{"id":45504,"date":"2018-12-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/an-american-treasure\/"},"modified":"2018-12-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T00:00:00","slug":"an-american-treasure","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/an-american-treasure\/","title":{"rendered":"An American Treasure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Earl Petty\u2019s remarkable career and achievements speak for themselves<\/a>. As I wrote after he passed<\/a>, \u201cPetty\u2019s best songs feel timeless, as if they had always been there waiting and he just happened to possess the proper magic to pluck them from the ether and bring them into the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

An American Treasure<\/i> is a four-disc compilation assembled over the course of the year following Petty\u2019s untimely death by his family (daughters Adria and Annakim and wife Dana), band (guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench), and longtime Petty engineer\/co-producer Ryan Ulyate. Like the man it memorializes, this set is uninterested in taking a conventional approach, preferring to make up its own rules. Rather than regurgitate the hits that every fan knows by heart and owns multiple versions of already, An American Treasure<\/i> focuses on collecting unreleased studio tracks and live cuts, alternate takes of familiar songs, and semi-obscure album tracks. The hits, when they do appear, are all live versions or alternate takes, often substantially rearranged.<\/p>\n

The result is a collection that provides great value for the longtime fan while delivering a virtual alternate history of Petty\u2019s career, revealing songs left behind and songs reimagined, while giving new life to deep album tracks that both reveal undiscovered elements in this fresh context, and provide invaluable context for the unreleased and alternate-take tunes surrounding them.<\/p>\n

The discs are divided\u2014though not strictly sequenced\u2014chronologically, with disc one representing the \u201970s, disc two the \u201980s, disc three the \u201990s, and disc four the 2000s and 2010s. Beyond that basic division, each disc is a fascinating jumble that reminds you again and again what a remarkable and prodigious talent Petty was\u2014as a songwriter in particular, though also as a singer, player, and bandleader. <\/p>\n

Despite not being co-billed, The Heartbreakers are an essential component of this collection from start to finish. Campbell and Tench in particular played on most of Petty\u2019s \u201csolo\u201d work and in fact on almost everything he ever recorded, dating all the way back to his pre-Heartbreakers group Mudcrutch (a group he would revisit in latter days, that\u2019s also represented here). The Heartbreakers\u2019 playing is just so damn tight and yet full of fire as they bring song after song to life; they are one of the great backing bands in the history of rock, period, full stop.<\/p>\n

Disc one opens with \u201cSurrender,\u201d perhaps the band\u2019s most iconic \u201clost\u201d song, tried out in recording sessions for each of its first three LPs, played live for decades, and first heard by many in a chiming, Byrds-y version recorded for 2000\u2019s Anthology: Through The Years<\/i>. It\u2019s a track brimming with the kind of \u201cBorn To Run\u201d-era urgency that might have made it the lead single on a less gifted band\u2019s debut; the fact that a cut this strong lingered on the fringes for 40 years speaks volumes about the quality of Petty\u2019s body of work. Here Campbell and Tench return to the beginning, releasing for the first time one of the original 1976 studio takes, described by Campbell in this set\u2019s extensive liner notes as \u201cyouthful and full of hope and joy. There\u2019s so much heart in that song.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rest of disc one hopscotches through early live cuts\u2014including Petty introducing \u201cnew\u201d song \u201cListen To Her Heart\u201d before they\u2019d started recording You\u2019re Gonna Get It<\/i>, plus punchy takes on \u201cAnything That\u2019s Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll\u201d and \u201cBreakdown\u201d\u2014plus alternate versions of half a dozen tracks from those first three classic albums, and a pair of terrific album cuts in \u201cThe Wild One, Forever\u201d and \u201cNo Second Thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, this pair, the only previously released tracks on disc one, end up as highlights. The former, one of Petty\u2019s most cinematic, Springsteenesque songs, and the latter, a plaintive acoustic number buried amongst bigger hits on Petty\u2019s sophomore album, shine here in a way they never could before as the transformed context spotlights the quality of the songwriting and performances. Similarly, the alternate takes of songs like \u201cHere Comes My Girl,\u201d \u201cWhat Are You Doing In My Life?\u201d and \u201cLouisiana Rain\u201d evidence changes that are mostly subtle, but force you to concentrate on the nuances of each song in a way that refreshes even the most familiar ones. Disc one closes with the oldest song in the entire set, a bluesy, romantic ballad (\u201cLost In Your Eyes\u201d) that dates back to Petty\u2019s pre-Heartbreakers sessions with Mudcrutch. <\/p>\n

Disc two reinforces every impression left by disc one. The unreleased \u201980s tracks\u2014the appropriately soulful \u201cKeep A Little Soul,\u201d the rather Full Moon Fever<\/i>-ish Long After Dark<\/i> leftover \u201cKeeping Me Alive,\u201d and the urgent \u201cWalkin\u2019 From The Fire\u201d\u2014offer further evidence of Petty\u2019s steady songwriting hand and deep affection for roots rock. The live cuts include a magnificent acoustic reimagining of \u201cEven The Losers\u201d and a powerhouse rendition of \u201cKings Road.\u201d And the alternate takes and album tracks feel like they\u2019re filling out and completing what was already a vast tapestry of work, with highlights including a 1984 demo of \u201cThe Apartment Song\u201d with Petty and Stevie Nicks, and alternate takes of \u201cRebels,\u201d \u201cThe Best Of Everything\u201d and \u201cThe Damage You\u2019ve Done\u201d that strip away many of the \u201980s production trappings that hampered Southern Accents<\/i> and Let Me Up (I\u2019ve Had Enough)<\/i>, allowing the songs to breathe. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the superb liner notes, featuring contributions from both band and family, offer Petty\u2019s widow Dana the chance to tell the backstory behind the lovely, wistful \u201cThe Best Of Everything,\u201d which turns out to be as poignant as you could possibly hope. Disc two closes with a forceful early take of \u201cKing Of The Hill,\u201d Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn\u2019s collaboration with Petty; it\u2019s not a spectacular song, but it\u2019s definitely special hearing Petty harmonize with one of his musical idols. <\/p>\n

