Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers -- "Confusion Wheel" AND Tom Petty - "Wildflowers"

 

Took the Heartbreakers tracks from the Wildflowers sessions to make an imagined TP&TH album and then reconstructed Wildflowers.

CONFUSION WHEEL

1. You Don't Know How It Feels

2. You Wreck Me

3. It's Good to Be King

4. Honey Bee

5. Cabin Down Below

6. House in the Woods

7. Crawling Back to You

8. Leave Virginia Alone

9. Girl on LSD

10. Confusion Wheel

11. Hope You Never

12. Climb That Hill

WILDFLOWERS [reimagined]

1. Wildflowers

2. Something Could Happen

3. Time to Move On

4. Drivin' Down to Georgia

5. California

6. Only a Broken Heart

7. Harry Green

8. Don't Fade on Me

9. Hard on Me

10. Somewhere Under Heaven

11. To Find a Friend

12. A Higher Place

13. Hung Up and Overdue

14. You Saw Me Comin'

15. Wake Up Time

Mudcrutch - s/t

 

Before there was Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, there was Mudcrutch, which was formed in 1970 in Gainesville, Fla. With several lineup changes, the band eventually broke up in 1975, but not before recording several songs along the way. 

I wanted to combine the Mudcrutch tracks into one imagined album that theoretically could have been released in the mid-1970s.

SIDE A

1. Don't Do Me Like That

2. Up in Mississippi

3. Cause is Understood

4. Lost in Your Eyes

5. Depot Street

SIDE B

1. I Can't Fight It

2. Wild Eyes

3. Cry to Me

4. On the Street

5. Long Way from Home

I resisted working on this project for several years due to two main reasons: 1. I didn't feel there were enough quality-sounding songs for a full album, and 2. While I pondered the idea, Uncle Dan presented a version on his "What If" blog. But after a long-lost Mudcrutch song showed up on a 2018 Tom Petty compilation, I pondered it once more.

Officially, Mudcrutch released two singles "Up the Mississippi" / "Cause is Understood" (1971) and "Depot Street" / "Wild Eyes" (1975). When the second single flopped, the group disbanded and three members, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Belmont Trench, formed Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers with others. 

While there are apparently a number of Mudcrutch tracks (including demos) floating around, I focused on 10 specific Mudcrutch songs. I included all four tracks from the two singles. "Don't Do Me Like That" seemed the obvious opening track since it was the only carry-over to the Heartbreakers. I also felt that "I Can't Fight It" was one of the strongest tracks and used that to open the second side. Additionally, I made sure to put "Lost in Your Eyes" and "Depot Street" on the opposite side of the album from "Wild Eyes" and "On the Street" to avoid repetition.

Unfortunately, the sound quality for these 10 tracks is not uniformly good. Those that have been officially released in the digital era sound good, while the others are simply OK. Six of the tracks appeared on the Tom Petty compilation box set Playback. One track, "Lost in Your Eyes" appeared on the Tom Petty compilation box set An American Treasure. That left three difficult-to-find tracks that are also the ones with the poorest sound quality. They include the B-sides "Wild Eyes" and "Cause is Understood" (only available on the original vinyl singles and some bootlegs) and a demo titled "Long Way from Home" that's available on bootlegs.

All in all, I think it's interesting to listen to what could have been.

I struggled with ideas for a cover. There are a few group photos online, but because the lineups changed over the lifetime of the band and not all tracks are by the same lineup, I decided to go with something different. The band was originally from Gainesville so I looked up the city on Wikipedia for some inspiration. I discovered that the town was named after Gen. Edmund P. Gaines. So I found an old photo of him online, colorized and cropped it, and added the band's logo (even though the logo was created for the band after it was reformed in 2007). Personally, I like the way it came out.

Here's a playlist of the album on YouTube.

The Traveling Wilburys -- Volume 2 and Volume 4

The Traveling Wilburys – a band that some believe is the last great “supergroup” – released two albums: Volume 1 and Volume 3. The title of the second album was a joke. During, between and after those albums, the five members recorded together on various projects.

In attempting to create a Volume 2, I realized there was enough material for a Volume 4 as well.

