Shelter

I wouldn't mind a "Bootleg Series" type project similar to Bob Dylan's.  There's a lot of possibilities there for different volumes.  The original Mudcrutch recordings, full versions of the concerts that made up The Live Anthology or every major tour for that matter, Southern Accents sessions, a collection of the Heartbreakers' sets from the Bob Dylan tour, the Fillmore shows or one of the other residencies, a compilation of all the B-sides and outtakes that are scattered across different releases plus the still unreleased stuff.  As much as I think Tom got the recognition he deserves over the past 10 years or so, I think their legacy as a great live band has yet to be fully revealed on disc.

Every time I see footage of Dylan live with the Heartbreakers it turns into a Stan and Benmont show for me, especially here. Stan is just sensational live here and if you look carefully you'll see that Dylan is taking his lead from and is attuned to what Benmont is doing and constantly references him with his eyes. Really showcases how brilliant Stan and Benmont are live here. They shine that bit brighter than everyone else on stage here for me which is no mean feat given the talent on stage! 

This tribute show seem to have been great:
 
 
 
A few more songs with each of these bands can be found on the tube...
 
 

Great post! Great ideas! I certainly agree on most of what you say. I can just add that whatever mix of people calling the shots from here on, I hope they look at what's been done by the likes of Bob and Neil in terms of archival releases series. A "bootleg series" type of thing, at least with a few instalments, focusing on different eras would be a great and dignified way to work through what's in the vaults worthy of release. Within such series I can see all of your ideas being realized. 
Also, while I too think it would be fun to have all the pre Heartbreakers Mudcrutch recordings released properly released (incl what's already on playback), I think, given the 33 year hiatus, it would be weird to mix those old tapes with the "second coming" stuff.
For starters I cross my fingers for an All The Rest, packed with previously unreleased stuff following the lead of Somewhere Under Heaven.
Gr H vol 2? I don't find such at all interesting or necessary. Must say.
Unfotunately, yeah. Not that a Kiss My Amps 3 would be anything short of awesome, perhaps including the few more rare and special songs they played this summer. But any release tending to the masses' new interest in Tom and his hits, released in time for Christmas frenzy... would be horrible and quite far from what I'd hope for or prioritize.

The realization that there will never be new Tom Petty music or Tom Petty concerts ever again is a hard one to sink in. TP spent a lot of time in the studio and took great pride in crafting a legacy of high quality releases, without a real stinker in the bunch. Even as the pace of releases slowed down in the past decade or so, the quality never waned, and I'm sure he had more irons in the fire for the future that will unfortunately never be realized.
Luckily, or at least hopefully, there was quite a backlog of unreleased material that Tony D, Ryan Ulyate, Mike Campbell, Warner Brothers execs and whomever else can mold into very exciting and very worthy releases in the coming years. Here is my list of the top five projects I hope to see:
1. Wildflowers - All the Rest. We've heard the speculation and teases about this for so long, it had actually become a joke. I'm assuming it is complete, so this could theoretically be released at any time. I am hoping for as many unreleased studio tracks as possible, and not just demos and live versions. It's sad there will never be accompanying live shows like TP envisioned, but with so many "new" Wildflowers tracks, this still has the potential to be a very exciting album.
2. DVD of 2017 MusiCares performances. There was quite a lineup assembled to honor Tom Petty this past February. Classics like Randy Newman, Don Henley, Jackson Browne and Lucinda Williams as well as newcomers like Gary Clark, The Head and the Heart, Cage the Elephant and a lot more. It would be a shame to not see all the performances and speeches packaged together, ending of course with the Heartbreakers set and the stand out "Waiting For Tonight."
3. Mojo 2 and Hypnotic Eye outtakes. The Heartbreakers recorded a lot, a lot, of tracks over the past decade that were only represented in two studio albums: Mojo and Hypnotic Eye. I would be incredibly excited to see a package of all the finished tracks that didn't make it on those albums. It would start with Mojo outtakes ("Mystery of Love" comes immediately to mind), but concentrate on the aborted Mojo follow up album that TP described as "blues to another power." This would have been in 2011 or so. I believe they had a lot of tracks completed, but only "Burnt Out Town" ever saw release. Then TP changed course and decided to do a straight ahead rock n roll album with all new songs. Years later, Hypnotic Eye came out after being whittled down from dozens of new tracks to just 11. There is bound to be lots of great stuff in the Hypnotic Eye outtakes. "Looking For Daddy" might be among them. Putting all this together would be simply amazing to me.
4. Mudcrutch 3. It was stated in multiple interviews that TP and co. left eight or so finished tracks on the floor for the second Mudcrutch album last year. I would love to see all those tracks as a stand alone album, possibly packaged with "Special Place," the outtake from Mudcrutch 1 in 2008, or maybe with unreleased stuff from the original aborted Mudcrutch album in 1974 (or before). I supposed a Mudcrutch boxset could accommodate all of that, even if it gets bloated with live tracks and already released studio tracks.
5. Greatest Hits Part II. This seems like an eventuality as well, since Warner never put out a compilation of material from Wildflowers on. We've had some good discussion here on what could be included. It would be fun to see YDKHIF, Walls, Room at the Top, Saving Grace, etc. on the same album, even if all those tracks are already available elsewhere.

