Stop Draggin' My Heart Around

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers via last.fm

"Leather and Lace" is my favorite track on Stevie Nicks' solo debut.

But it's not the best.

"Leather and Lace" has that vibe that's fallen by the wayside, you know, the one where a woman in a long dress takes you into the dell and reveals her inner truth as you stare into her eyes and fall in love. Today's female artists are in your face, competing with the men, kicking you to the curb, or so wimpy as to be disposable, completely irrelevant.

But as much as I love "Leather and Lace"'s intimate feel, its circular nature, what puts it over the top comes halfway through, when Don Henley starts to sing:

"You in the moonlight
With your sleepy eyes
Could you ever love a man like me"

This is who we wanted to be. A sweet man, with substance inside, a certain solid quality. And you could infer a sexual meaning to what I just said, and maybe that's just the point. Sex today is portrayed as rough, you take your woman, or vice versa, but reality is more about those who are self-conscious, yet are finally honest with another human being and end up connecting, coming inside.

Take that either way you want to. Metaphorically or sexually. That's just the point. When done right, sex is an opening up, a connection. But our society is too fearful to portray it that way. Movies are laden with special effects, but sometimes songs get it right. And "Leather and Lace" does.

The reason "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" triumphs is not because of Tom Petty's vocal, however great it might be, but the riffs, the underlying song. It's Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers backing Stevie Nicks, as she reveals her frustration with a certain intimacy, that doesn't want for power.

"Baby you'll come knocking on my front door Same old line you used to use before"

Truth. She's busting him.

But that's not the complete story...

I had to go to the bathroom. Which is why I entered City Market solo. Felice, her brother and my two college buddies were ensconced in the store, deep into the belly of the beast, long after dark, when the food emporium was almost empty, except for the catatonic cashiers up front.

And I hear something in the background, over the sound system, a record playing.

It's like the song scooped me up and took me for a ride.

Suddenly, there was a bounce in my step. I'd missed the explosive opening riff. But that groove was so wide, it swallowed me whole, carried me away.

"Leather and Lace" is a great song.

"Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" is a classic.

Not something they sing on "American Idol", not something that can be sanitized and sung at pep or political rallies. It sits at the nexus of rock and roll and its audience. When the most important item you owned wasn't your cell phone, but your stereo. You came home and CRANKED IT!

Yes, I turned up "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" so loud the neighbors freaked. But who could resist? You just wanted to get closer, you just wanted to be enveloped.

As necessary as Ms. Nicks is to this rendition, it's Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers who shine. What mutation happened on stage, in rehearsal, that made them come up with this sound? Yes, it's uniquely theirs... They listened to the same British Invasion tracks we did, but with these influences they created something unique. That nestled perfectly alongside the rest of the FM hit parade. Bands didn't go to Timbaland to get the same sound as every other outfit, they crafted their own!

"It's hard to think about what you've wanted It's hard to think about what you've lost"

You bet. That's what I told Ron the night before. Life was about closing doors. Yup, as you're watching TV, as you're wasting time, doors are shutting behind you like crazy. There goes your chance to be a movie director, there goes your chance to be a famous author, there goes your chance to have kids. They tell you life goes by fast, but they don't tell you how hard it is to accomplish a single thing. They don't tell you how hard it is to be a rock and roll star, one with a career, who lasts.

I don't want to think about what I wanted. It freaks me out to think about what I've lost. But when I heard "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" in the supermarket Friday night my life worked. By spending those endless hours listening to the radio, the stereo, digging ever deeper, I'd come across this great record, which I'd played so many times it was in my DNA, to the point when it came over the sound system the other night it was better than being greeted by an old friend, it was like being welcomed by God.

Yup, that's what's in those rock and roll records.

Don't listen to the charlatans telling you to go to a house of worship, where you'll be instructed what you can and cannot do.

Rock and roll is a big tent. It allows all comers. Any height, any skin color. Just put on the record and turn it up. You'll see something that eludes every edition of the Bible. You'll see life itself, in all its glory, the warts and the inspiration.

Screw instant stardom. Tom Petty played more gigs in bars than most people in today's hit parade have played in their entire lives. Malcolm Gladwell said the Beatles were so good because of all that wood shedding in Hamburg? Tom Petty and his band are so freakin' great because of all those hours in Gainesville. Listening to the radio. Practicing. Gigging.

We baby boomers know the difference. Because when the Fab Four hit, we all picked up instruments, formed bands. But we gave up when it got tough, we went to college, but Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers PERSISTED!

I WANT YOU BACK AGAIN

Image via Wikipedia

The Valiants played "She's Not There" at Ilene Kramer's bat mitzvah party. Held at Hillandale Country Club on a gray February day, I actually danced a few times. I'd recovered from being snubbed by Nancy Moss at Bert's party the month before. But what I remember most is sitting at that round table, listening to the Valiants, the best bar/bat mitzvah band in the land.

During slow numbers like "She's Not There" you danced close. This was just before you put both limbs around your partner, when you still held one arm stretched out straight, hands clasped, like you learned in dancing school. I guess we could feel tits, but although we talked about them, we were not quite as infatuated as we'd later become.

The party started at four p.m. The sun slowly set. I remember distinctly hearing this Zombies tune.

