreakers never play a gig; Belgium, Spain, Germany, France? According to setlist.fm, the band played 3 gigs in Belgium, 8 in France, and 22 in Germany, but not a single show in Spain. I’ve caveated gig stats before, as I know that setlist.fm isn’t completely comprehensive, but overall you can still look at percentages and draw some fairly significant conclusions. One of those is that it’s incredible how few shows the Heartbreakers played outside the US. Of the 1300 that the database holds, 1124, or 86.5% were in the US, with the UK and Canada being second and third and those 22 in Germany being a fourth by some margin from every other country. I can’t find the comment on Facebook now, but a fan I was talking to about this posited that it could well have been that being a heavy smoker, Tom may not have enjoyed travel quite so much, but back in the 80s and 90s, smoking on airplanes was definitely still allowed, so I don’t know if that’s the only reason. Another question I’ll have to put to one of the band if I ever get to chat to one of them!
Your question for this week is as follows; As well as Tom and Mike, which other Heartbreaker has a writing credit on Stevie Nicks’ album Bella Donna

OK, back to the song. I wanted to quickly say that Ron Blair does a sublime job of staying conspicuously out of the way on this track. On a song whose heart is the lyric and the very gentle interplay between the two vocal tracks, you can’t have too much going on, so Stan is given more license to be more percussively aggressive (and he does put in some great fills) while Ron really just holds that steady bass groove down. Even during the bridge, where he would definitely have a little more license to be more assertive, but again, that arrangement skill comes in on this record, where a combination of Jimmy Iovine’s influence and the Heartbreakers growing understanding of studiocraft recognizes that you just don’t need a big walking bass in this song at any point. You also get that masterstroke of dropping the bass out completely for that last verse, to give those lyrics all the more space to just knock you out.

So let’s talk about the lyrics and this vocal performance. We’ll start with the latter. I was talking about this recently with someone and mentioned that even the greatest vocalists in the world sometimes just don’t quite mesh. It can be a frequency thing or a delivery style thing but usually it’s a chemistry thing and you simply can’t fake the latter. Some voices just work together and Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks voices fit together utterly perfectly. The main vocal genius of this song is how reserved it is. Neither singer goes into the highest range. Neither is competing. Like the no-solo, this isn’t a traditional duet where each singer takes a lead in alternate verses. It’s not even a song written for a second vocal part, but that decision to have both Tom and Stevie sing the whole thing makes it work. Then you have Stevie sing the harmony the whole way through and Tom the lead. THEN, Then you have Stevie sing the 3rd part harmony through the 1st verse/prechorus/chorus and 2nd verse, then switch her to 5th part for the second and third pre choruses to really hold back and not overuse that angelic voice. Tom sits on the melody and sings it really straight but good god it’s a sincere performance. At the time the song was written, Tom was going through his battle with the record company to keep the album priced at 8.98 rather than the 9.98 rockstar pricing and the turmoil in his life really comes through in this lyric.

I’m more than willing to go on record and say that this is in the top ten, maybe the top five lyrics Tom ever wrote. We talked on this record already about Tom coming of age as a storyteller on this album but this song is 100% raw, emotion. And it was written obviously with one eye on writing a song for Stevie Nicks, but I’m sure as soon as the shape of the song started to solidify, that became a secondary consideration. I would further contend that if you rearranged the structure only ever so slightly, this would be one of the world’s great poems. Put the three verse/prechoruses sequentially and then finish with the chorus and it has an almost Byronesque tragedy to it. The last verse however is among the very finest that Tom ever wrote.

I'll bet you're his masterpiece
I'll bet you're his self-control
Yeah, you'll become his legacy
His quiet world of white and gold
And I'm the one who oughta know
I'm the one you left to rust
Not one of your twisted friends
I'm the one you couldn't love

It’s such a sublimely self-contained piece of bitter melancholy. On the one hand, it’s about someone baring their soul to their lover, but if you look at through the lens of that dispute with MCA and view at it as a self-referential piece of prose, it takes on a potentially different, and far deeper meaning. The last four lines especially are the cry of a frustrated artists. “I’m the one who oughta know. I’m the one you left to rust.” That duality that Tom was able to place into his songs is one of the main things that keeps me coming back time after time after time. “I’ve had to live with some Hard Promises. I’ve crawled through the briars.” Brilliantly, beautifully ambiguous.

OK folks, that’s all for this week. Insider ranks as one of my very favourite Tom Petty compositions, certainly lyrically. It’s a very simple song musically but again, that’s a case of making sure that dual vocal and the impact of the lyrics are front and centre. Just imagine if Tom had kept Stop Dragging My Heart Around and had been able to release this as a single. I genuinely think it would have been a #1. It’s also surprising that so many people don’t know this song. I was talking to my best mate Randy about it and he wasn’t familiar with it at all. It wasn’t released, so it wasn’t on the Greatest Hits, so unless you’re a fan, or a Stevie Nicks fan, chances are, you just might have missed it! Insider is a nailed on, all day, all night 10 out of 10 for me. It’s vulnerable, it’s tender, it’s bitter, it’s desperate, and most of all it’s beautiful. “Yeah, you're the dark angel. It don't show when you break up.” I’m going to drop a video in the episode notes of Tom playing the song for the Heartbreakers on his acoustic guitar. Listen to how damn good that raw cut, through a video camera mic is! I’ll also throw up a live version with Stevie, from the Running Down a Dream doc. From looking back to setlist.fm, this song wasn’t played live very often and mainly because any time it was performed, it was performed with Stevie. So I love that Tom kept this world-beating song back because it would only work with a very specific vocalist on harmony. Such a glorious musical relationship.

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Petty Trivia

QUESTION: In which of the following countries did the Heartbreakers never play a gig; Belgium, Spain, Germany, France?

ANSWER: According to setlist.fm, the band played 3 gigs in Belgium, 8 in France, and 22 in Germany, but not a single show in Spain. I’ve caveated gig stats before, as I know that setlist.fm isn’t completely comprehensive, but overall you can still look at percentages and draw some fairly significant conclusions. One of those is that it’s incredible how few shows the Heartbreakers played outside the US. Of the 1300 that the database holds, 1124, or 86.5% were in the US, with the UK and Canada being second and third and those 22 in Germany being a fourth by some margin from every other country. I can’t find the comment on Facebook now, but a fan I was talking to about this posited that it could well have been that being a heavy smoker, Tom may not have enjoyed travel quite so much, but back in the 80s and 90s, smoking on airplanes was definitely still allowed, so I don’t know if that’s the only reason. Another question I’ll have to put to one of the band if I ever get to chat to one of them!

Lyrics

You've got a dangerous background
And everything you've dreamed of
Yeah, you're the dark angel
It don't show when you break up
And I'm the one who oughta know
I'm the one left in the dust
Yeah, I'm the broken-hearted fool
Who was never quite enough

I'm an insider
I been burned by the fire
And I've had to live with
Some hard promises
I've crawled through the briars
I'm an insider

It's a circle of deception
It's a hall of strangers
It's a cage without the key
You can feel the danger
And I'm the one who oughta know
I'm the one you couldn't trust
I'm the lonely, silent one
I'm the one left in the dust

I'm an insider
I been burned by the fire
And I've had to live with
Some hard promises
I've crawled through the briars
I'm an insider

I'll bet you're his masterpiece
I'll bet you're his self-control
Yeah, you'll become his legacy
His quiet world of white and gold
And I'm the one who oughta know
I'm the one you left to rust
Not one of your twisted friends
I'm the one you couldn't love

I'm an insider
I been burned by the fire
And I've had to live with
Some hard promises
I've crawled through the briars

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