 Too Much Ain't Enough |
| Review Date: November 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Donovan, |
As told in the liner notes, this set was distilled from 3,509 tracks from 169 shows spanning the band's history. I got the collectors edition of this set which is available from the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers web site (or from Best Buy) for $99, and includes all tracks in this standard 4-CD edition, plus:
* A fifth disc with the following tracks
1) Think About Me
2) Down South
3) I Need To Know
4) Billy The Kid
5) I'd Like To Love You Baby
6) Image Of Me
7) Born In Chicago
8) Like A Diamond
9) The Last DJ
10) No Second Thoughts
11) Ballad Of Easy Rider
12) Don't Come Around Here No More
13) Too Much Ain't Enough
14) County Farm
* A blu-ray disc with all 61 tracks in crazy high fidelity audio quality
* Two DVDs - one of the "400 Days" documentary focused on the 1995 studio sessions and tour for the Wildflowers album, and one of the NYE 1978 Santa Monica show
* Vinyl reproduction of a 1976 live set with four tracks
* A bigger "liner notes" book, and some reproduced backstage passes on a sheet of cloth
So is the standard four-CD set offered here worth it? For under $20 (and less than one-fifth the cost of the deluxe version), you get 47 tracks amounting to about 4 hours of music.
For the key songs that made Petty and the band famous (Breakdown, American Girl, Refugee, The Waiting, Here Comes My Girl), this set delivers red-hot versions that rival the studio albums recorded mostly around the time the songs were new and the band had everything to prove. I've heard many live versions of these songs, and the ones included here do not disappoint.
Before the track list for this set was announced, I just hoped they would include angry, edgy vintage performances of songs like Straight Into Darkness and A Woman In Love (It's Not Me), and they did.
With those bases covered, the set proceeds to stretch out on tracks that reveal the musicianship of the Heartbreakers, in covers, extended renditions (It's Good To Be King: 12:15), and full-on improvisations (Lost Without You). At first glance, you might wonder how tracks like Melinda, Goldfinger, or Like A Diamond managed to edge out some of Petty's more celebrated songs, but the value is revealed on hearing - a great keyboard part or guitar solo, or just an instance when the band all fell in together beautifully. One gets the idea that a large part of the reason for this set (or at least its length) is to let Tom Petty share with the world some of the moments when he felt the Heartbreakers really shone bright.
That said, there are a number of well-known Petty songs that did NOT make it into this set. These include:
Rockin' Around (With You)
Listen To Her Heart
Don't Do Me Like That
Something Big
King's Road
You Got Lucky
Change of Heart
Rebels
Love Is A Long Road
Face In The Crowd
Yer So Bad
Into The Great Wide Open
You Wreck Me
Cabin Down Below
Walls
This set also carefully sidesteps live tracks that have already been released in other collections like the Playback box set (Psychotic Reaction, King's Highway), and doesn't touch Pack Up The Plantation (which I REALLY hope will be restored and re-released in its entirety as a DVD/CD combo - please?)
If any weakness could be found in this set, for me it would be the fact that I'd like to hear more of the older recordings. Many tracks in the set are post-2001, and the samples we get of tracks from 1981 (ie Nightwatchman) sound utterly fantastic. I'll probably find myself repeating those more often, and skipping tracks like I'm A Man, or Mystic Eyes.
Also, I'm surprised that more Fillmore tracks weren't included, like the epic version of Mary Jane's Last Dance (which rivals the shorter version included here), or the blazing cover of the Stones' It's All Over Now. And was there no viable recording of Hang On Sloopy?
And the final criticism - I feel bad saying this, but - Steve Ferrone's drumming (while technically very adept) just doesn't hit me in the heart like Stan Lynch's. Stan had a soulfulness that brought out the power and pathos of the songs. And the years when the band had both Stan and Howie, and those harmonies came through - it was unlike anything else. Fortunately you can hear them both on a number of these tracks.
All things considered, this is a beautiful gift to fans, offered at a pretty amazing price - whichever edition you choose. |
BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!
