Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Tracks I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Con Le Mie Lacrime” Edition

From 1979, and one of the few listenable non-Springsteen performances from the otherwise terminally soporific No Nukes album, please enjoy Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers with a magisterial live take on Solomon Burke's "Cry to Me."

As you are doubtless aware, the 1962 Burke original (written, like so many great r&b/pop songs of its day, by the amazing Bert Berns) is very upbeat cheerful/jaunty; Petty's slow and mournful remake, particularly the wonderful piano/organ gospel stylings of Benmont Tench, seems to use the 1965 Out of Our Heads version by The Rolling Stones as its template instead.

But that, of course, is a subject for another post.

BTW, a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded to the first reader who guesses what's my other favorite non-Bruce track on the album.

You guys get this one, and you're good.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

TP and band sound great on this one. Your other favorite non-Bruce track could be Raydio– You Can't Change That (heh), but more likely Ry Cooder - Little Sister.

Paul in DK

steve simels said...

Come on down and accept your award— Raydio it is!😎

ChrisE said...

"Irresistibly pretty" was the phrase you used to describe the Raydio track, Steve. And it is.

Anonymous said...

Damn, now I'm going to have to listen to that song. Never heard of Raydio prior to looking at the No Nukes track list today.

- Paul in DK

steve simels said...

Fronted by Ray Parker Jr. as in "Ghostbusters." :-)

Anonymous said...

I just love Tom Petty's cover songs. The material he chooses reveals that he's coming from a very good place as far as roots and taste go. His take on Cry to Me is my favorite version of the song.

I saw him perform it two nights in a row in early 1980. This was shortly after the No Nukes triple LP came out. The first night was at the Forum and it was a great show. But the following night at the Whisky was one of the top concerts of my life. The set included covers of Cry to Me, Don't Bring Me Down, Somethin' Else, I Fought the Law, Any Way You Want It, Shout and Route 66. Mix with the cream of the 1st 3 LP's (including a personal fave, Luna) and you've got a magic show.

I loved Tom Petty and it really hit me hard when he died. Knocked me for a goddamned loop. I was there from the beginning when the Heartbreakers were co-billed with Blondie at the Whisky. Saw multiple shows on that wonderful first L.A. run and was hooked for life. I developed a strong connection with the band.

I collect Petty live tapes. Someday I plan to make a multi-disc compilation of covers from these tapes. I've got well over 150 different cover tunes already. I personally taped many of his shows after I got my Sony TC-D5 circa 1979. I'm rustling through a box of tapes as I type this. Here's one from the now leveled Irvine Meadows in 1983. Covers in this show are Jaguar and Thunderbird, Little Bit O' Soul, Don't Bring Me Down, It's All Over Now, Any Way You Want It (DC5) and they even took a stab at Gram Parsons' I Can't Dance.

Steve, you sprung me. I'm gonna go on a Petty binge and fiesta tonight. Out by the pool grilling tri-tip, baked potato, corn on the cob, broccoli cooked soft and swimming in butter, sauteed button mushrooms also drowned in butter and homemade baked beans. All accompanied by home concocted, refreshing electric Sangria with Cabernet Sauvignon, red vermouth, oranges, lemons, apples, strawberries, peaches, brown sugar, cinnamon and dutch organic pharmaceutical caviar-like pearls of psilocybon dissolved therein. Oh, the icy goodness. I wanna glide down over Mulholland. I wanna write her name in the sky. I'm gonna free fall out into nothing. I'm gonna leave this world for a while.

VR

steve simels said...

VR - sounds like fun😎

PS I’d forgotten how much I like TPs liveRoute 66–gonna go listen right now.