Disc three charts moments high and low from perhaps the most difficult decade of Petty\u2019s life, which found him saying goodbye to a two-decade marriage and a pair of longtime bandmates. Opener \u201cI Won\u2019t Back Down,\u201d one of a handful of hits to be found in this collection, is thoroughly transformed, the one-time Big Single presented in a stripped-down, deliberate live version that distills all the bluster out of the song, leaving only a calm, steely determination. <\/p>\n

Disc three\u2019s unreleased material includes an affectionate nod to Petty\u2019s hometown (\u201cGainesville\u201d), a pull-out-the-stops rockabilly raveup (\u201cLonesome Dave\u201d), and a wounded rant about the downside of fame (\u201cI Don\u2019t Belong\u201d). Tracks from the Jeff Lynne-produced Into The Great Wide Open<\/i> include the poignant album track \u201cYou And I Will Meet Again\u201d and live versions of the title track and \u201cTwo Gunslingers\u201d (plus Tench\u2019s rueful observation in the liner notes that he was barely on the album because Lynne hated Hammond organ). <\/p>\n

Most of this disc\u2019s highlights come later. From Wildflowers<\/i>, we hear shimmery album tracks \u201cTo Find A Friend\u201d and \u201cCrawling Back To You\u201d\u2014each sounding better than ever in this context\u2014complemented by a superb alternate take of \u201cWake Up Time,\u201d a heavier early version with punched-up guitars. From Echo<\/i>, we get a pair of album-track gems in \u201cAccused Of Love\u201d and \u201cLonesome Sundown.\u201d The disc closes with a superb alternate take of Wildflowers<\/i>\u2019 memorable acoustic-duo number \u201cDon\u2019t Fade On Me,\u201d done in a fingerpicking style Campbell says was modeled after Crosby, Stills & Nash. This version is different but no less outstanding, a fresh illustration of the same elusive magic.<\/p>\n

Disc four finds Petty applying all the lessons he\u2019s learned to an outstanding set of late-career songs drawn from a remarkable diversity of sources: live tracks, alternate takes, virtual demos, and album tracks drawn from a solo album, three albums with the Heartbreakers, and two with the latter-day reformation of Mudcrutch. First we hear Petty and Tench jamming on a shimmering in-studio acoustic duo version of The Last DJ<\/i> deep track \u201cYou And Me,\u201d followed by DJ<\/i>\u2019s standout tune, the gorgeous, Dylan-influenced midtempo ballad \u201cHave Love Will Travel,\u201d an inspired choice. Soon we\u2019re on a \u201cBus To Tampa Bay,\u201d an unreleased gem from the Hypnotic Eye<\/i> sessions featuring especially rich Hammond organ form Tench. <\/p>\n

A pair of cuts from Petty\u2019s final solo album Highway Companion<\/i>\u2014a muscular live version of \u201cSaving Grace\u201d and terrific album track \u201cDown South\u201d\u2014give way to a pair of superb live cuts from a 2006 hometown show in Gainesville, a stately, heartfelt rendition of \u201cSouthern Accents\u201d and a luminous take on \u201cInsider,\u201d once again featuring Stevie Nicks. The homestretch is highlighted by the first-ever studio release of swamp-rock powerhouse \u201cTwo Men Talking,\u201d complete with psychedelic mid-song jam and great lines like \u201cWhen the hard times come, you\u2019re gonna see who\u2019s got your back.\u201d From there we get stellar Hypnotic Eye<\/i> album track \u201cFault Lines\u201d and a passel of latter-day alternate takes and Mudcrutch tunes (\u201cSins Of My Youth,\u201d \u201cGood Enough,\u201d \u201cSave Your Water\u201d), before the set closes with a sparkling, more fully orchestrated alternate take of Last DJ<\/i> deep track \u201cLike A Diamond\u201d and a powerful live rendition of the last new song Petty released in his lifetime, the closing track from Mudcrutch\u2019s 2016 album 2<\/i>, the understated yet anthemic \u201cHungry No More.\u201d<\/p>\n

The impact of the music heard here\u2014four decades of brilliance distilled into 60 remarkable tracks\u2014is enhanced by top-notch packaging, a 52-page bound booklet featuring terrific photography and the aforementioned, intimate and extensive liner notes from Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, Dana Petty and Adria Petty.<\/p>\n

This is a career-spanning Tom Petty collection with no \u201cFree Fallin\u2019,\u201d no \u201cAmerican Girl,\u201d no \u201cRefugee,\u201d no \u201cThe Waiting,\u201d no \u201cI Need To Know,\u201d no \u201cRunnin\u2019 Down A Dream\u201d or \u201cLearning To Fly\u201d or \u201cMary Jane\u2019s Last Dance.\u201d The fact that it is nonetheless thoroughly impressive, absorbing and moving\u2014a bravura master class in writing, singing and playing American rock \u2018n\u2019 roll\u2014proves the truth behind the bold claim lovingly asserted by this set\u2019s title. Tom Petty was indeed An American Treasure<\/i>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":33683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5868],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-45504","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-petty","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51674,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45504\/revisions\/51674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45504"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45504"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}