There's bound to be lots of other stuff in the vaults as well! I remember an interview from 2006 in which TP said he had a "good 60 percent of a Heartbreakers album waiting to be finished." I'm pretty sure all the Mojo stuff four years later was completely new, so there should be some mid '00s tracks out there to hear. Plus, I'm sure a live album or DVD of the 40th anniversary tour is probably a sure thing. What do you guys think about these ideas? And what others would you add?
 

https://www.yahoo.com/music/paul-mccartney-remembers-apos-truly-153747619.html

Rather than flat out "rejecting" the album, I suppose what happened at MCA was "the A&R man said 'I don't hear a single' ". Literally, they did see no hits on FMF as Tom presented it to them! That is almost as absurd as Decca passing on Beatles, imo. However, when he added the decided light weight cover of "Feel a Whole Lot Better" and a few people changed chairs at MCA, then suddenly they DID feel a whole lot better about the prospect. That is actually as weird as it is funny. Not a bad song at all, but seriously...
I'm not positive if this is correct, but could it, possibly, be that be while hanging, unsure if the album was gonna be released or not, that he searched for something to push it over the edge, so to speak, that he recorded Waiting For Tonight with The Bangles?? Did I dream this? Then again, the latter track featured a more complete line up of The Heartbreakers, if I'm not mistaken, and then when FMF suddenly got an ok, with the inclusion of FAWLB, there was no time or need to figure out how or if that new song fitted anyway... Also, I always thought Waiting For Tonight originally was penned for a planned TPATH Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) follow up album that got scrapped or put on hold, when Tom steered in the arms of the Traveling Wilburys, a context and an experience I guess you could say FMF was born out of. Not sure if any of this has anything to do with The Heartbreaker's recenting Tom's solo album. Perhaps to some extent it did.
To me what makes FMF a solo album is not only the arrangements. As for Wildflowers and to some extent also Highway Companion, I can imagine TPATH versions of the material, that is with a slightly different arrangement and production they could both have been full blown and great band albums. With FMF, I really think there is something intrinsically solo about the whole thing, about the very material. (I mean, in no small ways are the cover shot of FMF a sorta half body remake of the first album, which was, btw, originally labeled as "Tom Petty" rather than "Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers" since the deal was originally his alone). In my mind, Love Is A Long Road is the only song on the album that could be reimagined as a band song, in the traditional Heartbreakers sense.
That goes to say that while I can understand what people say about The Heartbreakers (sans Mike) supposedly feeling let down with some of Tom's choices in 1988-1989, leaving them on the outside as it were, I really think that Stan and Ben truly felt the music - both many of the songs and much of how they were realized by Tom and Jeff - was less band oriented and interesting from their perspective. Perhaps this goes for Howie too (although, admittedly, he was per se as much of a session player/singer as a band guy). They probably could appreciate the stunning parade of pop hits that was the album, but they might not have seen much of their own music identity in it. I can imagine they initially - before they all had to play many of the songs every night for the rest of their lives, making them TPATH anyway in a way - did not actually like FMF that much. Not only because they basically weren't on it or because they felt Tom left them hanging, but because it was not really the type of material or production style that they were into. Especially Stan, I'd say. Don't get me wrong, but in terms of his personal musical integrity he was probably quite happy not to be on FMF, as he seemed a bit frustrated about what he had to "act up", as it were, on ITGWO.
In short, I think FMF promised to mean a bigger artistic change in Tom than it ended up becoming and I think that put a little bit of a scare on everybody. Save for Mike, for some reason. Perhaps his love for the Running Down A Dream riff made him look past everything else, perhaps he just had trust enough in Tom to stick with it, to ride it out and see what happened, perhaps he really was the only one Tom trusted enough to stay a core part of it. I don't know. But it must have been tricky times for The Heartbreakers. Until the tour went underway, anyway. As a sidenote: It is funny to me, how they - in various ways - seem to mock the whole situation shamelessly in the few video skits they filmed for extra material to the "A Bunch Of Videos and Some Other Stuff" release around this same time. It's hard to be quite sure if Stan was just acting when he butchered that drum machine, or if Howie was perhaps grumpy and bitter for real when he storms off on his bike. Either way, it's fabulous stuff.
All that aside, I think there can be no question that a vast majority of the fans REALLY fell in love with this album and this collection of songs, from the start. I think the success speaks for itself, really. There may have been fans recognizing the same dimensional shift that Stan saw, seeing that it was a bit different, perhaps not being totally thrilled about how it seemed to steer away from rock'n'roll a bit. But I think very few of them could dismiss the charm of it all together. Moreover FMF did pull in tons of new fans, and also.. let's not forget.. The combination of that laid back pop style of Tom's songs, Jeff's ideas on sound (like commented on above!), the recent success of Traveling Wilburys, the peak of MTV, all line up like that, with a whiff of skateboards, palm trees, sunshines and boulevards, south Cal and LA style, in 1989 this created the perfect storm in terms of success for Tom. Never before and never since has a Tom Petty album been more fashionable, commercially right-in-time for the big league, and straight out hip. ITGWO did ride the tail on that same wave, so to speak, and Wildflowers was prefect and right in time too, in a slightly different, less sunny way.. But I'd say that 88-95 era was when Tom was the most in-tune with mainstream fashion, most full blown "adult pop" he ever was, and obviously recognized as much himself, keeping the landmarks of this era close to his heart and to his live act all to the very end. 
We can say whatever we like (and I do) and we can disect other "deeper" or "technical" or even "social" aspects of the music Tom made on FMF, but in short: what's not to like??

