does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

Then again, I would probably like "Vision of Love" if Johnny Cash was singing it.

I bet he really digs that Ryan Adams kid.

well that's just it oliver. he's so innofensive i can't even work up a good hatin. he's just there. but he's not so "just there" that he doesn't crop up on vh1 whenever necessary affirming the genius of classic rock, decrying disco, or any other personal jess bugbear. and to paraphrase kodanshi, "he has a dearth of very sexy whores in his videos."

Somebody's gotta make that kinda music.

oh, really?

happy new yr

(at least he's not Tom Cruise...)

Damn fuxing right. After all, I play prog on my ricky "Suzannah Hoffs" model ;-)

Oliver: In grade school I thought his version of "So You Want to Be a Rock n Roll Star" was one of the worst songs I'd ever heard.

Josh: I have. And I switched off the radio when he came on.

John: He is??? Should I still take your word on checking out Trey Azagoth, I wonder.

I like Tom Petty but own none of his records.

and i'll stick my neck out even further and say that "American Girl" is a classic rock tune i'll never tune out in the car, and it bugs the hell outta me when shits like the Goo Goo Dolls or Everclear (who, i concede, are probably about as close to a modern equivalent as Mr. Petty has) butc

I liked "You Got Lucky" and a few of his earlier hits (notably "Refugee") but everything since has been prety mediocre at best.

Stan Lynch's playing on "The Waiting" is one of my favorite drum recordings ever.

His major flaw, for me, is his association with Jeff Lynne.

while nothing he's done even approaches the greatness that is Leave Home, I agree with Dark Horse about the 'wtf???' head-scratching thread title.

A consistent and often great songwriter, expressive vocalist (really!) and the Heartbreakers were (are) the perfect band for Petty - classic u fules

Also, and I know this is asking for trouble, but he's a really good guitarist.

doesn't mike campbell play all the recognizable guitar parts on petty's songs? does petty do anything more than strum three or four chords? (not that there's anything wrong with that.)

the last 10 or so tracks on wildflowers, for example. most of you're gonna get it, for another example. i can't give you song titles 'cause i find his album tracks so generic that i can hardly remember a thing about them, music, words or titles. i hear all of his albums as maybe three good songs surrounded by color-by-numbers twangy new wavey rootsy southerny ditties.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/215000/images/_218447_heidi_fleiss_150.jpg

The Last DJ?

Greatest Hits [MCA, 1993]
Sometimes it's hard to remember what a breath of fresh air the gap-spanning MTV figurehead was in 1976. So revisit this automatic multiplatinum, a treasury of power pop that doesn't know its name--snappy songs! Southern beats! gee! Like Billy Joel, say, or the Police, his secret isn't that he's a natural singles artist--it's that he's too shallow to merit full concentration except when he gets it all right, and maybe not then. Petty is the formalist of the ordinary guy, taking his musical pleasure in roots, branches, commerce, art, whatever gets him going without demanding anything too fancy of his brain or his rear end. Footloose by habit and not what you'd call a ladies' man, he often feels confused or put upon, and though he wishes the world were a better place, try to take what he thinks is his and he won't back down. He has one great virtue--his total immersion in rock and roll. A-

"American Girl" = Best non-Byrds Byrds song EVAH

I stand by what I wrote about Full Moon Fever on my blog about a year ago.

Tom Petty is awesome.
--Travis Keller

That same spirit is alive and well on Petty's latest album, The Last DJ, which takes a hard look at the lack of moral grounding in the music business. The title track has kicked up considerable controversy, with some radio stations seeing the song as a slap in the face and banning it. But Petty is not just biting the hand that feeds him. Music is only the beginning of what's pissing him off these days. "The Last DJ is a story about morals more than the music business," he says. "It's really about vanishing personal freedoms."

Which makes McGuinn's cover of it that much better than Petty's original

as it is, i like a lot of his songs in a "wouldn't turn the dial if he comes on the radio" sort-of way. i've got cds of damn the torpedoes and full moon fever which i haven't played in years (and don't feel a burning need to do so).

And Billy Squier too

Ha! Ha! I heard that same story, applied to Neil Young and "A Horse With No Name". Fun-ny!

Destroy:
When he sings like Bob Dylan Impersonating Neil Young
that "Into the Great Wide Open" song.
Everything Else.

well it was nearly summer
we sat on your roof

(thread revival cuz tom petty car-drivin windows-down season is upon us)

http://www.julecarey.com/images/Tom-Petty-Ass_large.jpg

i was brought up on tom petty, thanks to my mum's residual fangirl craving. some of it still holds up pretty well! i remember thinking how 'i won't back down' must have been one of the most inspiring pieces of music ever written (this was when i was 9). i would always equate it with the bunnies' struggle in watership down.

