In Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom tells Paul Zollo that this is another song that was another one that was completely ad-libbed in the studio. He then relays a wonderful little anecdote about the Heartbreakers wardrobe lady, Queenie. Tom says “she’s been with us, God knows, since the early eighties. She always requests that one. We’ll always be back there in the hall, waiting for the encore and Queenie will run up and go, “How many more days! How many more days!” But we never do it. We don’t know it. Just that she thinks we would know it is hysterical.”
Check out the song here: https://youtu.be/ZKp_obriYDQ
(* 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 ninth episode of season seven of the Tom Petty Project Podcast! I am your host, Kevin Brown. This is the weekly 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.
A few social media shoutouts. First of all, thanks to everyone who said nice things about the 100th episode anniversary. Most podcasts don’t make it this far, so I’m really happy to have hit that milestone and still have so many of you along for the ride! Talking about Ain’t Love Strange, on Facebook, Mark Lindsey said “Only a few artists could explain something as complicated as love in only the first two to three sentences of a song. Tom is clearly one of these master song writers.” I’ve talked lots before about Tom’s ability with language and heading into the second half of the catalogue, we’re only going to be talking about that more. Another quick shout out to Marilyn, Rebecca, Penny, and Griselda, the moderators of the Tom Petty Fans Forever Facebook group. Since the passing of Gwen Jones, these ladies have kept up the energy and spirit of that group so beautifully and it’s still the same positive, relaxed place it was when I joined it back in August of 2021, when the number of members hadn’t even hit a thousand. It’s over two thousand now and has still kept its family-oriented sense of fun that drew me in when I joined it. If you’re a Petty fan and you’re not in that group, do give it a look up.
Today’s episode covers the second last track from Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough) and a song that to my ear has always had the most Springsteen flavour to it in the Heartbreakers’ catalogue, How Many More Days. If you’re new to the podcast, I don’t play the song itself in the episode, to stay on the right side of copyright law and to be respectful to Tom’s music and legacy. So there’s a link in the episode notes to go listen to the song before we dig in.
In Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom tells Paul Zollo that this is another song that was another one that was completely ad-libbed in the studio. He then relays a wonderful little anecdote about the Heartbreakers wardrobe lady, Queenie. Tom says “she’s been with us, God knows, since the early eighties. She always requests that one. We’ll always be back there in the hall, waiting for the encore and Queenie will run up and go, “How many more days! How many more day!” But we never do it. We don’t know it. Just that she thinks we would know it is hysterical.” So here we get another peek behind the curtain. But maybe this wasn’t quite as crazy as Tom thinks, because of the ten times the Heartbreakers played this song live, it was part of the encore at least three times - and was the second song in the set four other times.
How Many More Days is one of three songs on this album that fades in. It’s a production technique you rarely hear these days. Now, when you’re ad libbing songs live in the studio, it could just be that there were a few bars of everyone getting into the right groove.
The song fades straight into the verse pattern on that single A# chord. Immediately the rhythm of the song is established. Stan Lynch is keeping straight time on the drums, playing a four on the floor kick pattern (that is to say, playing the kick drum on every beat of the bar) with the the snare on the 2s and 4s. Unless there’s some additional percussion in there, which I don’t think there would be, given the way Tom describes this one to Paul Zollo, Stan is doing some subtly tasty work on this hi-hat, playing a nice tight t-t- ta t-t- ta triplet pattern. It’s mixed fairly low so it’s kinda hard to hear, but that’s what it sounds like to me. Howie Epstein is sitting on the root notes on the bass guitar, filling out the bottom end of the rhythm section. Tom is playing nice open chords in that left channel, while Mike slides all over the lead in the left channel. With Benmont adding in both organ and piano, we’re getting a big wall-of-sound sonic approach on this song, so while that one chord verse could be repetitive, there’s actually quite a lot going on. When the first chorus comes along, we get that welcome major 4th, 5th change. This is also when Benmont’s piano takes over melodically, as it has done in a couple of other spots on this album. And this is also where I get a really strong Springsteen vibe. Because that piano is really high in the mix and Ben is playing those big full suspended chord progressions over the root notes, it just really reminds me of the way Springsteen likes his piano to sound. Even through the verses, Benmont is playing those suspended notes lower on the keyboard in the left channel. And what’s cool is that when he moves that piano into the higher octaves in the chorus, he switches to the right channel. So that’s a really nice little bit of production to give the song a little width.