Yeah, me too..! I suppose 9 tracks in the vault is most likely enough in terms of minutes. And according to what's been said, it's quality tracks too. Question is if they are a good mix stylewise to form an album proper? And if the other guys are prepared to make that "journey" again. (Because even without a tour, releasing an album is some kinda journey). Perhaps, in time they are. Let's hope so, cause I am always eager to hear anything Mudcrutch and would feel really sad if they decide to leave it on the shelf. I would love to get those 9 tracks at some point. And perhaps there is some odd left over piece from the first sessions too. I know there are that bonus song "Special Place" for example, that are not properly released for example, so maybe some kinda of "Mudcrutch - All The Rest" is in the stars, who knows? I for one would love for at least a "Live EP Vol 2", from the last tour!

Thanks for input! That is very interesting. Not only is it different from the original then, but from remaster too. I definitely thought remix when I heard certain parts recently. That "Howie part" is really a goosebumps moment.

So I said two years ago I would be giving my thoughts on this album because I am in the minority and rate the album very highly. Unfortunately, it seems I totally forgot or got sidetracked and never gave my thoughts on it, though I know I have in other threads. So, since we have people revisiting this after Tom's untimely death, I guess I'll finally dive deep into why I love this album so.
Before diving into the songs themselves, I will start off by saying, my entire life, all 28 years of it so far, I have loved TPATH. My dad has always been a big fan and 2002 is the year I went from being a 12 year old casual fan to a fanatic of the band and them  becoming my favorite musical group of all time. I can still remember the countless copies of TPATH cassettes (of the albums and singles) he had in the car and in a case that he kept them all in. It's the reason why when I finally got Playback for Christmas in 2005 that when I heard "Trailer" and "Casa Dega" that I remember hearing them a long time ago and it all clicked in my head. I guess it's a benefit for your dad to work at a Universal Record Plant before it closed in 2000 and be able to get all those things lol.
 July 5th, 2002 was the day I got to go to see the band live for the first time with my dad at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). I had asked him a couple of days before the show if we could go as something to do together after seeing online that they were touring. Luckily, he said absolutely. I thought we were only going to get lawn tickets to the show because that was what my dad had said he always had gotten when he was a younger man and would go to see the band there. After getting the tickets and being excited all day to see them, before we left I left my glasses at home so I wouldn't look like a dork (this was a big mistake because I've always been damn near blind so my visual memory of the show isn't fantastic because of it lol.) When we get on the road to drive out to the show, we're listening to a mix of Damn the Torpedoes, Hard Promises, Long After Dark, Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers. He tells me to take a look in the center console to take a look at the tickets and to my surprise, he had managed to get us 13th row tickets to the show. He had said when he and my mom had gone to Ticketmaster (yes, you use to be able to go to a local Ticketmaster to buy tickets!) and they asked for 2 lawn seats, the person waiting on them said they still had seats in the amphitheater and asked if they wanted to get them. It was our lucky day.
