Shelter

ok.. one more.. stumbled over quite a few.. 
 

Right. Iggy is an exception. Not sure how, but he does his thing with dignity, which at 70 should not be possible. It may be cause he worked simultaneously on a deeper level all along. But still.
 
Ok then. I respect your view, but then I really don't see it.
Let's try this fot fit: WF has a mellow core, for sure. (It's same era leftovers, not as much.) So does HC. But I'm not sure how Echo or HE (or even Mojo) is so much more "mellow" than say Hard Promises or Southern Accents (or even Let Me Up or ITGWO - quite a lot of lazy day groovy moments there). Just saying.. what I already said.
May be all the words.. or my English again, but I'm not sure you just disagree with what I say about the dimensional difference between material character and sound, how I perceive changes in both, but substantially and sudden changes just in case of the latter - or if you misunderstand what I try to say. It doesn't strike me from your reasoning or choice in quotes, that you quite get my point. If you just disagree with me though, that is more than fine.
What new singles got to do with this, beats me.
Well. To me, the problem with that is, like I said, that live Tom seemed to stick firmly, for decades, with specifically those songs Stan did not seem to think that he had much to work with inside of, back in 89-95. It would not be fair to ask him to tough his personal nitemare out for quite that long. Just when he felt "god no-more", Tom decided "this is what Im gonna do!!" and kinda deep froze his live approach. And even IF Tom would've moved on a little with the material in the shows, mixing in more of everything else he wrote since Stan's departure, he still probably would have found Steve to be his "favorite drummer", even if I personally could imagine Stan being quite fantastic on a lot of said material (Echo, LDJ, Mojo, HE). All very hypothetical, even a month ago......
Oh well I digress. Interesting topic though! And it's your thread, but if it was mine, I'm pretty sure I'd call it "Thoughts on the thousand TPATHs".
Or maybe just "The One And Only TPATH".
But that's me.

Two things.
1. I agree there IS a change to a more "mellow", on average, in terms of material. Again, I see most of this being due to Tom growing older, maturing. This to me is good and natural. Just as I see no dignity really in 70 yo punk rockers.
But my main point is I just don't see such change in material and mood as sudden, I see it as gradual, with part of the teenage kick or straight rocknroll never shed, and some introspect melloe groove being there from the start.
2. In terms of sound -what color songs, albums, mood - the change is also gradual. If this development, for me, is more genuinly directed from simple to intricate - even when recording methods at times gone back to more simple and "live" than they ever were even in the early days of the band. Again this is all a learning process. But granted, in terms of one sonic aspect - drumming - yes there IS certainly a suddenness to the change. (And perhaps THIS, the beat aspect of the sound, is the main sudden change you are thinking of as a deeper and bigger sudden change, what do I know).
To underline the difference between these two dimensions, I like to insist that there were plenty of the steady and slow, before Stan left. (In fact, there was so much of it that he left!) There are also plenty of later songs that may actually sound "steady and slow" with Steve, but that could and would be dynamic, full of temper with Stan, perhaps then coming off more like the older "mellow" stuff than a new type of music some seem to suggest? Again this is proof - to me - that any sudden big change in how and what Tom write may be at least in part an illusion.
In short. It happened. It happened slowly and for largely natural reasons. As sudden as it may seem in terms of how the drumming sounds.
As for the live situation, development, may really be a more problematic term. Not only did they not develop what they do much, over the last decade or two of their career. They hardly even changed it. In that sense, live there WAS a more marked sudden change taking place in terms of WHAT they did. After all, the change between a more evolving and album oriented approach, in the pre FMF-WF era and a post FMF-WF era, where the material from two or three albums did clog up and fixated the core set forever, is both deep and radical And fairly sudden (about 5 years). Again, this change was even more dramatically marked by the introduction of Steve's clockwise drumming style on the WF tour. But even so, since they kept playing the same set from thereon (at large, special shows aside), it's not fair to compare the development of the songs they recorded (but never played live) in the same light and the same argument, as I see it. They kept recording varied style songs in a way that was not matched by what they played live in general. To discuss HOW they played all those songs live, is a dead end.
Soundwise though - how they played the songs they did play (standards, covers and occasional rare stuff) - they did develop, perhaps ironically, into a more and more heavy and dynamic live band. In a sense becoming better and better. I don't see a suddenness to this either, though. Many of the songs they insisted on always playing live After 1995, are from that breakpoint era in sound, where Stan had most less to add, unfortunately. But hearing them at a recidency or especially hearing the albums of the last decade, one would (could) think that whatever changes there have been, however sudden they (not) have been, the development in some ways have come full circle (or like I like to see it, in major areas stayed the same) so that at what was to become the end of this band, Stan again could have found plenty of meaningful things to do. But bottom line is, I think that ultimately what any big or sudden change is all about in terms of Tom's hand with music, is that Jeff Lynne taught him to live machine like drumming. That and slowly and gradually becoming older, wiser, deeper and mellower.
That is, to me, any actual, substantial change in TPATH material 1976-2017 is gradual, slow, I'd say organic, at times subliminal even, while there have been one or two more drastic changes to their sound, that is more cosmetic. As in drumming or producer's input. Not that such could not be an important enough change, but to me it's important to make the distinction between the existential matters and the make up.
 

