This is a very simple, very straight ahead rock n roll song. It’s not meant to do anything other than get your feet moving and your face smiling and it knocks that out of the park. It’s almost like the older, cooler cousin, of Anything That’s Rock n Roll. The cousin with the leather jacket and the hotrod car. It has bags of swagger and personality and some excellent off the cuff work from the entire band, but in particular Mike and Benmont.
Check out the song here: https://youtu.be/5eZDzlGl84o
You can find the live version from July '87 here: https://youtu.be/FjoUy9GqC34
To check out the Honest and Unmerciful Record Review Podcast, reviewing Wildflowers, check out this link: https://spoti.fi/3Urm9rZ
(* 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 fifth 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.
Before we start today’s episode, a couple of shout outs to folks on social media. So, talking about last week’s song, My Life Your World. On Facebook, Jawn Lynn Lake says “The first time I heard this song was on TPR after American Treasure had come out, so my first thought was “wtf? That’s from Walking From the Fire”, which had become one of my faves! But the song always takes me back to 1992 when I told my mom I voted for Clinton!” So, a great connection there to that idea of two people living in slightly different worlds. I also think that maybe I forgot to mention the lyrical to connection with Walkin From the Fire. Maybe I’ll pretend that I always intended to reference it when I get to the outtake! My pal Pete Nestor, from the Honest and Unmerciful record review podcast, commented on Twitter; “The tone of this song is extraordinary. Those “boys of summer-esque” guitar fills are phenomenal and the lyrics, doing such a good job of painting a picture but not giving too much away. Very evocative of a lost innocence and broken promises.” He also mentions that he loves the delivery of the line “they said an air-o-plane had fallen on my block”. Thanks as always for the great comments Pete. That Boys of Summer sonic connection is present in at least two songs on this record and you do get the sense that it was thematically a direction Mike was grooving on at that time. And folks, if you haven’t checked out Honest and Unmerciful out yet, you really ought to! I’ll reshare their Wildflowers episode on social media again and heck, I’ll leave a link in the episode notes! I also did get a note on The Damage You’ve Done episode from Edie Lott. I gave that song a 5/10 and Edie says “I think this is the first time I truly disagree with your rating of a song. I’ve always loved this song and find myself singing it all on my own every once in a while. I would rated a seven. I’ll let this one slide. I truly enjoy your podcast. Thank you for doing it.” Hey thanks so much Edie, we all love different songs in this catalogue to different degrees and I do at least try to offer some reasons when I rate songs a little lower! And as I commented back to you, though this is my least favourite Heartbreakers’ record, I’ve come to appreciate it a little more in the last few weeks as I’ve immersed myself in it for this season!
Thanks as always for the social media chats folks, keep em coming! Today’s episode is the opening track from side two of this season’s album, the fun rocker, Think About Me.
Think About Me is the absolute epitome of the DIY nature of much of this record. In Conversations with Tom Petty, Tom explains to Paul Zollo “That’s completely ad-lib, with me yelling out the chords.They had to actually go back and find another chord for the very first chord. It was clipped because the engineer wasn’t rolling and he turned the tape on right as I started to play.”
You can really, really hear the spontaneous nature of this one right from the start and there’s a nice little nod back to the early days in the way Tom’s rhythm guitar is panned hard right and Mike’s lead is hard left. It’s crazy how quickly Mike falls into exactly the right part to complement what Tom is playing. There’s a devilishly brilliant little lick that Mike plays at around 10 seconds leading into the drum fill which kicks us into the meat of the song. It’s a spontaneous lick that doesn’t recur, like most improvised licks, but it’s so damn good and when you hear what Benmont plays over top of it, it’s yet another reminder of what an incredibly tight band the Heartbreakers were at this stage in their career. Mike even finds that solo motif to lean into - the big upwards bend to the high root note. The other cool pattern that Mike finds is to hold off following’s rhythm exactly. The chord progression that Tom and Howie are following is A, G, D. But Mike doesn’t hit the G. He plays an open A which he suspends over the G, then adds in a little flair over top of each D, whether it’s that string bend or a different little bit of business. When you think that this was all done on the fly, that’s a superb bit of instinctual feel-playing.
The first verse is a fairly straight repetition of the main riff with Tom singing light, throwaway lyrics in that strained, choked snarl he uses for these fun type of rock n roll songs. You get Mike adding those fills and Benmont playing his was around that same A-G-D progression. The rhythm section ticks along at a wonderful clip, with Stan and Howie falling right into a rollicking 2/4 country two-step style beat. Howie’s bass is nice and crisp and Stan’s snare crack really accentuates each second beat in the bar. Another indicator of the ad-lib nature of the song is when Tom goes into the chorus section and you get that A-D-A-D-D part, Stan doesn’t know that slight rhythmic change is happening so he plays straight through it, then picks up a slightly different pattern on the second time through. So that live off the floor feel really shines through.
We get another rip-roaring little fill from Mike coming back out of this section and into the second verse and Benmont moves to the organ to fill out the sound. Paul Zollo mentions to Tom that the song has some funny lyrics, to which Tom responds “God knows where the game from. It wasn’t very serious; it was just meant to be a rock n roll song.” I already mentioned the disposable nature of the lyrics, which is not to say in any way that they’re “bad” lyrics, just fun lines to bounce around the melody. “Your boyfriend's gotta big red car. He got a compact disc, got a VCR.” Again, this kind of dates the song, but where Jammin Me really gets locked into its period by the cultural references, I think these lyrics work because they’re not really the focus, they’re describing someone who has a bunch of “stuff”. It could almost be the same guy who has the money and the cocaine. It’s the same idea of trying to lure someone with possessions rather than personality. This second verse also sees Benmont adding in more organ and dropping the piano out. The verse itself plays out more or less uneventfully, with only that keyboard change really moving the dynamic of the song ever so slightly.
