Playback (1995) 


 

Disc One 
 1. Breakdown
 2. American Girl
 3. Hometown Blues
 4. Anything That's Rock & Roll
 5. I Need to Know
 6. Listen to Her Heart
 7. When the Time Comes
 8. Too Much Ain't Enough
 9. No Second Thoughts
 10.Baby's a Rock & Roller
 11.Refugee
 12.Here Comes My Girl
 13.Even the Losers
 14.Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
 15.Don't Do Me Like That
 16.The Waiting
 17.A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)
 18.Something Big
 19.A Thing About You
 20.Insider
 21.You Can Still Change Your Mind
 
Disc Two
 1. You Got Lucky
 2. Change of Heart
 3. Straight Into Darkness
 4. The Same Old You
 5. Rebels
 6. Don't Come Around Here No More
 7. Southern Accents
 8. Make it Better (Forget About Me)
 9. The Best of Everything
 10.So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star
 11.Don't Bring Me Down
 12.Jammin' Me
 13.It'll All Work Out
 14.Mike's Life/Mike's World
 15.Think About Me
 16.A Self Made Man
 
Disc Three
 1. Free Fallin'
 2. I Won't Back Down
 3. Love is a Long Road
 4. Runnin' Down a Dream
 5. Yer So Bad
 6. Alright for Now
 7. Learning to Fly
 8. Into the Great Wide Open
 9. All or Nothin'
 10.Out in the Cold
 11.Built to Last
 12.Mary Jane's Last Dance
 13.Christmas All Over Again
 
Disc Four
 1. Casa Dega
 2. Heartbreaker's Beach Party
 3. Trailer
 4. Cracking Up
 4. Psychotic Reaction
 5. I'm Tired Joey Boy
 7. Lonely Weekends
 8. Gator on the Lawn
 9. Make That Connection
 10.Down the Line
 11.Peace in L.A.
 12.It's Rainin' Again
 13.Somethin' Else
 14.I Don't Know What to Say to You
 15.King's Highway
 
Disc Five
 1. On the Street
 2. Depot Street
 3. Cry to Me
 4. Don't Do Me Like That
 5. I Can't Fight It
 6. Since You Said You Loved Me
 7. Louisiana Rain
 8. Keeping Me Alive
 9. Turning Point
 10.Stop Dragging My Heart Around
 11.The Apartment Song
 12.Big Boss Man
 13.The Image of Me
 14.Moon Pie
 15.The Damage You've Done
 
Disc Six
 1. Got My Mind Made Up
 2. Ways to Be Wicked
 3. Can't Get Her Out
 4. Waiting for Tonight
 5. Travelin'
 6. Baby Let's Play House
 7. Wooden Heart
 8. God's Gift to Man
 9. You Get Me High
 10.Come on Down to My House
 11.You Come Through
 12.Up in Mississippi Tonight

 

After the phenomenal Greatest Hits album that reminded everyone just how talented this artist had been the past fifteen years, Petty switched record labels from MCA to Warner Brothers. Not surprisingly, a few years later, MCA decided to release a box set of 6 compact discs worth of Tom Petty material, with and without the Heartbreakers. 6 CDs is a lot. Probably too much considering how much here is throwaway material.

The first three CDs are a solid statement of all of his studio albums including all the hits and all the also rans. It runs a total of sixty songs, and that in itself is strong. What we then get, is three more compact discs of b-sides, older Mudcrutch (Petty's old band) material, some alternative versions of songs, and a lot of filler. A lot of filler. I would say that two out of these three CDs probably should have been left in the vault. There's just too much here, and there's good reason why most of it was never released. Then again, it's always nice for the fan, the serious fan that is, to have as much unreleased material as possible, but when you release a six CD set as opposed to a, say four CD box set, the price goes up substantially, and as "complete" as this is, you can't help but wonder if less would have been more.

Go back to the main page
Go To Next Review