The chorus is a very simple repeated line; “How many more days, til I see you again” and even this kinda reminds me of The Boss. It has a very rustic simplicity to it and it’s the piano that soars over it. You can also hear the difference between Howie and Ron Blair in this section as Howie sits deep, deep, deep in the pocket and plays the root notes on the low strings where Ron would almost definitely have slid up to play some octave notes.
In the second verse, we get a little change up from Stan, who plays the kick on the 3-and-4 rather than just three and the four in every second bar. And listening to the very slight space when the second chorus comes in, I don’t think Stan is actually playing a broken triplet, now it sound s more like a tambourine that’s been overdubbed later.
We again go into the second chorus and there’s something I find really, really interesting. If you listen at around the 1:04-1:06 mark, you can hear what sounds like a second piano part come in on the left channel over top of the right channel. So, I don’t think that’s Benmont playing two handed way up on the higher end of the keyboard. First of all, there’s still an organ track playing, though it’s mixed super low. Second of all, he’d be playing the part you hear in the right channel with his right hand and the second part you hear sounds like it’s playing across the same suspended chords, which you just wouldn’t play that way. So either, that was a mistake during the mixing process that they missed, or thought, “You know what, that actually sounds kinda cool!” Either way, it’s something that jumped out at me and I thought I’d comment on it.
So we’re now a minute and ten seconds into the song and we’ve had two verses and two choruses. No stopping now though and we get a trademark Stan Lynch snare fill to lead us into the bridge and this is where Howie steps up an octave on the bass and plays around the root notes more rather than sticking to them religiously. This middle eight is actually a middle sixteen and starts on the minor 6th before going to the root A# on the first round of 8 bars, then transitioning between the minor 6th and then the major 5th to end this section. We also get a bar where the drums cut out here as Tom sings “Whoa yeh yeh” This is another Springsteen staple and I don’t mean to beat that idea to death, but hanging the bridge on that 5th for four bars like that just really sounds like it was born on E-street to my ears! And that’s not to say that it’s not effective, it’s just a motif that doesn’t crop up very often in the Heartbreakers’ catalogue. Throughout the bridge, there’s no let up from Mike Campbell and Benmont either. Ben is still chopping his way around those suspended chords and Mike is still sliding around the root chords. We’ll get to the production a little later, but this is where I think the song could have used an outside ear.
Alright folks, It’s time for some Petty Trivia!
Your question from last week was this: In Cool Dry Place, which instrument does not Tom sing about having? Is it a) harmonicas, b) trombones, c) trumpets, or d) mandolins. Well, in the song, Tom inventories guitars, basses, drums, accordions, mandolins, cymbals, harmonicas, organs, trombones, and of course, Yamaha DX sevens. What he doesn’t sing about is trumpets. I’m always torn between Cool Dry Place and End of the Line when trying to decide what my favourite Wilbury’s song is. Incredibly, at 3 minutes and 37 seconds, this is the longest track on Volume 3 and the joint third longest song in the Wilbury’s catalogue. Get in and get out, don’t waste a single note. Tom was in pretty great company when it came to economy in that group and brought his distinctive drawl to a brilliantly jocular song about having masses and masses of musical equipment!
Your question for this week is this. Sticking with a Wilbury’s theme, which Legendary blues musician appeared on the Wilbury’s Volume Three album? Is it a) Eric Clapton, b) Billy Gibbons, c) Peter Green, or d) Gary Moore?
OK, back to the song. The bridge leads us into a strange four bar, I’d almost call it a pre-solo. It’s the root A# for four bars with Tom singing “I need to see you again”. This leads us then into 1 16 bar verse/chorus pair instrumentally over which Mike lays down a solo, with Benmont adding in some piano flair toward the end. This is probably the only instance in the entire Heartbreakers’ catalogue where I think I’ve ever heard Mike C drop a note. If you listen closely between 2:04 and 2:05, he plays a major 7th note which I’d be willing to bet money he didn’t mean to play. But as this is all completely off the cuff and improvised, it’s incredibly he’s gone through this entire song without losing his way at least once! It’s not exactly a “duff” note, but it doesn’t fit the straight bluesy pentatonics he’s been playing to that point at all, which is why I think it was a very teeny tiny mistake!
