Ok...here I am...buzzed, and listening to Echo. That dang Petty just knows how to put our feelings into perspective. How does anybody do that? Guess he's been thru so much he can just relate to all the grief...cause he's just like us? Thanks Tom. That same sad Echo around here. Down..but it won't last long!

Echo is a great album. Esp. good after break ups.

one more night....

I love Echo. It's one of my favorites. It sure does comfort you when you're down, in a sort of "misery loves company" way.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: little nel,

It really is. I found it interesting that he said he hears some of those songs and barely remembers writing them, let alone recording them. It says something about trauma I think. Tough times for him during that album.

Yeah, very tough time for him during that period. I remember reading that he and Dana were driving somewhere and she had popped Echo in and I forget which song it was in particular, but he was like "What's this?" Didn't recall it at all!

Lol...I'm sorry but that just sounds so funny to me.


Picture Tom and Dana driving off for a bit of shopping. Dana pops in a CD..

Tom: Now Dana..THIS isn't bad. Not bad at all in fact. I wonder who this band is. Need a little work, but they aint half bad are they?

Dana: Say what honey?

Tom: THIS cd...great sound, a little depressing, but on the whole quite professional sounding and interesting wouldn't you say? See? Not ALL new bands are awful!

Dana: Tom sweetie pie..it's you!

Tom: Say what?

Dana: The CD.....it's YOU, it's your ECHO album

Tom: What album?

Dana: Echo!

Tom: Are you sure? When did I record that? You sure that isn't Roger Mcguinn?

Dana: It's YOU......released April 1999

Tom: For fucks sake.....I don't recall writing or recording those songs at all. Did I tour with it?

Dana: Dear God almighty Tom......YES!

Tom: Hmmmmmmm

Dana: Well it WAS your prozac period Tommy

^LOL !

I was listening to a boot the other day of the Echo tour - and was struck by how down he sounded through the whole concert. Hard to describe, but he sounded kind of hollow and sad. Poor guy, he must have really been going through a rough patch at that time.

It's a great album. Obviously he was in pain.
So here's the question(s):

Are we better off with the album?
Or should we have wished him gleeful happiness? The kind from which there's no impetus to write great music?
And how can Tom write so well in the midst of pain?
(If I had to make such an album, it's sound like Yoka Ono howling in distress with ulcerated gums. I mean it would be baaaaad.)
Is Tom an oyster who makes pearls from grains of sand?
(He doesn't look like an oyster...)
Why do all my pearls turn to sh*t?
Maybe I'll start a whole new category for answers to that.

quote:

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I was listening to a boot the other day of the Echo tour - and was struck by how down he sounded through the whole concert

---

I caught the Toronto show during the ECHO tour. He SO wasn't into it. There was no interraction with the audience, he looked like he just wasn't into it at all and couldn't wait to get out of the venue. I have a boot of that show too. I wanted it because I love to have recordings of the shows I go to, but it was by far the worst show I've ever seen him do.

^^EMMIE lol.
^BLUEGILL raises an interesting proposition.
Is Tom better of w/ ECHO. Are we?

And I guess the standard answer is artists suffer for their work. Etc.

Tom is very happy now. ECHO is a classic album of 'playing through the pain'

Even the happiness of "Room at the Top" is just for that night.
Heavy, man.

I think it is one of his most brilliant and honest works. Speaks to me on such a deep level. It might be because it came out right as my marriage was breaking up as well and why it still reverberates with me no matter how many times I listen to it. It is definitely in my top 3 of TPaTH records.

I never heard him during the Echo tour but I looove Echo. I am not surprised that he would sound a bit sad, after all his dad died and he got a divorce the same year. Kind of rough for anyone I think.

I have to admit that I never liked Echo too much and much preferred the Last DJ. It's not the melancholy of Echo, no- my favorite Petty song is "Southern Accents," which, though, sad is amazing. I think most of the songs on Echo aren't up to TP's standards. The Last DJ, on the other hand, is a much more cohesive album.