I spent last night catching up with Tom Petty's Superhighway Tour. Seemingly every day, they make another track available for download, or streaming. You can take it in MP3, you can download in FLAC. There are no restrictions, you pay, you truly get all access. Dribbled out over weeks, until the actual release of Tom's multi-disc live album, when you can have the rest of the tracks.

But to get it all at once would be unfortunate, because there's too much to digest.

You see on every page, there's a little story about the track. A complete set list from the night it was recorded. Reviews. Sometimes not complimentary. And extra pics. And fan photos.

And commentary.

On every track, the three (okay, occasionally only two) key band members tell the story behind the recording. Sometimes it feels like Tom's going through the motions. Other times it's positively riveting. And fascinating.

Did you know that Tom Petty's wife has "The Wild One, Forever" on her answering machine? That Mike Campbell was stunned the audience knew the track "Nightwatchman" just moments after the album came out? And that this wouldn't happen today? In an era when the audience is overloaded and only concerned about the hit?

And there's a plethora of information on the Superhighway Tour. You almost have to clear the decks and not pay attention to anything else, you won't have the time!

But going cut by cut you're confronted with masterpieces!

Like the band's performance of "Oh Well" at Bonnaroo.

I never saw Peter Green play it. Lindsey Buckingham does an incredible version with today's band. But it's not in the LEAGUE of this Heartbreakers take. It's the pure ENERGY! Sure, Mike hits all the notes. But it's more than that, there's the TONALITY of the guitar! This rendition is STUPEFYING!

I'd say to release a single disc package of all the covers, of all the tracks that have never seen the light of the day. That's the essence of the collection. Not the live renditions of your favorites, but the revelations. Like "Goldfinger". Huh?

And there's this unreleased gem, an original entitled "Lost Without You" that sounds like a drive on a hot Florida night. Like the sweat is sticking to you, that time is moving slowly, almost too slowly, but this is your one and only life.

But the piece de resistance is the Zombies' "I Want You Back Again".

I thought maybe it was a variation on the Jackson 5 hit. I was more interested in hearing the cover of "Friend Of The Devil". But as I played the song and then listened to the commentary, I got hooked. By this cover of a lost gem.

Mike says the guitar on the track is understated, that it's a Vox twelve string, which captures the exact Zombies sound from the original record.

Benmont admits he didn't even know the record, that it slid right by him back in the day, even though he was a Zombies fan. Me too, I'd never heard of it, never mind heard it.

Tom says "I Want You Back Again" is his second favorite track of the collection. That he knew the song from the radio, and it played in his head for ten years until he found the record.

Which is pictured on the site! You click and you see that Parrot label. Distributed by London Records, home of the Stones. The credit on the label says "Directed by Ken Jones". And the time is 1:58!

I immediately pulled up the Zombies take on Spotify. The song was new to me, I needed to hear the original.

But it paled in comparison to the Heartbreakers' remake, which I immediately went back to and couldn't stop spinning. It had a driving, slashing groove, and Tom sang with that intimate intensity he specializes in.

"Somebody help me
I've got to eat
Somebody help me
To stand on my feet"

There's nothing worse than residing in the heartbreak hotel. Nothing else matters. Not work, not play. Just her. And Benmont's keyboard conveys the feeling of climbing the walls, which is exactly what you're doing!

"Since you have left me
I'm all alone
I need your help
I can't stand on my own"

There's that same mid-sixties darkness. When the movies were still in black white, before the technological revolution, when the U.K. was still emerging from the shadow of the war, when you wanted to avoid a life of desperation by playing music.

"I want you back again
Oh, oh, oh
I want you back again"

They say you can't deny your history. I spend too much of my life searching for it. Used to be it was deep in the darkness of the past. But as a result of the magic of the World Wide Web, you can find old haunts, old people, it's like the past is riding shotgun with you today.

And some elements of those days gone by still pull. Before we were adults, when we were still kids, with time to waste, to listen to these records over and over again.

Listening to Tom's take on "I Want You Back Again" ad infinitum, I decided to check out the original once again.

This time it was different. I knew the song so well, I could hear beyond the song, into the record. It feels like it was cut in an alternative "Hard Day's Night", underground, where there was no chance of advancement, yet there was still a glimmer of hope. For what, I'm not sure. But that's what music does. Give you gumption to face incredible odds.

"Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now Don't it feel like something from a dream"

The waiting is the hardest part. For your life to unfold. Then, suddenly, too much is in the rearview mirror, you want to put on the brakes.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers know those days are done. When we fought over list price of a vinyl record, when fans lined up on the date of release with hard-earned cash and after purchasing the record spun it into oblivion, until they knew every lick and every word, being unable to afford anything more.

But no one's getting plastic surgery. No one's working with Timbaland. They did do the Super Bowl, but I'd like to see that as a momentary indiscretion. You see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers was never everybody's band. They were our band. However large "our" might have been.

Although composed of live cuts stretching back decades, the "Anthology" recordings don't sound calcified. Listening is akin to opening up a photo album with an old friend, someone who is in the pictures too. Not reliving the past silently, but commenting on it.

Yes, it's the commentary, the extras on the Superhighway Tour that make it all work. Sure, this was a way for the band to generate extra cash, but you know that constructing this site was FUN! The way music used to be. We dedicated hours out of love, to get closer, not because we were interested in a paycheck at the end.

Check out a free sample of the Superhighway Tour here:

http://www.tompettysuperhighwaytour.com/shows/1981/06/28