Today's song is the brilliant Fooled Again (I Don't Like It). Head over to the official Tom Petty youtube channel and go listen to the song: https://youtu.be/iIh3hMRIAbk.
You should also check this super heavy live version of the song from 1977 which sees some intro shredding from Mike. https://youtu.be/u18JPFFFIS8
In the episode I discuss some sonic similatiries I hear with an English band from around the same period called Sad Cafe. Here's probably my favourite track they released: https://youtu.be/K75Q-0wMgn0
I also mentioned that you check out the music of my very good friend Randy Woods. Two of my favourite tracks from the new Randy Woods Band new album, Soul Hammer, are Space Queen (https://youtu.be/pq_mCwY_a6Y) and Bottom End Machine (https://youtu.be/efBpffvB84k). They don't sound a damn thing like Tom Petty, but they're a great band. I also mentioned that you should check out Jake Thistle. Watch him do a great cover of Learning to Fly, in some pretty esteemed company! https://youtu.be/TsnNQrJ4lao
(* Note - the transcript is as-written before recording. I usually change a few sentences or words here and there on the hoof as I'm speaking.)
Hello, good evening, and welcome, as David Frost used to say. Today’s episode covers what I would argue is probably the best of the lesser-known tracks on the debut album; Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It). As a quick aside, I’d posted the first five “scored” (in inverted commas) from the album on the Tom Petty Nation facebook group and took a few hits over my perceived-low-ratings of a couple of tracks; notably, Rockin Around With you and Anything That’s Rock n Roll. This was a lesson in communications really as, without listening to the podcast episodes and getting a sense of where I’m coming from, I realized that the -ratings- could definitely be misinterpreted, especially by hard-core Pettyheads. I certainly didn’t take any offence at the direct feedback I received, as I’m a huge fan and realize that without context, it would be easy to see how some people thought that maybe I was a casual listener just spouting off. Nothing could be further from the truth I hope! As with all “ratings” systems, they tend to be entirely subjective, but I’ve tried to be really honest with my assessments and rankings, for what they’re worth. If you rate every song a ten, then it becomes a bit meaningless really. Tom Petty is one of the greatest songwriters of all time and to fail to recognize that he grew as an artist and was not yet fully-formed on this often-times-chaotic debut album would be to do him a disservice I think!
Anyway, I digress! As always, there’s a link in the episode notes so that you can go listen to Fooled Again before you listen to this episode. There’s a link in the episode notes, so go do that now and we can reconvene and discuss this gem of a track.
Thematically, Fooled Again actually follows on quite nicely from Strangered in the Night. We open with guitar and drums, with a quite foreboding feel to the song. You definitely get the sense that the young punk in the leather jacket on the album cover isn’t messing around on this one.
To break from tradition, I’m not going to dig right into the rhythm section, as I usually do (I guess you can take the boy away from the drum kit!) Anyway, the vocals on this song really presage a lot of the work that Tom would go on to do on Damn The Torpedoes, Hard Promises, and out to some of the later work on Mojo and Hypnotic Eye. It’s a vocal quality that dares you to doubt the singer’s sincerity. It’s raw, it’s hard-edged and direct, and when he hits those “I don’t like it” in the choruses, it’s absolutely electric. Petty is usually referred to in lists of great songwriters and artists who had impeccable integrity, but I don’t think he’s often talked about in terms of the top shelf of rock vocalists. He wasn’t a vocal shredder like Plant, didn’t have the range of David Coverdale, and wasn’t as soulful as Hendrix, but on songs like Fooled Again he brought out the absolute fury of rock n roll that would elevate songs like I Need to Know, Refugee, and Rebels to stadium-rock heights that few have bettered. Let’s not forget that pesky tenth track on this album too, but Fooled Again is Petty’s first foray into snarling his was through that sort of “aggrieved” or “wronged” party he could leverage so well when needed. Flash forward to 2010’s Mojo and you have the same kind of disdain for his subject on I Should Have Known It. One of the things he does on this song that I hear throughout his career, and we’ll talk a little about it specifically when we cover Walls No.3 from She’s the one, is how he can bend certain syllables to wring every last drop of emotion out them. Listen to the way he sings “Again” the second time through on the build out of the first verse. He gets more out of two syllables than most singers could get out of an entire verse. You believe that this is a heart that is, ironically, broken to pieces.