The final verse comes in and we do get a slight dynamic shift, with Benmontand Mike dialling their playing right back and the percussion dropped way back to almost just the kick and the snare I think. The chorus then starts the build back into the outro with Howie playing some higher bass notes and Mike Campbell saving his best for last. We also don’t get a fade out here and right at the end you can year Benmont’s beautiful organ tone shining through at last.
The lyrics in this one are very simplistic. It’s a classic rock n roll trope of someone missing their partner. And there’s not a single hint of a gendered relationship here either by the way. It’s just one heart singing to its pair. How many more days, I wanna see you again. As with most Petty songs though, there’s one little bit of treasure to be found on this otherwise fairly plain coal face. He sings “Please don’t lie babe” - OK - that’s been done a thousand times, but then he couples that with “Please don’t smile” before ending on “Please don’t play around with this heart of mine”. So the bridge adds this element of insecurity and doubt that isn’t there through the first two verse-chorus pairs. And the choice of “Please don’t smile” is incredibly loaded. It can mean,”don’t make me fall even more in love with you” or it could mean “please don’t laugh at me”. That’s a nice little bit of lyric writing. And it’s most likely one of those things that just flowed out of his brain through his pen and onto the page. Then when he would have been going back to see if there were any rewrites or edits, I can imagine him feeling pretty happy with that line.
Onto the production. I don’t love it on this song, fairly generally. I think it’s one of the few times you could accuse Mike of overplaying and I think that solo was definitely a very quick one-take and done. That usually works, but again, that major seventh note feels out of place to me and not something Mike would usually leave in. And definitely not something Jimmy Iovine, Rick Rubin, or Jeff Lynne would have left in. The bass is a bit muddy again and I think that the song suffers a little from being a bit too cluttered. You also can’t really hear Benmont’s organ and I think if Benmont had filled Mike’s space with that organ higher in the mix and Mike had played fewer licks to give the song more space, I reckon it could have sounded better. This is again a very rare thing in the Heartbreakers’ catalogue. It doesn’t ruin the song, but I do think it detracts from it.
OK PettyHeads, that’s it for this week! I loved talking to Ivan Anderson last week and I hope you enjoyed that episode. One of the things that really tickled me pink was when he called Listen to Her Heart a “little” song - then going on to explain very clearly what he meant. It was a moment where I thought “Aw man, I wish I’d thought of describing that song that way!” How Many More Days is another perfect example of a little song.
The highlights in this one are Benmont’s beautiful bright piano and Tom’s excellent, lazy drawled delivery. It’s a nice little song. A pretty solid album track that could have been elevated by some better production and a little more time on the arrangement to my ear, but it has a certain charm to it and the chorus refrain is irresistibly hummable and catchy. So I’m going to give How Many More Days a safe and solid six out of ten.
QUESTION: Sticking with a Wilbury’s theme, which Legendary blues musician appeared on the Wilbury’s Volume Three album? Is it a) Eric Clapton, b) Billy Gibbons, c) Peter Green, or d) Gary Moore?
ANSWER: The answer is Ken Wilbury himself, the brilliant and much-missed Gary Moore. From Belfast Northern Ireland, Moore was part of the group Skid Row - no not that one - who actually bought the name from the band Moore was in! He would go on to perform with Thin Lizzy, including cowriting the sensational Still In Love With You. After this brief stint with Phil Lynott’s sadly under-regarded hard rock band, Moore would concentrate on a solo career, the commercial highlight of which was the superb Parisienne Walkways, which featured his old band mate Lynott on vocals. The single peaked at #5 in the Irish charts and #8 on the UK chart.
There is something, little darling
That I want you to know
Honey, I love you, yeah, I need you
Every night, everyday goes so slow
How many more days?
I wanna see you again
Yes, I remember you smiling
I remember you feeling mighty fine
I remember your kiss, I remember your touch
I can't get you out off my mind
Little girl, how many more days?
I need to see you again
How long will that take?
I wanna see you again
Oh babe, can't you see? I'll be honest with you
Please don't lie, babe, please don't smile
Please don't play around with this heart of mine
Can't you see, it's something I want, babe
It's more than that, it's something I need
Oh little darling, please be truthful, please
Be faithful, please come now to me
Oh baby, I need to see you again
Please remember, little lover, I'll give the good to you
Please remember, my little lover
I'll be good to you but how many more days?
Till I can see you again, please don't make me wait
I wanna see you again