The bridge for this one just moves us back up to that fifth chord - the E - and we have Benmont ripping it up on the piano again before the guitars slashe straight into a blazing 60s rockabilly solo that almost has a Stray Cats quality to it. Now interestingly, this solo is panned into the right channel and has the same tone as the intro riff that Tom is playing, so I’m curious whether this was actually Tom playing this. I’d be cautiously confident that it is. Coming back out of this section and into the last verse, we get some filthy honky tonk piano from Benmont, which he keeps going, learning the seventh notes. This last verse just drops us back into the groove and leads into one last chorus where Benmont switches to the organ again before playing both instruments in the outro including some of the slickest piano up to this point in the Heartbreakers’ recorded catalogue. No fade out on this one as it’s all wrapped up with a neat bow with one final D chord on the piano.
Alright folks, It’s time for some Petty Trivia!
Your question from last week was this: Which of the following songs was not played during the Heartbreakers final show at the Hollywood Bowl on September 25, 2017? Was it a) You Don’t Know How it Feels, b) Walls, c) Refugee, or d) Learning to Fly?
The answer is b) Walls. The song was played extensively on the 40th Anniversary tour usually at around the #8 slot, but was not included in the grand finale in LA. Half of the eighteen songs from that performance were Heartbreakers tracks and half were solo recordings. The most represented album was Wildflowers with five songs featured from Tom’s masterpiece. Next was Full Moon Fever with four and the debut record saw three tracks included. The remaining six songs were pulled from Hypnotic Eye, Southern Accents, Into the Great Wide Open, Mojo, Damn The Torpedoes (only one track, somewhat surprisingly), and Mary Jane’s Last Dance from 1993’s Greatest Hits album.
Your question for this week is this: Of the six Fillmore tracks that were included in the Live Anthology release, which is the only one not to have been included on last year’s Live at the Fillmore boxset? Is it a) Jammin’ Me, b) Goldfinger, c) Friend of the Devil, or d) Green Onions
OK, back to the song.
There’s not much more to say on this one. It’s a short song, with few moving parts, recorded spontaneously and has that feeling of capturing lightening in a bottle, if ever so slightly late on the part of the sound engineer according to Tom. Again, the lyrics hang around the title line “Think About Me”. So it’s another song that Tom has written from a potential lover type perspective. Apart from some light relief in the middle with the compact disc and the VCR, the rest of the lyrics simple state and restate that the girl in question should be looking to Tom to get what she needs. It’s unsubtle and gloriously cocky and matches the cadence and groove of the track perfectly. Tom’s vocal is tight and the only overdubs I imagine end up on this one are the vocal doubling and harmonies in sections.
I think this was probably one of the first songs put together for the album and I wonder if the most off-the-cuff tracks were cut early on, as the band settled into the studio to make another record. It was played 28 times live, according to setlist.fm, with the first time being July 2, 86 in Akron Ohio. On that occasion, it was part of a very short, 8 song set, that I’m assuming was part of a festival or cabaret type event at the new disused and partially demolished stadium. There is a great live version from Jacksonville on July 24th, 1987 that was released on the Live Anthology set. It’s really, really close to the recorded version, but has some extra sauce added in a couple places from Howie on the bass, as well as his superb backing harmony vocals. I also wonder if Stan Lynch really needed a bathroom break because he speeds up noticeably towards the end of the song, by almost 10 beats per minute! I’ll add a link into the episode notes for that one.
OK friends, Romans country fans, that’s it for this week! This is a very simple, very straight ahead rock n roll song. It’s not meant to do anything other than get your feet moving and your face smiling and it knocks that out of the park. It’s almost like the older, cooler cousin, of Anything That’s Rock n Roll. The cousin with the leather jacket and the hotrod car. It has bags of swagger and personality and some excellent off the cuff work from the entire band, but in particular Mike and Benmont. For me, it’s the catchiest song on the album and overall, probably my second favourite, so I’m going to give Think About Me, a 7 out of 10.
QUESTION: Of the six Fillmore tracks that were included in the Live Anthology release, which is the only one not to have been included on last year’s Live at the Fillmore boxset? Is it a) Jammin’ Me, b) Goldfinger, c) Friend of the Devil, or d) Green Onions
ANSWER: The answer is … it was a trick question! All seven of the songs recorded at the Fillmore that were included on the Live Anthology made it onto the Fillmore boxset! The boxset contains 36 cover songs, of which 6 were on the Live Anthology record, with Jammin Me being the only original Petty song featured on the earlier compilation. The 1300 capacity Fillmore is well known for its psychedelic concert posters by artists who in the 1960s included Wes Wilson and Rick Griffin. Copies of the night's poster are given to fans free of charge as they exit selected, sold-out shows. Posters from the Heartbreakers’ FIllmore run regularly trade hands for upwards of $250 US and are some of the most sought after in the collection.
Listen little baby one these days
Your pretty head's gonna turn my way
Honey, oh baby just you wait
One of these nights you're gonna call my name
Oh yeah, one of these days
Girl you better believe, honey wait and see
Yeah, You better believe
You're gonna think about me
Your boyfriend's gotta big red car
Got a compact disc, got a VSR
I can't do no disco dance
But I can sure love you baby if you give me a chance
Oh yeah, one of these days
Girl you better believe, honey wait and see
Yeah, You better believe
You're gonna think about me
I said oh pretty baby, is it something I've said?
Tell me why little baby,
I said why must you play with my head?
Listen little girl I said one of these days
Your pretty head's gonna turn my way
One of these days, I know I'm right
You're gonna look for me in the middle of the night
Oh yeah, one of these days
Girl you better believe, honey wait and see
Yeah, You better believe
You're gonna think about me