When we got to the show, on our walk around the area, he was regaling me with his stories of when he and his friends would drive to see the band and all the crazy antics and stuff they would do and see at these shows. It was great to get to hear him tell his stories, things to potentially look forward to lol. We bought 2 TPATH shirts in the parking lot for 15 bucks a piece (crazy I know) and got to listen to a guy smoking a joint for the line in the bathroom bullshit with his buddy telling him how he knows Tom and how their great friends. The show had the Brian Setzer Trio open things and I got to listen to my Dad tell me how they use to be the Stray Cats and played 50s style rock and roll. I remember really liking their set and at least knowing "Stray Cat Strut". After waiting 30 minutes, TPATH opened up and kicked things off with "Runnin' Down a Dream". My dad remarked and told me that it looked like Ron Blair was up there playing bass and not Howie and how he hadn't been in the band for 20 years. Every song they played, he would tell me what album they came off and how much he loved them as he sand along to the songs. Also, being the summer tour before The Last DJ came out, we were treated to 3 of the best songs from that album: "Can't Stop the Sun", "Lost Children", and "Have Love Will Travel", the last being featured on The Live Anthology from that very show. The set list just was great, getting to listen to a 8 minute jammed out version of "Too Much Ain't Enough", some new songs, an acoustic version of "Rebels". etc. It was just a great first show and experience that is something my dad and I share and got me to want to hear everything from the band and get to know more about them. Luckily, a couple years later, I would find a bootleg of the show and add it to  the collection.
It's during this time period between this show and Christmas they announced their new album, Tom making an appearance on The Simpsons to promote it, and waiting to get my hands on the new album. Luckily for me, I got The Last DJ, DTT, their first album and FMF for Christmas and the first album I listened to from that bunch on my new, big 6 CD player. And the experience I had was amazing.
Now, part 2 that talks about the album itself will come in another post. This is just kind of a introduction into the emotional, nostalgic ties I have to the album. So, see you in a nother post lol.

I personally love Benmont's album. It has a lot of great songs on there. I love "Today I Took Your Picture Down", "Blonde Girl, Blue Dress", "You Should Be So Lucky", "Veronica Said", and "Why Don't You Quit Leaving Me Alone". Those songs show that Benmont can write well thought out, interesting, and complex songs and that he is more than just the best damn piano player in rock. Now do I think his voice would lend itself to being a front man of a rock band? No, not at all. But I don't think he has to. His album shows he could have been heralded as a great singer/songwriter in the vein of Randy Newman and Leonard Cohen. Not a mainstream figure, but a popular, well received my his peers, influential musician and writer. 
 
The one thing I wish though, is although I like the Beatleesque "Like the Sun", I wish he recorded it like he played it on Jimmy Kimmel as a piano ballad. It is so great and beautiful. Unfortunately, you cannot find that version anywhere anymore. It use to be on YouTube but somehow it vanished into the ether.

^^^ Thank you, guys for sharing those stories! Fantastic stuff! I can imagine it was very very special. As been said, be glad you kept those journals, cause memory does fade to some degree and such experiences are rare in a lifetime, sweets to be remembered!

10/17/17
TPATH
 

So the tennis shoes with no laces were a thing with Tom. This is a different pair than he wore to the Oval Office, but no laces again.  What's that about?  Too lazy to be bothered tying them?   Or is it just a style thing?  How do you keep them on your feet?  I guess move slowly and shuffle your feet?
But........ nice guitar.  And cool song.  