That song in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is pretty brilliant when you're cruising thru the desert towards Las Venturas.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5933643/tom_petty_is_pissed/

over here, anyone who says anything remotely negative about the proto-fascist state this country is becoming is a hero to me...

He has great songs. Doesn't need anything else than that.

i was brought up on tom petty, thanks to my mum's residual fangirl craving. some of it still holds up pretty well! i remember thinking how 'i won't back down' must have been one of the most inspiring pieces of music ever written (this was when i was 9). i would always equate it with the bunnies' struggle in watership down.

-- Just got offed, Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:25 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link

irm?

I know, I know...he's not THE worst the world has to offer musically, but my pride won't let me sing the praises of even the few songs of his I do quite like.

My gut feeling is that to be cool, the best thing is just not to mention Tom Petty in any way shape or form in the company of others.

why the hell would you worry about that?

being cool = being uncool

being really into tom petty actually makes you really cool cuz it's so like, not cool. definitely cooler than being really into Neutral Milk Hotel or something. xcept i can't stand his sound.

One thing that I love about Tom Petty is that - up until about two years ago when I gave up on radio altogether* - is that the classic rock radio station around here didn't seem to have any compunction about playing a wide variety of Tom Petty songs.

Want to hear Lynyrd Skynryd? You'd better like "Sweet Home Alabama" boy; they won't even play "Tuesday's Gone" up in this bitch. The almighty Allman Brothers were reduced to a one-hit wonder called "Melissa," which I think they only played because it was in a car commercial or something. Apparently the only Who song ever written was "Who Are You."

But for some reason, they had Tom Petty's Greatest Hits stacked up in the rotation (Mary Jane's Last Dance and YDKHIF exempted). I'd be sitting there suffering through "Hotel California" - AGAIN! - and then along would come "Listen to Her Heart" or "Don't Do Me Like That" or "American Girl" and everything would be okay. Tom Petty saved my fuckin' day on a regular basis.

I've tried to listen to his albums/collections a few times and can't really sit through it. But individually, they're great American songs.

*(or rather, I quit the job where my coworkers listened to the radio all day)

i see the great american songs thing as a lack of culture in his music

it's like bologna

with mayo. and pickles?

The question at the top of the thread is just silly.

Best place to start: Greatest Hits (MCA, 1993).

Best album: Damn the Torpedoes, 1979.

His first two are worth owning, as well. After that, less so.

Best single left off Greatest Hits: "Jammin' Me."

Best song, period: "American Girl"

No room or time to list the countless artists beloved on ILM that he's better than.

Last year's album kind of sucked, though. My Spin review went like this:

Tom Petty
Highway Companion
American
2 1/2 stars

The eternally squirrelly dad-rocker’s roadtrip album opens with its most explicit car rhythm, a ZZ-riffed boogie ride past exurbia’s ranch homes. And though it never works up comparable energy again, the tune about heading south to sell family headstones and the one about dropping in on a small-town buddy for a weekend beer do okay. Moodier moments respectably imitate Dylan and Neil Young, but often fall asleep at the wheel.

Downloadable cuts: “Saving Grace,” “Big Weekend”

i see the great american songs thing as a lack of culture in his music

So you would rather he what? Have a sitar or a gamelan or something in there? Besides, bologna's Italian, Mayo's French, and according to wikipedia, "cucumbers were probably first pickled 4400 years ago in Mesopotamia." America's a melting pot of culture and that's what makes us and our music (and our sandwiches) so damn good. Am I right?

Well, to me, Tom Petty sounds way less American than the blues/country/gospel overflow in the music of The Band or CCR. Which to me also makes it a lot better.

I have an irrational hatred for Tom Petty, even though I really enjoy a lot of his songs (e.g. "Don't Come Around Here No More"). He's just one of those artists that theoretically grates on my nerves but he's better than 99% of his dadrock compadres. "The Last DJ" is indefensible though.

holy shit I didn't realize "Free Fallin'" came out in 1989!

greatest hits was the first record i bought and i have no intention of selling it during my lifetime

free fallin was the lead track off full moon fever, wasn't it? god i loved that album...

xhuck pretty much otm.

