Tom Petty’s 1997 Fillmore Residency Gets Box Set Treatment
A box set culled from a series of shows Tom Petty considered a highlight of his career will be released in November. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Live at the Fillmore (1997) will be released in several configurations on Nov. 25.
It will feature recordings from the band's 20-concert residency at the Fillmore in San Francisco between Jan. 10 and Feb. 7, 1997. They played dozens of songs during the run and recorded six of the shows.
You can see the track listing for the six-LP configuration below and listen to the collection's first single, "Listen to Her Heart."
Earlier this year, guitarist Mike Campbell, who co-produced Live at the Fillmore with Ryan Ulyate, confirmed to UCR that the set was on its way. "It’s been mixed, [and] I hear it is coming out,” he said in February. "I’m really proud of it. It was one of the greatest parts of our career. We were free to not have to play the hits every night. We changed the songs and took some liberties with some of the arrangements here and there. I’m really glad we got that on tape. Of course, we had some guest artists like John Lee Hooker, Roger McGuinn, Bo Diddley."
During another interview in August, Campbell told UCR that the Fillmore stand "was some of my favorite gigs ever. So I'm glad to have that coming out, properly mixed and in a package that's really good. I think that's a piece of the Heartbreakers that shows a lot of depth that you don't hear on the normal concert sets. The band was so good at thinking on their feet and playing songs spontaneously, and the Fillmore captures that. It's one of my favorite things we ever did."
Over 20 nights the set lists included covers of the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil," the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction," JJ Cale's "Call Me the Breeze," Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," the Kinks' "You Really Got Me," Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" and dozens more. No two nights at the Fillmore were the same.
"It's a very magical record," Campbell said in August, "because it's the Heartbreakers not doing their hits and just having fun and playing at that venue, which is really spiritual, and changing the set every night. You can feel that kinetic energy in the band. We're really just letting our guard down and having fun and playing some really great music."
Live at the Fillmore, the late Petty’s first concert release in 13 years, comes in basic two-CD and three-LP sets with 33 tracks, 18 of those covers. There will also be four-CD and six-LP deluxe versions with 58 tracks (35 covers), as well as a six-LP Uber Deluxe package sold exclusively at Petty’s website that will come housed in a handmade, custom-sized cymbal road case, with extras such as an All Access laminate, a reprint of the eight-page fan club newsletter from 1997, an embroidered patch, a replica baseball hat and other memorabilia. All of the sets include Petty's often expansive spoken interludes, song introductions and between-song comments in their entireties, with titles like "Sorry, I've Just Broken My Amplifier" and "Did Someone Say Heartbreakers Beach Party."
"I thought the Fillmore would be the best place to do it, because the audience here is much more forgiving in as far as letting you experiment – and it proved true," Petty told Mojo in 1999. "They just went with us, to the point that we got very comfortable over that long run. I think the long run was a great idea because we weren't promoting anything, and we had no reason to do it other than we wanted to do it."
Petty was hot to get the Fillmore recordings to the public. In 2005 he told this writer, "I have a whole album from the Fillmore when we did that 20-night stand there a few years ago. There's 115 different songs, and at some point, I'd really like to put an album out of that."
Campbell told UCR in August that he and Ulyate put in some effort when choosing the songs. "It's a lot of work, but the approach is very simple - you listen to the take and if the vocal is great, you listen closer," he said. "If the vocal is not perfect, you skip over it, because if the vocal ain't good, nothing else will matter. No matter how good the band plays, if the singing isn't right in the magic zone, there's no point mixing it. So we'd listen closely to the vocal. If Tom was right on the money on that take, we'd work and finish it. He was pretty consistent, actually. He was good on most of the stuff, all the time."
The guitarist and his band the Dirty Knobs will be returning to the Fillmore for a show on Oct. 25, in between dates opening for the Who. "I haven't thought about the set list at the Fillmore yet," Campbell said. "I always do an homage to the Heartbreakers in the Dirty Knobs shows. I'll do two or three, sometimes four songs because I love doing them and the Knobs do them really well, and they're songs I co-wrote so I enjoy getting to sing them myself. We'll certainly acknowledge that I've played [the Fillmore] before, many times, including those shows in '97."
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 'Live at the Fillmore (1997)' Track Listing
Side 1
1. "Pre-show" (spoken interlude)
2. "Around and Around"
3. "Jammin’ Me"
4. "Runnin’ Down a Dream"
5. "Good Evening" (spoken interlude)
6. "Lucille"
7. "Call Me the Breeze"
Side 2
1. "Cabin Down Below"
2. "The Internet, Whatever That Is" (spoken interlude)
3. "Time Is on My Side"
4. "Listen to Her Heart"
5. "Waitin’ In School"
6. "Let’s Hear It for Mike" (spoken interlude)
7. "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
8. "Homecoming Queen Intro" (spoken interlude)
9. "The Date I Had With That Ugly Old Homecoming Queen"
Side 3
1. "I Won’t Back Down"
2. "You Are My Sunshine"
3. "Ain’t No Sunshine"
4. "It's Good to Be King"
Side 4
1. "Rip It Up"
2. "You Don’t Know How It Feels"
3. "I’d Like to Love You Baby"
4. "Diddy Wah Diddy"
5. "We Got a Long Way to Go" (spoken interlude)
6. "Guitar Boogie Shuffle"
7. "I Want You Back Again"
Side 5
1. "On the Street Intro" (spoken interlude)
2. "On the Street"
3. "California"
4. "Let’s Hear It For Scott and Howie" (spoken interlude)
5. "Little Maggie"
6. "Walls"
7. "Hip Hugger"
8. "Friend of the Devil"
Side 6
1. "Did Someone Say Heartbreakers Beach Party?" (spoken interlude)
2. "Heartbreakers Beach Party"
3. "Angel Dream"
4. "The Wild One, Forever"
5. "Even the Losers"
6. "American Girl"
7. "You Really Got Me"
8. "Goldfinger"
Side 7
1. "Mr. Roger McGuinn" (spoken interlude)
2. "It Won’t Be Wrong"
3. "You Ain’t Going Nowhere"
4. "Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man"
5. "Eight Miles High"
6. "Crazy Mama"
7. "Everyone Loves Benmont" (spoken interlude)
8. "Green Onions"
Side 8
1. "High Heel Sneakers"
2. "John Lee Hooker, Ladies and Gentlemen" (spoken interlude)
3. "Find My Baby" (Locked Up In Love Again)
4. "Serves You Right to Suffer"
5. "Boogie Chillen"
6. "I Got a Woman"
Side 9
1. "Sorry, I’ve Just Broken My Amplifier" (spoken interlude)
2. "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door"
3. "Honey Bee"
4. "County Farm"
Side 10
1. "You Wreck Me"
2. "Shakin’ All Over"
3. "Free Fallin’"
4. "Mary Jane’s Last Dance"
Side 11
1. "Bye Bye Johnny"
2. "(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction"
3. "It’s All Over Now"
4. "Louie Louie"
Side 12
1. "Gloria"
2. "Alright For Now"
3. "Goodnight" (spoken interlude)