My guess what happened, is age.
Seriously, this topic is in many ways to hard and complicated, perhaps even pointless, for me to wrap my head around. I admit as much. But it's also interesting. And I think alot of good points are being put across above. But largely, what it comes down to is them being people, professional artistic people at that. This means life goes on and perspective and temper change. If you keep going for the same quick hump-hump-ohh when you're 50 or 60 as you did at 25 or 30, then something is wrong in your creative core, then chanses are your a one-trick pony, a fake or a sell out. For them to develop a more "introspection" side to their music over 40 years career is the most natural thing. Besides the shift is not at all sudden to me. They did things slow and weird early on, they did things simply rocking out to their last breath. Both dimensions been there throughout, although admittedly weight slowly shifted - on average - towards less bpm and more minutes so to speak. I just never saw the dramatic change. But I suppose it's easy to hear WF as a deeper and more mature record than ITGWO in some ways, and HP as more mellow and grown up, established, than DTT. (Or LAD as threading water for that matter - jeeze what a misconception of what that album ended up being) To view Mojo or LDJ as indulging vast projects that TPATH or YGGI could ever have been. But then again...?!

^ How well said!

I've been thinking a lot about this over the past week. It's hard to know what was really going on behind the scenes, and maybe we'll never know. TP was such a private person, and kept extremely tight reins on his image and public persona. He was incredibly shrewd — much more than he ever gets credit for — at presenting only what he wanted in the public sphere. Think back to his divorce or heroin habit or temper or depression. None of it was public knowledge; it was always kept out of the public's eye. He was also really good at hiding pain. He just knew how to present himself publicly. Not phony mind you — he was never phony or anything but authentic. But he knew which notes to hit. He knew that his natural charisma and a well-timed broad smile told a story that dovetailed with his reputation, even if there was pain or turmoil behind the scenes.
That's why, it's easy to say "Tom Petty was all smiles at the Hollywood Bowl;" it's true, but it doesn't tell the whole story. He was the quintessential performer, and never let his fans see behind the curtain. To a casual onlooker, he probably came off as the same ol' SoCal super cool rock star TP as ever. It's only super obsessive, overly observant fans who have studied the man to extreme degrees for years and years that would dig deeper to get a different vibe.
I don't for a second believe he "knew he was going to die" or was "ready to die" or anything like that. At the same time, I would not be surprised at all if more was going on that nobody knew about, whether it be emotionally or physically or chemically or what have you. Granted, I didn't attend any shows on this tour in person. But from everything I've seen and studied in depth, he did seem a bit off to me, a little unsteady, a little unfocused. The performances were fine. But he could do them from muscle memory. It was like he was reading from a script, for fear of losing his grip if he ventured off. Gigantic mega tours can create that feeling. I was really looking forward to what he had to offer once he wound himself down and was back in a comfortable, relaxed environment, and I am very sorry and heartbroken that we'll never get to see what lay ahead. But there's no doubting he put 100% into whatever he did, including the grueling tour this summer. We may never know what toll that took.

