Pack Up the Plantation: Live!

Pack Up the Plantation: Live! is the first official live album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released in November 1985 by MCA Records. It was released as a double LP and, in slightly truncated form, a single cassette or compact disc. A concert film of the same name was released on home video in 1986. Stevie Nicks sings on two songs, including the US single "Needles and Pins", which reached No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100.

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Background

The album was primarily recorded at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles during the band's 1985 tour, but also includes several tracks from previous tours. Stevie Nicks, who collaborated with Petty and frequently appeared with him on tour, sings with him on two songs on the album. The first is a cover of the Searchers' 1964 hit "Needles and Pins," which was released as a single and reached No. 37 in the Billboard Hot 100.^[1] Nicks' second track is "Insider", one of two cuts from Petty's 1981 LP Hard Promises that feature her.

"Breakdown" is notable because the audience takes over from Petty at the start, singing the first two verses and the chorus loud enough to be picked up by the mics. Petty quips, "You're going to put me out of a job", to huge applause, then launches into a reprise of the second verse.

Releases

No other singles were released from the album in the United States, although a cover of the Byrds' 1967 hit "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" was released in Europe. "Refugee" was also issued in Europe on a four-track EP.

A concert film of the Wiltern Theatre performance, also titled Pack Up the Plantation: Live!, was released on home video in 1986. It included songs that did not make the album, such as originals "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Don't Come Around Here No More", as well as covers such as "Little Bit O' Soul" and "Route 66".

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[2]
Blender	^[3]
Chicago Tribune	^[4]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	^[5]
The Essential Rock Discography	4/10^[6]
MusicHound	3.5/5^[7]
Rolling Stone	(mixed)^[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	^[9]
Sounds	^[10]

Sandy Robertson, writing for Sounds, described it as "a turgid four-sided video soundtrack".^[10]^{[clarification needed]} Jimmy Guterman, writing for Rolling Stone, said that Petty "sounds impassioned and impressive when he lays into his early songs", and that the Heartbreakers are "an undeniably great band."^[11]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine felt the album was a logical follow-up to the band's album Southern Accents, "criticized from many corners for being too slick," but relied too much on that album's material. He concluded that Pack Up the Plantation featured "strong performance and neat surprises", which "alone makes it worth investigating for dedicated fans, even if it doesn't quite deliver the knockout punch many listeners might have wanted."^[2]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Tom Petty, except as noted.

Side one
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star"	Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn	3:30
2.	"Needles and Pins"	Sonny Bono, Jack Nitzsche	2:23
3.	"The Waiting"		5:08
4.	"Breakdown"		7:43

Side two
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"American Girl"		3:50
2.	"It Ain't Nothin' to Me"	Petty, David A. Stewart	6:05
3.	"Insider"		5:16
4.	"Rockin' Around (With You)"	Petty, Mike Campbell	3:20

Side three
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Refugee"	Petty, Campbell	5:22
2.	"I Need to Know" (LP and cassette only)		2:30
3.	"Southern Accents"		5:20
4.	"Rebels"		6:10

Side four
No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Don't Bring Me Down"	Gerry Goffin, Carole King	3:40
2.	"You Got Lucky" (LP and cassette only)		4:20
3.	"Shout"	O'Kelly Isley, Ronald Isley, Rudolph Isley	9:30
4.	"Stories We Could Tell"	John Sebastian	3:55

The two songs appearing only on vinyl or cassette have never been officially released on CD. Both songs were also initially not included in the 2015 Hi-Rez remaster, despite being a digital download without time limits. However, after fan response, they were belatedly added to the release.

Recording information

All tracks recorded at the Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, California, August 7, 1985, except:

"Don't Bring Me Down" – Paradise Theater, Boston, July 16, 1978
"Stories We Could Tell" – Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, March 7, 1980, engineered by Charles Kaplan in the Mobile Manor Unit
"Needles and Pins", "Insider" – The Forum, Los Angeles, June 1981
"Shout" – The Coliseum, Richfield, Ohio, March 19, 1983
"Rockin' Around (With You)" – Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, California, June 1983

Personnel

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Stan Lynch – drums, vocals
Mike Campbell – lead guitar, 12-string, lap steel, slide guitars
Tom Petty – lead vocals, 6 and 12-string electric guitars, acoustic guitar
Benmont Tench – keyboards, vocals
Howie Epstein – bass guitar, mandolin, backing vocals