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| Review Date: November 24, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Joseph D. Beullens, |
| Petty has time and time again proven his loyalty to his fan base. Not only releasing great albums one after another but in these retrospective box sets. I became a huge Petty fan after a friend recommended the running down a dream box set that I bought new for $15 that included 4 discs! And now he puts out 4 disc box of live cuts, ones not filled with the greatest hits only but great album tracks and awesome renditions of some superb covers. The sound quality on this is amazing, I know there is a version with the music on a blu-ray but I can't imagine the tracks sounding any better. This is a home run for the die hards and the casual fans alike. Under $20 for all this music is outrageous. At least in the throw away age of digital music Petty and the heartbreakers are keeping the album format alive with these sweet offerings. One of the greatest live sets available. |
Great boxset for an awesome price
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| Review Date: November 23, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Woolybugger, PA |
| What an awesome boxset. From start to finish there are many great tracks. Opening with "Nightwatchmen", a "Breakdown" which includes a short "Hit The Road Jack", covers of "I'm The Man", Thunderclap Newman's "Something In The Air" & the Dead's "Ripple". I can go on listing every song, but they are all excellent. The sound is crisp and the selections combine all of the hits with many other obscure tracks. Then the price....4 discs for this cheap. I recently bought the Rolling Stones "Get Your Ya' Ya's Out" 40th Anneversary box, and although good, all 4 discs cost more than double the Tom Petty box and all 4 discs are only half full of music (unlike the Petty box). Whether a diehard or a casual Tom Petty fan, this is a must have! |
Qualified 5-star review - mucho bang for your buck if you're a big TP&HB fan
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| Review Date: November 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: T. Scarillo, Studio City, CA |
Qualified 5-star review - bang for your buck
I'm going to assume that if you're even inclined to search for and/or buy a four-cd box set of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers live material, that you're already a big-to-huge fan. With that stipulation in mind, I'll give this set a five-star review, due to the following:
1) The Music - generous running time on the four (4) cd's (somewhere around 4 hours of music, though I wonder if they could've packed even more onto these, as the discs run around 55 min each?). Anyway, lots of well known tunes, VERY interesting/choice covers, semi-obscurities, and other assorted gems from over the years.
2) Good cross section of years - shows span from 1980 thru up to a couple of years ago, though I wish there was more material from the early days/earlier gigs.
3) Nicely packaged - durable cardboard slipcase with little cardboard jackets, and Sheperd Fairey artwork.
4) Pretty relatively consistently good sound quality - the songs are NOT arranged chronologically (read the liner notes from TP as to why) but it's overall pretty seamless, if you get into the flow. I'll defer to artist's prerogative as to song choices.
5) MIKE CAMPBELL - the heart of this band - maybe the most underrated guitarist in rock history. He gets many moments to shine, as does the band as a whole - plenty of songs give the band the room to stretch out a bit.
6) This release cuts the "Pack up the Plantation" set - the band sounds much more lively here.
The only con I find here is that despite the song selections, everyone is going to find one or more tunes that are their favorites, that didn't make the cut. Again, I defer to artist's choice, and trust that TP&HB's had their reasons for what's in and what's not.
Overall, an admirable archival release, at a hard-to-resist price, and one that I really wish other similar artists (Bruce, Seger, Jackson Browne, etc) would take a cue from - let's get those vaults open, guys?
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Outstanding effort
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| Review Date: February 3, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Richard Landgrebe, |
Having to wade through what must have been hundreds of live performances to pick just 48, and grouping them together in the way that they were, had to have seemed initially to be an insurmountable task. I suspect that through the years, the boys must have been taking notes. (...like "wow, if we ever release a live anthology, these tracks Have To Be On It!" or something like that) That might have helped to narrow it down.
Sound quality was SUPERB!! Right from the beginning,Tom and the Heartbreakers took extra care with their SOUND that I think is unprecedented. That takes incredible commitment.
It's good that they did not strive for merely a greatest hits collection, it means you don't have to throw away 'Pack Up The Plantation'. I was glad to see that none of those tracks were reprised in the anthology.
Very interesting artwork. Somebody must have a ball creating that.
To sum up, it's a truly outstanding effort. |
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