Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - The Live Anthology (4 CD)
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Free Music Notes for The Live Anthology (4 CD)
Free Music Review: Superb value for Petty fans
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, this is the 19th review of this collection so it is not really necessary to pile on but I guess I'll add my two cents worth. First of all, I am not a big Tom Petty fan and own little of his music. I do appreciate his rather hippie chic persona though and he would probably be a great guy to share an August evening on a porch in Louisiana with. While the musicianship is stellar, this band does not grab me musically and the attraction has to be with the songwriting and the vocals. The songwriting has never approached the level of a Springsteen or a Dylan to me although I do like his vocals.
What we have here is a 4 CD collection of live tracks from a long span of time. The tunes feature the well known recognizable to even mild fans like myself and many others probably more familiar to the bands many real fans. In addition, there are a number of cover tunes including Something In The Air, Oh Well, I'm A Man and Green Onions. Whether there are too many covers on this collection, I cannot say and assume it is representative of a Petty concert for variety. They all were fine with me and some were surprising...who plays Something In the Air these days? So we have 4 CD's of Petty tunes and covers recorded live with excellent sound, thoughtfully sequenced by Petty and Band and decent packaging which is paper sleeves for each disc and a short booklet.
So why give this 5 stars? Well, in a word, value. For a Petty fan, how can you do better than this for the low cost? I do not think you can. This is what all prominent artists should be doing for their fans. Combing the vaults for rare and unreleased live stuff and getting it out there with tender loving care at a great price point. Let the music speak for itself and give something back to the fans. Well done Tom Petty and I hope to see others follow your example of how to do this right. For comparison, have a look at what the Stones just put out - a box set of Get Your Ya Ya's Out. For double the price you get the original released tracks, 5 unreleased tracks, another disc with BB King and Ike & Tina Turner and a DVD with 6 tracks. You be the judge of what represents value. My vote goes to Petty and hence the 5 stars. 'Nuff said.
Free Music Review: Qualified 5-star review - mucho bang for your buck if you're a big TP&HB fan
Hit: 5 Stars
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?
Free Music Review: Wow
Hit: 5 Stars
This is truly a great album. Tom Petty is one of the few musicians that seems to not have an ego problem. He seems like he cares for fans, and he has offered up a wonderful collection for less than twenty dollars. Thats a little less than five dollars for each disc, and no one can beat that price. The songs come from several years of touring, and surprisingly enough, the audio is wonderful! Some live albums really miss the mark in the sound department, especially one that is a bargain like this, but this album is truly worth it. The songs come in no set order when it comes to time. The liner notes in the cd say that Tom and the guys in the band tried to mix the songs together to get a good sound.
I am only 19, so i'm not too familiar with all of Tom Petty's material, but i think this is a great representation of what the band is really all about. The songs are not all hits. It is actually not as common on this album to see his biggest hits. That is what impresses me the most. This is an album of the bands favorite songs, and it shows just how tight the band really is. The musicianship is very good, and even slower songs are have energy in them. The vocals are also very well done. Tom Petty and the guys can still produce good quality singing despite playing instruments live on stage at the same time.
I would say this is very worth buying. It has enough material to keep anyone busy listening for a long time. As a fairly new fan, I recommend this to newer fans. People that love the band and have loved them for a long time need to buy this as well. I'm thankful that there are bands like this that love fans enough to try this hard live, and also are generous enough to make compilations like this for a reasonable price. Go get this. You won't be sorry!!
Free Music Review: The Live Anthology
Hit: 5 Stars
After a long wait and the excellent `Pack Up The Plantation' live album we finally have a Tom Petty Live Collection and it is amazing. Across four disc you get a wide selection of his live performances and examples of his popular tracks, more obscure ones, as well as some top flight covers. This package has the outer box, four imitation record sleeves holding the discs and a great little booklet with an introduction by Tom explaining how he chose various tracks. I love the versions of `Wildflowers' and `Angel Dream' on offer here and I have been playing `Lost Without You' over and over since hearing it, but to be honest every song on this collection is a gem. You get to hear how tight this band is and how much the audience react to their performances and to say I got goosebumps when certain songs started would be no exaggeration. I have been hankering for a live collection for so long now and this has satiated my appetite until the next wonderful album arrives. If you are a fan of Tom then snap this up and if you are a fan of good music and classy playing then this is required listening as well. Simply outstanding.
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Free Music Review: Heartbreakers in their natural habitat
Hit: 5 Stars
Nothing beats a live Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert on a clear summer night. If there was any way to stuff that experience into a box and take it home with you, this is it. (I highly recommend the deluxe set with the bonus DVDs and Blue Ray disc.)
Tom Petty is by far the best live performer I've seen in concert. After listening to the studio recordings until my ears were numb, it's refreshing to hear the band breathe fresh life into the familiar hits and obscure gems.
The band's cover of Van Morrison's "Mystic Eyes" is by itself worth the cost of the box set. This track (a staple closer of the most recent tours) lets every musician in the band shine, along with Petty's signature "talking part" and call-and-response with the audience. I can't help but stop whatever I'm doing and crank it full blast every time it comes on.
I think my favorite part of the live performances is that Petty lets keyboardist Benmont Tench off his leash a bit. The piano gets drowned out in the guitar-laden studio recordings, but really comes through in concert.
So buy it already!