I think all his records are pretty solid (even if a little spotty) up until the "She's the One" soundtrack, which is really quite good. Check his cover of Beck's "Asshole", Lucinda's "Change the Locks" and "California".
I'm not really familiar with anything after that other than the singles, which have been admittedly kinda lame. But still, 20 years of solid state RnR ('76-'96) ain't bad.

An older, completely insane room mate I once had took me to one of his shows around '99. She got wasted and went into total hair metal band-groupie mode, worked her way past security and befriended the tour manager. She ended up in a room at the Peabody with said manger, Petty and his girlfriend. They stayed up 'til dawn smoking grass.

She returned the next day with a stolen pair of his whitey-tighty underwear complete with "TP" scrawled on the waist-band and a gtr pick that said "ROCK LIVES". I've still got the pick.

There is no such thing as "dadrock", but if there is it must be a positive term, as it usually used about GREAT and timeless music, as opposed to useless R&B and hip-hop crap.

At the moment I'd be much happier to listen to a Tom Petty record than a Bob Dylan record.

listening to "Jammin' Me" right now. It's pretty ace.

lol Geir can't dance

Oh, some great songs.

Geir clearly you've never had a dad

My dad is too old for "dadrock" anyway. That term was invented by the Y-generation - the most ageist generation ever.

Always has been a good to great live act although I haven't seen 'em since the original drummer left a few years ago. Mike Campbell, Petty's partner in crime, is a particularly fine guitarist and at least as much responsible for the "sound" as TP hisself.

"The Big Jangle," which started life as the first CD in the Tom Petty box set (I think it's been released once as a stand alone), is an almost perfect end-to-end listen. It covers what was good on the albums up to "Damn the Torpedoes."

http://www.morethings.com/music/tom_petty/!tom-petty-on-stage.jpg

well it was nearly summer
we sat on your roof

Brilliant revive. And timely! My cover band may be taking this for a spin on Tuesday :-)

excellent.

y'know as we've probly discussed before the thing about tom p. that doesn't get enough respect is his singing. all the terribly obvious dylan/mcguin comparisons miss the syrupy drawl and southern soul in it. (his r&b inflections maybe come via mick jagger, but he has the advantage over mick of being from florida.) he might not appreciate the parallel, but there's some dirty south in his voice.

That term was invented by the Y-generation - the most ageist generation ever.

boo fucking hoo, old man

(j/k)

he might not appreciate the parallel, but there's some dirty south in his voice

Ach. If I didn't have to get real work done today this would be SUCH a license to photoshop...

another sorta interesting thing about Petty was his ability to recruit new, young fans. I was a teenager when Wildflowers came out and I thought (still do) it was pretty great. I seem to remember it being a hit with the MTV set as well. And that was what, 20 years into his career? I know there are plenty of other artists that have sustained successful careers over decades , but they really just seem to be selling to a previously esablished fan base and doing gargantuan tours...

I have no idea if this is still the case w/ Petty. I somehow doubt it. I haven't had cable - and thus, MTV - in about 7 years.

being really into tom petty actually makes you really cool cuz it's so like, not cool. definitely cooler than being really into Neutral Milk Hotel or something.

Oh dear.

I have an irrational hatred for Tom Petty, even though I really enjoy a lot of his songs (e.g. "Don't Come Around Here No More"). He's just one of those artists that theoretically grates on my nerves...

Damn, Curtis! I never thought someone would so adequately sum up my exact feelings about Tom Petty.

"My dad is too old for "dadrock" anyway. That term was invented by the Y-generation - the most ageist generation ever"

Summer of Love and "don't trust anyone over 30" to thread.

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/518P3XDK8KL._AA240_.jpg

my dad does like tom petty.

and i'm a dad who likes tom petty too.

so there you go.

(altho bimble you might be pleased to know that my dad also like kate bush.)

(likes kate bush. he's not like kate bush. that would be weird.)

I think my dad is utterly indifferent to Tom Petty.

dads know about kate bush for some bizarre reason

My dad stopped paying attention to rock and roll about 15 years before "American Girl".

"Nightwatchman" and "Woman In Love" are enough to redeem.

dads know about kate bush for some bizarre reason

because her music is the dadrockiest music ever, that's why

"Nightwatchman" and "Woman In Love" are enough to redeem

i have a vague memory of adapting "nightwatchman" into some kind of graphic-novel form as part of a middle-school project, but i can't for the life of me remember what or why.