"I'm just so sad," Campbell says now, "to think that I'm not going to play those songs again."
It's been two weeks, but this is still not sinking in. 

https://www.yahoo.com/music/newly-solo-dhani-harrison-remembers-tom-petty-first-person-played-record-023102993.html

Thirtysomething. First time New Year's 1979, last time June 2013.

^ There you go - The Black Crowes might be my all-time favorite opener for Tom Petty.  Back to back shows and they didn't repeat a song.  Another great one was Joe Cocker.  Tremendous performance by Joe Cocker. 

That would be my answer too, had I only lived in America some 10 or 20 years before I did
Either way, that is a number (without being a number) of jealousy!

Noooooo!!

That would be my answer too, had I only lived in America some 10 or 20 years before I did
Either way, that is a number (without being a number) of jealousy!

My best estimate... More than 30. Less than 50.

Boss works for me. That doesn't sound right, does it?

Trying something I haven't had in years. My mom used to fry small chicken legs and thighs in a cast iron pan with green and red bell peppers. That's what I'm cooking today wishing my mom was still here to have supper with me. The chicken smells great, can wait to add the bell peppers and get that flavor into the chicken. gonna be eatin' good today. And the house is gonna smell great!!!

Looking back I believe Tom knew that his time in this realm was drawing to a close. The last interview where he gave Ron some special praise was a very touching moment I thought...Mike and Benmont get a lot of plaudits but it was nice to give Ron his due there...the last three years post 2014..the timing of it all..the Mudcrutch album and tour, indeed in some ways the Mudcrutch tour last year would have been the ideal way to bow out of stage performance for Tom in my view. The Heartbreakers just concluded tour.from the start it just all seemed a bit..I can't find the right word or maybe its too early to be even thinking about the context of all of this at all...again i go back to the human dimension in all this..but for me anyway the last tour was a difficult watch on a human level particularly towards the end and that had nothing to do with set lists or songs played...my heart just went out to Tom and the body language of the rest of the band on stage especially in the last few shows..it was as if they knew as well...bigger picture and maybe the more important aspect the only aspect you could say is the music and the over 40 year treasure trove of songs and performances....
I think Tom kept going until he couldn't keep going no more and then kept going some more......
 
 

Bless you for thinking that's where people go when they leave this place. Outside.. If only.
 
As for me, I'm not even sure there is a life outside the matrix no more.
 
 
Good to see you again! You've been missed.

Bless you for thinking that's where people go when they leave this place. Outside.. If only.
 
As for me, I'm not even sure there is a life outside the matrix no more.
 
 
Good to see you again! You've been missed.

I haven't been praying, just grieving. My heart is sick. I've been dreaming of Tom most nights. Then when I wake up in the morning, the loss just washes over me again. I haven't cried the last 2 days, so I guess that's an improvement. I can't listen to Tom's music yet though. I'm going to watch Runnin' Down a Dream with my best friend, Devon, this weekend. I'm happy to share the story of my hero with her. She's always been just a very casual fan, but she's been reading lots of articles about Tom since his death, two of which she liked, in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. I read them and thought they were pretty good. Sorry that I haven't been around in such a long time. The Farm is a special place and I feel bad that I've neglected it.

It didn't get airplay til it was already "old", released as vault material on Playback, I assume? And hardly that, right.
I say a proper single, back when would've done the trick. (And/or inclusion on FMF) That's as for your "Why", I think. It could've been a hit had they just released it.

10/11/17
TPATH