Tom Petty Song Thread
 

Based on a couple of recent and ongoing threads of Grateful Dead and Beatles songs, I thought it might be fun to start a few other ongoing threads of various artists we like and enjoy trying to play their songs. Glenn has already started a few (John Denver, Jim Croce, and Paul Simon. I thought I'd start on for Tom Petty.

The intent of these threads is for folks at all levels of playing contribute their best efforts. So, please, all you Petty fans, dive in!

I'll start it off with two recordings, a really mellow lesser known Petty tune, "Square One", and a flat out rocker that he wrote and played live a lot but gave to Stevie Nicks to record, "Stop Draggin My Heart Around". Both have acoustic rhythms, the first has an acoustic lead as well, but the second one is all electric beyond the first rhythm track. I'll apologize in advance for the vocals -I enjoy singing, but it's a lifelong weakness of mine.





-Ray

Cool choices, Ray. "Square One" is one of my favorite Petty songs. Little-known and so moving. That song really resonates with me on a personal level. Really cool that you covered that.

The only Petty tune I have queued up and ready to go is a recording I did at home for my band. We were trying to do some of our live catalog during the start of the pandemic, but getting everyone (only 3 of us, actually) to record their parts at home and send them to me proved to be too difficult, so we only got 4 songs done. This was the last of those 4. I tried to mimic Jeff Lynne's production as close as I could, obviously fell short in that regard. I mean...he's Jeff Lynne for a reason.

https://thedogtones.com/track/232529...down-tom-petty

Man that's well done. I think you hit really close on the production and you do a heck of a Petty vocal impersonation too.

I really relate to and love Square One also. Had totally spaced it out until I heard it late last year and remembered what a beautiful song it was. I like to cover stuff from deeper in folks catalogs for a couple reasons. One, I genuinely like a lot of those cuts more than the classics that I've heard too many times to want to spend much time playing / singing them. And second, I am a man of meager talents, particularly compared to many on forums like this, so if I played the stuff everyone else was playing, I would never EVER want to listen to my version. But stuff like Square One and Stop Draggin aren't gonna be covered a lot, so my version may just stand to remind someone of a great song, and I don't even mind listening to my versions without the comparison to much more musical folks who are covering the same songs.

For me, it's a good approach to keep myself interested and playing.

-Ray

Yes, sir. I will get something up today (tomorrow)... I think I know which one...

Trying Wildflowers with a Beat Buddy track someone uploaded. The track is a little wrong, so I adjusted to it.


https://youtu.be/RAe3SR4wHQ4

I got to see Tom Petty on his last tour when they came through KC. So glad I went to the show!

Tony From Tulsa and I online collabed on this a few years ago

One of the only songs on "Da#n The Torpedoes" (even THAT is censored here?) that wasn't a hit. But I always dug it and like playing it.



-Ray

Very nice. John Mayer cover?

I play this song (TP style) at many live gigs. I had the whole crowd spontaneously singing the chorus last Thursday. So much fun!

Thank you. Yes, JM version.

Hi Ray,

You frequently give your voice a hard time on this forum, but I really enjoyed it on the ‘Stop Dragging My Heart Around’. Nice pocket and occasional growl.

Thanks for sharing!

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks for the encouragement Dave - I can use it. For years I was a truly horrible singer (I have tapes!). So bad that I just didn’t do it - it was too painful to hear while I was doing it and on the rare occasion I’d hear it back on a recording, even worse! For the past couple years, I decided to just do it anyway because, somehow I love the process, and the results will be what they’ll be. And singing will never be a strength of mine, but I’ve gotten somewhat less terrible at it. I can pretty much always enjoy it now when I’m doing it, and once in a while, when I listen back, I think “that wasn’t toooo bad”. So I’ll take the small progress and enjoy it. But man, there are quite a lot of folks around here who are REALLY good singers, some better than really good. And I’d love to have even just a little bit of that. So I keep doing it.

-Ray

Ray I concur on Stop Draggin'. I think your version is unique and your voice suits it perfectly.

PS TP is perhaps my favorite artist. I listen to TP Radio in the car all the time. Buried Treasure... other programs as well. We play about 6 TP tunes in our acoustic duo set as well. I pushed to include those :)

I think I have somewhere on my youtube some other TP tunes, but one of my favorites is Time to Move On. I tried that 4 years ago imperfectly.

Stumbled across this morning. It a lesson in Dorian mode using "Last Dance with Mary Jane". It kind of seems appropriate here?

https://www.premierguitar.com/lesson...ce-with-dorian

My favorite. Super well done! Wow!