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.