Bob Dylan - Learning to Fly (compelte song)
https://instaud.io/1n8K

Good question! I'd say that if he was to make an interdimensional chart of
1) Tom Petty songs that he actually knows in enough detail to consider making a rendition,
2) songs that his audience may actually know and appreciate as being a fairly obvious Tom Petty tribute and
3) songs that suit the occasion in terms of general existential character rather than topical or specific themed songs (story songs or songs about love, divorce, greed or what have you)
4) songs that suit his general abilities as a performer (granted he is a genius and can do anything, a rendition still needs to be within certain borders in order for above no 2) to still be an active premise),
Well, if he did make such a chart, then one of the points where it would all allign, where all the dimensions meet if you will, would be Learning To Fly, I'm sure. Seems an obvious pick to me. Even more so, when hearing it. I guess another one that Bob might've considered (perhaps deemed too obvious, considering how everybody is doing it already, too boring) would be I Won't Back Down. Had he wanted to make a bit of a "deeper" statement with his tribute, I suppose perhaps "Southern Accents" would have checked most boxes too. 
Now I can imagine Bob:yfied versions of Free Fallin, American Girl or Refugee, You Don't Know How it Feels or even Runnin Down a Dream too, perhaps Don't Come Around Here No More... yeah, indeed most of the "core" hits. But, those wouldn't likely have been as effective in this case - and most of them not as good, I guess - for various reasons stated above. On the other hand, countless lesser known songs of Tom's would probably be very well suited for Bob to rework on this occasion - some of which he may even know in some detail, who knows - but most of those would be songs - while a dream for someone like me, to hear him do* - would not be as obvious to his audience.
 
----
* I would love to hear Bob do No Second Thoughts, Letting You Go, Walls, Dreamville, I Forgive It All... perhaps.. Can't Stop The Sun, Good Enough.. among many others... Songs like Dark of The Sun, Echo, Lost Children, Saving Grace or Even The Losers would be great with Bob, if not necessarily in a heartfelt context like this tribute. On the other hand, Bob is known to have played "Restelss Farewell" on Frank Sinatra's 80s birthday, so decorum is always relative to creativity and.. well.. jocularity.. when it comes to Bob.
 

Here's Lucinda and Tom at one of the Hollywood Bowl Shows:

Would be nice to read those journals of yours, if in any way possible. Since I haven't been "in" at the TP.com/HCC in many years now, I missed all about what you guys experienced.

I value my framed photo Sirius/XM sent me of my son - Nick, TP, and I at The Buried Treasure Show, also the colored vinyl copy of the first album. Tom signed the jacket, "To Susan, God Bless, Tom Petty." Nick got a signed copy of the second album, so my other son, Ben, will get mine when I'm gone. My most treasured possessions, of course, are my memories of meeting Tom, of his gentle warm hug, kind words, and intense eyes. I'm so glad TomPetty.com asked me to write a journal about my experience so that I remember all the little details that I might have forgotten. I value that journal too.

Yes, that is awesome! Thanks for posting! (Uh.. just cant believe this great, great man is gone... )

Yeah, me too..! I suppose 9 tracks in the vault is most likely enough in terms of minutes. And according to what's been said, it's quality tracks too. Question is if they are a good mix stylewise to form an album proper? And if the other guys are prepared to make that "journey" again. (Because even without a tour, releasing an album is some kinda journey). Perhaps, in time they are. Let's hope so, cause I am always eager to hear anything Mudcrutch and would feel really sad if they decide to leave it on the shelf. I would love to get those 9 tracks at some point. And perhaps there is some odd left over piece from the first sessions too. I know there are that bonus song "Special Place" for example, that are not properly released for example, so maybe some kinda of "Mudcrutch - All The Rest" is in the stars, who knows? I for one would love for at least a "Live EP Vol 2", from the last tour!

Right! It doesnt get better than that in this life!

Very nice article and I love the pictures.  They did a boo-boo on the very first line though!  It would have been Tom's 67th birthday!
I feel bad for the guys knowing Mudcrutch will never play together again but I'm so happy for them at the same time, to get to put out 2 records with Tom and go out on 2 tours!  That is such a blessing!