Room at the Top
04/02/25 • 22 min
1 Listener
I, along with I’m sure many of you Pettyheads, consider this one of Tom’s finest works. It’s an absolute masterpiece in songwriting, lyrical precision, and arrangement. As Tom tells Paul Zollo, “It was a great example of The Heartbreakers at work. On my own I would have never arrived at that arrangement of the song. But they really took it somewhere that I would have never got to by myself.” The mixture of light and shade the contrast of hope and despondency, of cynicism and vulnerability make this track a powerhouse of pure emotion. It’s one of those where every single note is placed to perfection, every musical decision supports the construction and delivery of the song and the sum of its incredible parts gels into this perfect five minutes of music that moves me as much today as it did the first time I listened to it!
If you want to listen to the song before you listen to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/nQFCF9KESic
And make sure you check out Richard Hearn's brilliant website Paragraph Planet here: https://www.paragraphplanet.com
Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyproject
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyproject
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyproject
All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com
The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.
A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".
Producer: Kevin Brown
Executive Producer: Paul Roberts
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I, along with I’m sure many of you Pettyheads, consider this one of Tom’s finest works. It’s an absolute masterpiece in songwriting, lyrical precision, and arrangement. As Tom tells Paul Zollo, “It was a great example of The Heartbreakers at work. On my own I would have never arrived at that arrangement of the song. But they really took it somewhere that I would have never got to by myself.” The mixture of light and shade the contrast of hope and despondency, of cynicism and vulnerability make this track a powerhouse of pure emotion. It’s one of those where every single note is placed to perfection, every musical decision supports the construction and delivery of the song and the sum of its incredible parts gels into this perfect five minutes of music that moves me as much today as it did the first time I listened to it!
If you want to listen to the song before you listen to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/nQFCF9KESic
And make sure you check out Richard Hearn's brilliant website Paragraph Planet here: https://www.paragraphplanet.com
Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyproject
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyproject
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyproject
All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com
The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.
A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".
Producer: Kevin Brown
Executive Producer: Paul Roberts
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
The Same Sad Echo
1 RecommendationsLike Songs and Music for She’s The One, somewhere around half of the songs on Echo were never played live. Tom tells Paul Zollo “I was kind of glad to get to another place after Echo. I was kind of glad to get somewhere else. I don’t know why, but I kind of felt like we came back into the sun after that.”
And this idea of a darkness hovering over this period in Tom’s life definitely permeates through elements of this record.
Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyproject
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyproject
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyproject
All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com
The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.
A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".
Producer: Kevin Brown
Executive Producer: Paul Roberts
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Counting on You
1 RecommendationsSonically, you could definitely hear this one sitting happily on Mojo. But I also sometimes feel that this is the most Wildflowers-sounding of all the songs on Echo. If you found out that it was another of the songs that hadn’t been included on that album, it wouldn’t really surprise you. In Conversations With Tom Petty, the only thing that Tom tells author Paul Zollo about this song is that “That’s great. That should have been a single. I don’t know why they didn’t put that out as a single”.
If you want to listen to the song before you listen to the episode, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/eA7YT103Ocw
Don't forget to follow me on social media, like, subscribe, and please, leave a rating if you like the show.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetompettyproject
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/tompettyproject.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetompettyproject
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetompettyproject
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@thetompettyproject
All music, including the theme song, provided by my very best friend Randy Woods. Check him out at https://www.randywoodsband.com
The Tom Petty Project is not affiliated with the Tom Petty estate in any way and when you’re looking for Tom’s music, please visit the official YouTube channel first and go to tompetty.com for official merchandise.
A last very special thanks to Paul Zollo. Without his book, "Conversations with Tom Petty", this podcast wouldn't be nearly as much fun to research. And further thanks to Warren Zanes for his outstanding book "Petty, the Biography".
Producer: Kevin Brown
Executive Producer: Paul Roberts
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/the-tom-petty-project.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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