Pack Up the Plantation: Live! (1986)
1. So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star
2. Needles and Pins
3. The Waiting
4. Breakdown
5. American Girl
6. It Ain't Nothin' To Me
7. Insider
8. Rockin' Around (With You)
9. Refugee
10.Southern Accents
11.Rebels
12.Don't Bring Me Down
13.Shout
14.Stories We Could Tell
If ever there was an inopportune moment for Tom Petty to issue his first live album, it was the Southern Accents tour. It’s not that the tour was a disaster—far from it. But the timing, material, and musical direction make for a curious, and often frustrating, choice. The studio LP had already divided fans and critics alike with its ornate production, synthetic textures, and a marked departure from the lean, wiry rock that had become Petty’s hallmark. To then preserve that precise moment in wax—complete with its overstuffed trimmings—seemed a strange decision for an artist best known for his elegant restraint.
And so, Pack Up the Plantation: Live! arrives not as a showcase, but as an excess. There is too much of everything: too many horns, too many guest spots (including an over-relied-upon Stevie Nicks), too many covers, and—crucially—not enough of the man himself. Only six bona fide Tom Petty songs make it onto this double-disc affair. Six. The result is a document that feels padded and underrepresented all at once—a strange combination for a career already filled with hits by this stage.
The first impression is perhaps the most damning. The album opens not with a bang but with a muddled whimper—two tracks that few could hum, and fewer still might want to. It’s not until Petty dips back into his earlier catalogue that things begin to feel grounded again. Songs like Refugee and American Girl finally cut through the haze, though even here they are compromised—burdened unnecessarily by horn arrangements that feel bolted on rather than built in. One senses that what worked in the theatricality of a live arena doesn’t translate well onto disc. There’s artifice where there should be punch.
The album finds its footing, ironically, at the end. The final trio of performances are easily the strongest—tight, powerful, and stirring. The only problem? They’re all covers. It’s a somewhat disheartening truth that the high-water mark of a Tom Petty live album would be material penned by other artists. That Petty would always flood his shows with such material raises uncomfortable questions. It’s tempting to speculate whether, on some level, he doubted the potency of his own catalogue. But such a conclusion feels unfair. More likely, it’s a case of Petty the curator, rather than Petty the headliner, taking the wheel for an evening. Admirable in theory, but problematic in practice—particularly for those seeking a definitive live document.
In sum, Pack Up the Plantation feels less like a celebration than a detour. A live album should amplify the essence of an artist. This one obfuscates it. Petty remains one of America’s most reliable rock voices—but here, he sounds oddly distant, buried beneath the very excesses he once seemed so immune to. As archival curiosity, it’s fine. As representation, it misfires.
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