"woman in love" is one of my petty faves. mostly for the way he says, "well awright...do whadchoo want...don' say a word, don' say naaaaa-thin'"

kate bush's music is definitely not what i would consider dadrock, in the made-up, cliche sense of the term

Is Kate Bush dadrockier than Lucinda Williams?

I'm fairly certain that my dad has not heard of Kate Bush. I have just barely heard of Kate Bush, and even that's after hanging around Kate Bush fans on ILX for years

my dad is the dad-rockiest dad of all time, and he HATED "American Girl" the first time he saw TP&tHs play on TV; he was all "so she was an American girl, what about it? there are a LOT of American girls!"

"woman in love" is one of my petty faves. mostly for the way he says, "well awright...do whadchoo want...don' say a word, don' say naaaaa-thin'"

And see now, I love it for the little fill Mike Campbell plays right after that. Two great tastes...

but they really just seem to be selling to a previously esablished fan base

I should clarify: obviously the Beatles, Stones, Zep, Pink Floyd etc, continue to sell to young kids who are just discovering classic rock, but I would imagine it tends to be records from their heyday. I wouldn't think a lot of teens were running out to buy Bridges to Babylon, Flaming Pie or the Page/ Plant thing.

but I could be wrong.

lucinda is DEFINITELY more dadrock than kate, like by miles and miles i feel

he was all "so she was an American girl, what about it? there are a LOT of American girls!"

Yeah that whole thing of "she was an American Girl"...you get the feeling it's really just for marketing purposes that he even says that. Like you know, supposedly it'll help the song get further in the charts or be more memorable that way, whatever the agenda is. It's fuckin' cheesy, man.

That said, like Curtis I particularly appreciate Don't Come Around Here No More (though he did have a bit of help from Dave Stewart didn't he? I mean he wouldn't have done that by himself) and oh...let's see..."You Got Lucky" is quite good, too. Hell, in a drunken moment I'll even admit to appreciating Free Fallin'. But still it's like the best I can say about him is that he's NOT John Cougar Melloncamp or some other similar, much worse artist. He's like the lesser of two or more evils.

And see now, I love it for the little fill Mike Campbell plays right after that. Two great tastes...

was ipodding the heartbreakers today because of this thread and remembered another great thing is the patented stan lynch drum fill. the one that leapt out at me is coming out of the bridge on "don't do me like that," but he does variations on the same thing a lot. it's a kind of stop-start stop-start on the toms that usually ends in a triplet roll.

Bimble you are not OTM. Petty and Mellencamp have given us some fine American pop hooks. If you cannot hear that then I feel for you brother.

But still it's like the best I can say about him is that he's NOT John Cougar Melloncamp or some other similar, much worse artist.

Except that Mellencamp is a great artist and has made a couple of terrific records.

hating on american girl? jesus people...

dadrock is cool, dad's like a lot of cool music. my pop (RIP) liked CCR and the Stones and Jefferson Airplane.

bimble i generally appreciate yr enthusiasm but man oh man, you are RONG to the nth degree re: both petty and mellencamp

Good god Jess, have you never been in a CAR?
-- Josh, Tuesday, January 1, 2002 1:00 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

i always think the second line of 'american girl' is 'raised on barber sex'

i don't know what the actual line is, perhaps it's better that way

raised on PROMISES, LEARN ENGLISH YOU LIMEY RETARD

(jkbtw)

also, when i were a nipper i always thought the opening minute of 'louisiana rain' was the most experimental, avant-garde minute of music EVER RECORDED, i haven't heard the song since then, is it still true?

american girl is so good it was even good the second time when it was last nite by the strokes!

srsly

har, "raised on barber sex" that's awesome. xpost.
but anyway, let me add my voice to support Mr. Petty. Tons of good-to-great songs over the years. Also, as someone mentioned above, a gateway to a lot of stellar music -- got into Bob Dylan, the Byrds, the Beatles (seriously!) and a bunch of other stuff because of listening to him when I was nine or 10 years old. I recently checked out his last few albums from the library ("Echo", "Last DJ" and "Highway Companion") and was surprised at how solid they are. OK, "Last DJ" has some of the shittiest stuff I've ever heard from him, but there are 3-4 cool tracks. Kind of surprising how depressing a lot of it is though...What happened to the old jokester in the top hat?

hating on american girl?

It's just the normal noises in here.

I know the halftime show producers are just trying to play it safe, but ffs.

Was it really bad? I can't bring myself to watch the game.

He didn't bring out some interesting guest stars, at least?

A surprise appearance from the rest of the Wilburys would have been nice.

