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Certain Songs #2493: Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”

November 24, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bella Donna
Year: 1981

. . .

I’m pretty sure everybody knows the story of this song, but just in case, it goes like this: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were recording Hard Promises with producer Jimmy Iovine — who had helmed their breakthrough Damn The Torpedoes — and “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” was one of the songs they recorded but decided on to put on the album.

By this time, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty were already really close friends — a friendship that started in the late 1970s and lasted until Petty’s death (which still fucking sucks, by the way) — and in fact, Petty wrote “Insider” for her album, but it ended up on Hard Promises. Meanwhile, the story goes that Nicks wanted Petty to produce her solo debut, but he recommended Iovine, and Nicks and Iovine hit it off so well that they were living together after a couple of weeks. Cocaine is a helluva drug.

Certain Songs #2492: Steve Wynn – “Annie & Me”

November 23, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crossing Dragon Bridge
Year: 2008

. . .

After his “desert trilogy” — three albums full of his trademark noisy rock — Steve Wynn took a hard left turn at Albuquerque and ended up in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where he spent three weeks making a record with producer Chris Eckman. After decades of recording with a band, the basic tracks were all Wynn, who played guitars, bass, whatever he thought made sense.

Certain Songs #2491: Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 – “No Tomorrow”

November 22, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album:… Tick… Tick…Tick
Year: 2006

. . .

The final album in what Steve Wynn called his “Desert Trilogy” once again featured the Miracle 3, this time actually pared down to the threesome of drummer Linda Pitmon, bassist Bob DeCastro and guitarist Jason Victor, and while I didn’t like it quite as much, it still had “No Tomorrow,” one of the weirder songs in Wynn’s solo canon.

Certain Songs #2490: Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 – “Amphetamine”

November 21, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Static Transmission
Year: 2003

. . .

The hot streak initiated by Here Comes The Miracles continued on Steve Wynn’s next album, 2003’s Static Transmission, which was credited to Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3. Naturally, the Miracle 3 had four people: long-time accomplices Linda Pitmon on drums, Bob DeCastro on bass, hot shot guitarist Jason Victor — who would eventually join Wynn in The Dream Syndicate 3.0 — and Chris Cacavas on keyboards (though the album does say “with” in his credit, so I guess technically, he wasn’t a Miracle 3, but I’m not going to let that get in the way of a cheap joke).

Certain Songs #2489: Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 – “What Comes After”

November 19, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Static Transmission
Year: 2003

. . .

If the last song on the 2001’s Here Comes The Miracles was called “There Will Come a Day,” the opening track of the next album, 2003’s Static Transmission felt like it was an answer song, even if it really wasn’t. Instead, “What Comes After” was more about having the maturity — the grace — to accept change in all of its myriad forms.

Certain Songs #2488: Steve Wynn – “There Will Come A Day”

November 18, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Here Come The Miracles
Year: 2001

. . .

Of course, it’s possible that I kept playing Here Come The Miracles in order to get to its last song, the joyful singalong “There Will Come a Day,” which just might be my favorite song of his entire solo career.

Kicking off with a classic chord progression and featuring Chris Cacavas — who’d been playing with Wynn since the Danny & Dusty days — doubling both organ and piano, “There Will Come a Day” features a bluesy garage-folk sound over which Wynn decides he’s had enough.

Certain Songs #2487: Steve Wynn – “Sustain”

November 17, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Here Come The Miracles
Year: 2001

. . .

After Sweetness and Light, Steve Wynn put out a couple of initially limited releases, 1998’s The Suitcase Sessions and 2000’s outtakes and covers Pick of the Litter, which sandwiched 1999’s official album, My Midnight. And because nothing off of any of these records did anything for me, I once again though my taste and Wynn’s muse had gone their separate ways.

Wrong!!!! Because 2001’s double-CD Here Come The Miracles turned out to be my favorite Wynn solo album ever, two solid discs full of great songs that brightened up a rather dark period of my life, that forever-seeming six-month period in the spring and summer of 2001 when I thought I might never get another web job ever again.

Certain Songs #2486: Steve Wynn – “Silver Lining”

November 16, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Sweetness And Light
Year: 1998

. . .

Steve Wynn followed his initial two albums, 1990’s Kerosene Man and 1992’s Dazzling Display with 1993’s slightly quieter Fluorescent and 1996’s slightly noisier Melting In The Dark, two records I really didn’t get at the time, and most certainly didn’t have any songs that killed me.

Certain Songs #2485: Steve Wynn – “Grace”

November 15, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Dazzling Display
Year: 1992

. . .

I didn’t think that Steve Wynn’s second solo album, Dazzling Display, was as good as his first solo album Kerosene Man, but it most certainly had its moments, my favorite of which was “Grace,” which opened with the guitars of Wynn and Robert Mache soaring against each other before the first verse commences.

Certain Songs #2484: Steve Wynn – “Tears Won’t Help”

November 14, 2022 by Jim Connelly

Album: Kerosene Man
Year: 1990

. . .

We’re just over 40 years from when Dream Syndicate’s The Days of Wine and Roses came out and completely rearranged my brain. I loved that record so much that I’ve been following Steve Wynn’s career ever since. And so he’s popped up in various places. Not just the Dream Syndicate, but also The Baseball Project and my beloved Danny & Dusty. In all of that time, I’ve loved some of his records, disliked others, but have never ignored him. And so, here are several posts covering his solo career, which basically spanned the 20 or so years after the initial dissolution of the Dream Syndicate.