Soul Lips Horns (on tracks recorded at the Wiltern Theater)

Jimmy Zavala – saxes, harmonica
Lee Thornburg – trumpets, flugel horn
Nick Lane – trombones, euphonium

The Rebeletts (on tracks recorded at the Wiltern Theater)

Pat Peterson – backing vocals, percussion
Caroll Sue Hill – backing vocals, percussion

Additional musicians

Ron Blair – bass guitar on "Insider", "Needles and Pins", "Stories We Could Tell", "Don't Bring Me Down"
Phil Jones – percussion on "Insider", "Needles and Pins", "Rockin' Around (With You)", "Shout"
Bobby Valentino – violin on "Stories We Could Tell"
Stevie Nicks – vocals on "Insider", "Needles and Pins"

Technical

Tom Petty – producer
Mike Campbell – producer
Don Smith – engineer
Alan Weidel – assistant engineer
Doug Field – engineer
Mike Craver – engineer
Charles Kaplan – engineer ("Stories We Could Tell")
Shelly Yakus – engineer ("Shout", "Needles and Pins", "Insider")
Stephen Marcussen – mastering

Charts

Chart performance for *Pack Up the Plantation: Live!*
Year	Chart	Position
1986	US Billboard 200	22^[12]

References

^ "Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers". Billboard. Retrieved October 8, 2023.
^ ^a ^b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty - Pack Up the Plantation: Live! Album Reviews, Songs & More". AllMusic. Retrieved October 8, 2023.
^ "Tom Petty: Pack Up The Plantation—Live!". Blender. Archived from the original on June 15, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
^ Kot, Greg (September 1, 1991). "Through The Years With Tom Petty". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved November 5, 2017.
^ Larkin, Colin, ed. (2011). The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th edn). London: Omnibus Press. p. 2005. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
^ Strong, Martin C. (2006). The Essential Rock Discography. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate. p. 816. ISBN 978-1-84195-827-9.
^ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Visible Ink Press. p. 870. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
^ Guterman, Jimmy (January 16, 1986). "Pack Up The Plantation: Live!". Rolling Stone. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
^ "Tom Petty: Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2011. Retrieved November 4, 2017.
^ ^a ^b Robertson, Sandy (December 14, 1985). "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 'Pack Up the Plantation Live!'". Sounds. p. 28.
^ Guterman, Jimmy (January 16, 1986). "Pack Up The Plantation: Live!". Rolling Stone.
^ "Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved March 24, 2019.

v t e Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Tom Petty Mike Campbell Benmont Tench Ron Blair Stan Lynch Howie Epstein Scott Thurston Steve Ferrone
Studio albums	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers You're Gonna Get It! Damn the Torpedoes Hard Promises Long After Dark Southern Accents Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) Into the Great Wide Open Songs and Music from "She's the One" Echo The Last DJ Mojo Hypnotic Eye
Live albums	Official Live 'Leg Pack Up the Plantation: Live! The Live Anthology Mojo Tour 2010 Kiss My Amps Live at the Fillmore 1997
Compilations	Greatest Hits Playback Anthology: Through the Years An American Treasure The Best of Everything
Videography	Pack Up the Plantation: Live! Hard to Handle w/ Bob Dylan Playback Live at the Olympic: The Last DJ Runnin' Down a Dream
Songs	"Breakdown" "American Girl" "Anything That's Rock 'n' Roll" "I Need to Know" "Listen to Her Heart" "Don't Do Me Like That" "Refugee" "Here Comes My Girl" "Even the Losers" "The Waiting" "A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)" "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" "You Got Lucky" "Change of Heart" "Don't Come Around Here No More" "Rebels" "Southern Accents" "Make It Better (Forget About Me)" "Jammin' Me" "Learning to Fly" "Into the Great Wide Open" "Something in the Air" "Mary Jane's Last Dance" "Walls (Circus)" "Change the Locks" "Room at the Top" "Surrender" "The Last DJ" "I Should Have Known It"
Related articles	Discography Songs Awards Mudcrutch Blue Stingrays Unchained

This page was last edited on 6 November 2023, at 02:05