This song also contains one of, if not the best lyric on the whole album, if you take American Girl and put to one side I guess. That second verse is just stunning and the the third and fourth lines are the work of a master craftsman. “If two is one, I might as well be three. It’s good to see you think so much of me”. Classic, classic Petty wordsmithing. The odd man out. The third wheel. The bridesmaid and never the bride. We have that acceptance of being screwed over, then the absolutely cold response to it. “It’s good to see you think so much of me”. Acerbic sarcasm in the face of rejection. Brilliant.
That second verse is repeated as the third verse in a songwriting trick as old as time. But man, when you have a lyric that strong, you can absolutely hang your hat on it. Vocally and lyrically, this is a song way ahead of most of the rest of the album. Only in places does any other song hit the consistent high that this song reaches. I’d said in episode four that The Wild One might be my favourite vocal performance on the album, but I’m going to have to contradict myself early in the podcast and say that this one definitely surpasses it.
OK, let’s talk about Benmont Tench. I regard Benmont as one of the most overlooked band members of any rock band that’s ever existed. Again, he’s not a shredder. He’s not going to Harry Connick a Lydian scale solo in 9/8 time, but what he’s always going to give you is the absolute perfect keyboard part to any song. He’s understated to a degree that can leave him overlooked, but his strength as a musician, appreciating the space in a song, is never more apparent that on this track. There are two keyboard parts in the song, including a steady piano groove that really guides the progression of the melody moreso than the guitar. In the lead into the chorus, we also get an incredibly simple, but essential synth pad playing up high. That atmospheric touch really crescendos the song from a tale of woe in to a testament of defiance. These are all the things you did, and this is how I feel. That synth underlines the latter beautifully.
The rhythm section on this one is probably the least restrained and most inventive Ron Blair track of any song on the album. Ron walks all over that stuttering kick snare pattern and adds a ton of width to that bottom end so that, again, you really get that sense of unease coming through the verses and building into the chorus. As we head into the middle eight, we see him really running down the fretboard and dropping onto the real low-end notes to cap that downward progression. When you’re in minor chords and you build out into a major break, you release that tension wonderfully. We then see that slide back into the high synth pad and the guitar dropping back out of the lead to recreate that tension back into the verses. Into that last chorus we also now see some fantastic bluesy guitar from Mr. Campbell. Tom and Jeff Jourard keep things really simple rhythmically so that the guitar licks, when they do come in, really pop.
Stan Lynch’s drums are another standout for me on this track. He’s definitely given a little more room to add some flair to proceedings, which definitely isn’t always the case on Heartbreakers records. Like The Wild One, we get more movement from the rhythm section that we do from the lead and Stan gets to hit that kick drum more often than you usually find on the album. I really love the way the drums are mic-d and mixed on this one too. They sound bigger that pretty much any other track than Breakdown. We also hear some nice flams on the snare in there and Stan’s typical killer hi-hat control really work well with Ron’s kickass bassline.
On most of the Heartbreakers best songs, Mike Campbell is centre-stage in some way, but on Fooled Again, he does what all the very top musicians does and gets well out of the way of the song when he doesn’t need to be there. What he does provide is that shimmering, shining guitar tone in the bridge and then again during the outro. But he doesn’t overplay anything and just accentuates what the rhythm section and Benmont are pushing.
The bridge in this song really reminds me of an English band named Sad Cafe who came to prominence around the same time as the Heartbreakers. They had similar grooves and could switch to that really major-chord swing in that same uplifting way.
Time once again for some Petty Trivia!