The first was easy to construct. I used two Traveling Wilburys outtakes:  “Maxine” and “Like a Ship.” I added three songs from Roy Orbison’s solo album, “You Got It” and “California Blue” (both featuring Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne) and “A Love So Beautiful” (featuring Lynne and George Harrison); two songs from Petty’s solo album, “I Won’t Back Down” (featuring Lynne and Harrison) and “Zombie Zoo” (featuring Lynne and Orbison); two songs from Lynne’s solo album, “Every Little Thing” and “Lift Me Up” (both featuring Harrison); one song from Bob Dylan, “Under the Red Sky” (featuring Harrison);  and one George Harrison song, “Cheer Down” from the Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack (featuring Lynne).

I tacked on the holiday message from George Harrison (as Nelson Wilbury) from the Winter Warnersland album as a bonus track. For the album artwork of Volume 2, I only added the word/number "Volume 2" on a picture I found on the web. 

SIDE A

1. You Got It

2. Lift Me Up

3. Like a Ship

4. Every Little Thing

5. I Won’t Back Down

SIDE B

1. Cheer Down

2. A Love So Beautiful

3. Under the Red Sun

4. Maxine

5. California Blue

6. Zombie Zoo

Bonus: Holiday message from Nelson Wilbury

For Volume 4, I took a similar tack.

The tracks include two Traveling Wilburys outtakes: “Runaway” and “Nobody’s Child.” Other tracks include two Harrison songs he recorded for a “Best of” collection, “Poor Little Girl” and “Cockamamie Business” (both featuring Lynne); a Del Shannon song, “Walk Away” (featuring Lynne and Petty); three songs from Lynne, “Stormy Weather” and “September Song” (both featuring Harrison) and “Blown Away” (co-written by Petty and featuring Shannon); one song by Petty, “Runnin’ Down a Dream” (featuring Lynne, plus Shannon in the ending message), and one mostly instrumental song by Jim Horn, “Work It Out” (written by Lynne, and featuring Lynne, Harrison and Petty). I used the original version of “Runaway” and added the remix at the end as a bonus.

Roy Orbison died in 1988, and there were rumors that Del Shannon would take his place in the group. But Shannon committed suicide in 1990. Shannon ends up featuring as lead singer on “Walk Away,” backup vocals on “Blown Away” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and his song “Runaway” is covered. Plus Petty name-checks him in “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” So Shannon ended up being kind of a de facto member of the group.

Dylan is mostly a no-show on this album except for sharing lead vocals on “Nobody’s Child.” Considering both Orbison’s and Shannon’s deaths (and now Harrison’s and Petty’s as well), I think the album cover of a train wreck is appropriate. I found the old photo online, added some sepia tone and changed the words.

All tracks are available on the various solo albums and the Traveling Wilburys' box set, The Traveling Wilburys Collection, except the original version of “Runaway,” which was a non-album B-side of the band’s “She’s My Baby” single.

SIDE A

1. Poor Little Girl

2. Runaway

3. Walk Away

4. Stormy Weather

5. Runnin’ Down a Dream

SIDE B

1. Nobody’s Child

2. September Song

3. Work It Out

4. Blown Away

5. Cockamamie Business

Bonus: “Runaway” (remix)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Southern Accents"

Originally, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album Southern Accents was to be a concept album that focused on Southern life. But after inter-band disagreements and Petty breaking his hand when he punched the wall, work on the album was stunted.

Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics was invited to take part, and he co-wrote and played on three new tracks: “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “It Ain’t Nothing to Me” and “Make It Better (Forget About Me).” To make room for the new songs, five songs were cut: "Trailer," "Big Boss Man," "Crackin' Up," "The Image of Me" and "The Apartment Song." This resulted in the concept of the concept album to basically disappear. Band members later admitted their disappointment that the album had changed so drastically.

SIDE A

1. Rebels

2. Trailer

3. The Image of Me

4. Crackin’ Up

5. Southern Accents

SIDE B

1. The Apartment Song

2. Big Boss Man

3. Spike

4. Dogs on the Run

5. Mary’s New Car

6. The Best of Everything

While we don’t know what the final tracklist order was supposed to be, we can take the album that was released, remove the Stewart tracks, and fill in the blanks. "Trailer" was later rerecorded by Petty with his original band Mudcrutch, and he also rerecorded "The Apartment Song" for his solo album, Full Moon Fever. I stick with the originals for Southern Accents, even though "The Apartment Song" is a demo (with Stevie Nicks on backup vocals).

The result is a much better album, in my opinion, although it admittedly does not have a real pop hit like “Don’t Come Around Here No More.” Perhaps the three Stewart co-penned songs could have been released later as non-album singles (or an EP), placed on a soundtrack or expanded to be another full album. But we got what we got.

All the “missing” tracks can be found on the box set Playback.