So last week, I asked you which to Tom Petty bandmates share a birthday that was celebrated on September 16th. The answer is Ron Blair, who was born in 1948 in San Diego Calfornia, and Tom Leadon, the rhythm guitarist from Mudcrutch, who was born in Rosemount, Minnesota in 1952. Ron left the heartbreakers in 1981 after the release of Hard Promises, returning after the untimely death of Howie Epstein in 2003. Tom Leadon’s brother Bernie was one of the founding members of the Eagles and Tom toured with Linda Ronstadt as her bassist. He was also credited by Tom Petty as one of the main reasons he moved to LA to try to make it in the music industry.
Today’s question is this: Which TWO Tom Petty songs feature the following lines: "I remember feeling this way. You can lose it without knowing."
Fooled Again was recorded by the Heartbreakers as a band proper, but also saw Jeff Jourard sit in on guitar. The band moved to a different studio for that song because Denny Cordell apparently liked the location. The track was recorded at the old Warner’s studio on the Warner’s lot. It was heavily-unionized though and the engineers took a break every three hours. The Heartbreakers didn’t stay long and only recorded the one song there because, as Tom said in Conversations With Tom Petty, “It was “just too grown up”. Grownups are most definitely antithetical to real rock n roll!
Fooled Again is one of those songs that sticks with you. I think the B-side of this album overall is incredibly strong and closes with one of the greatest rock n roll songs ever written, but Fooled Again sits perfectly in the track 7 slot, solidifying the idea that this is a band that isn’t just another brash, throwaway, flash in the pan, but a group of serious musicians fronted by a songwriter of immense potential. It’s another track that is on pretty much every serious Tom Petty fans’ playlist and would be one of the most commonly cited deep cuts. It’s one of my favourite tracks on the album and I’d argue one of the best sounding in terms of mix and balance.
Well, we’re done again and I really don’t know where the time goes! It’s now time for me to rate Fooled Again. I think the hard core fans will likely agree with me on this and more casual listeners will maybe wonder whether I’m being kind, but Fooled Again is a 9/10 for me. Why is it not a ten? Well, the only reason I’ll hold back that distinction is because it’s on the same album as American Girl and Breakdown. It was a sometimes-reprised live track even up to 2013 and again, a song that I absolutely love, but, is it Tom Petty at the absolute top of his game? I don’t know that I can stretch quite that far. If I was doing half points, I’d maybe go to 9.5/10 but it’s a really solid 9, flirting with a 10. It’s flirting to the point that doors should be closed and parents should be out of the house, but I’m OK with a 9/10. Actually, it’s probably a 10, and would be for most artists, but you have to remember that Tom Petty went on to write some benchmark songs in the genre. So 9 it is and I don’t want to hear another word about it!
QUESTION: Which TWO Tom Petty songs feature the following lines: "I remember feeling this way. You can lose it without knowing."
ANSWER: The first, which most of you would have got right away, was the brilliantly atmospheric Don’t Fade On Me, from the Wildflowers album. The second was U Get Me High, from The Heartbreaker’s first US #1 album; 2014s excellent Hypnotic Eye. The second two lines of that verse are very slightly different between the two songs, to accommodate the different rhythm. Tom isn’t the first artist, of course, to repeat lines in different songs. Sting uses “it’s a big enough umbrella but it’s always me that ends up getting wet” in at least two and I think possible three songs. A quick shout out to the boys in the Honest and Unmerciful podcast for inadvertently giving me the idea for this song after they discussed repeated lines in their review of The Police’s classic album Ghost in the Machine!
Strange voice on the telephone
Tellin' me I better leave you 'lone
Why won't somebody say what's goin' on
Oh, oh, I think I've been through this before
Looks like I've been fooled again
Looks like I'm the fool again
I don't like it, I don't like it
You never said you had no longer to
I need to know 'bout it if you do
If two is one, I might as well be three
It's good to see you think so much of me
Looks like I've been fooled again
Looks like I'm the fool again
I don't like it, I don't like it
Look out
You never said you had no longer to
I'll need to know 'bout it if you do
If two is one, I might as well be three
It's good to see you think so much of me
Looks like I've been fooled again
Looks like I'm the fool again
I don't like it, I don't like it
I don't like it, I don't like it
Look out
I don't like it, I don't like it
'Cause again you gotta look out
I don't, I don't like it
'Cause again you gotta look out
I don't like it
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