He was terrible! I knew he'd do the crowd pleasers, but Mike Campbell played with more commitment.

Its hard to top Prince doing Purple Rain in the rain

he could have performed "Free Falling" while leaping to his timely death

i like a lot of his songs.

beard is not one of his redeeming qualities

I would have liked zombie Roy Orbison

weird bit: I bought Through the Years last Monday, having no idea that he was doing this shit.

He's very . . . meh (these days at least). WHY NOT GHOSTFACE KILLA FOR THE SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW?

next year: Glass Tiger!

Tom Petty has so many great songs, this thread is ridiculous.

i'm thinking so. I can't honestly say I know a single thing he's put out in 10+ years but come on

He has a few good songs (e.g., a few singles from Damn The Torpedos, You Got Lucky). But beyond that, he has lots of merely workmanlike, serviceable stuff.

Next Year: Glass Tiger and GhostFace. Good combo.

he does have loads of great songs -- after listening to this two-disc thing -- but I wish he didn't them. A buddy has always wished that George Harrison had sung "Don't Come Around Here No More." At least his voice wouldn't try to sing over the sitars and drum machines.

4 hour peter bogdanovich doc about TP coming soon!

not kidding!

* I wish he didn't SING them

(xxpos)

I like Petty fine, but god that was dull. A twenty-minute "Rockin' Lunch" block from classic rock radio.

not kidding!

I wish to hell you were.

remy otm. They should have borrowed the Big Screen Elvis technology from the TCB band and reanimated Roy.

I wonder if Bogdanovich can imitate classic rockers like he can old film directors?

Frankly, I could do without the elaborate Super Bowl halftime show. I prefer it more as a game and less as an event. Of course, I'm not even watching it this year (as I hate the Patriots so).

I think the easter egg on the DVD version of the Bogdano Petty doc is going to be PB's masterful imos of all the departed Wilburys.

the Bogdanovich doc is already out, I watched it on cable the other night. i liked it, but then i wish all episodes of Classic Albums or Behind The Music were 4 hours long.

this thread is probably the most RONG that Jess has ever been.

i am not a tom petty fan at all, some of the early hits are decent enough, but he is x1000 better than unlikely ilm hero john cougar mellencamp

RONG

save it for chuck eddy

TS: Tom Petty vs. Adam Ant

the Coug's biggest hits aren't as bland (or maybe just overplayed) as Petty's, but there are more Petty songs I'd rather hear (half of Wildflowers, etc.)

I call it a draw.

The best comment on the performance, by the inimitable K-Jean Lopez:

"God bless" you too, dude. That was a nice, subtle Super Bowl moment. This American Girl is grateful.

He should have played "American Girl" last.

i <3 tp AND his heartbreakers and at least the tv mix was better than it usually is for these things, but it was funny how it was "american girl" + 3 from "full moon fever." i guess "full moon fever" is the tom petty lowest common denominator. i don't hate it or anything, but most of the albums before it are better. (and so is wildflowers.) anyway, he looked old and kinda tired but wtf. he's 57, i guess he's allowed to look old.

"i am not a tom petty fan at all, some of the early hits are decent enough, but he is x1000 better than unlikely ilm hero john cougar mellencamp

-- gershy"

ILM is some white ass motherfuckers. TP actually wrote a few good songs, that's way better than i can say about mr cougar.

retract

Those crowd shots during the halftime show: Good Lord, was even half of that audience even born when Full Moon Fever came out?

I mean, "WOOT! IT'S A FIFTY YEAR OLD MAN PLAYING SONGS ABOUT ELVIS AND DEL SHANNON!"

he's had some great moments, but it's been all downhill after stan lynch was fired.

yeah i miss stan lynch a lot.

wonder which sports columnist will use "even the losers get lucky sometimes" tomorrow.

good lord i don't even know where to begin

his halftime show sucked.

Not so much cuz of the music, but it isn't the right type of music for a halftime show. that and it was boring.

Prince was the halftime show to end all halftime shows last year.

he's a rock musician, he writes rock songs

but ilx never tires of picking on aging rockers...

he was way better than the stones were, that's for fucking sure

i mean, in terms of halftime show performances

not saying much, I've never liked the Stones.

then again it wasn't as bad as the debacle of Aerosmith w/Britney Spears

"but ilx never tires of picking on aging rockers...

-- winston"

there has to be a way to age better than most seem to have been doing it.

Prince rocked the fuck out last year.

And he's old, too.

I've always been fond of a lot (though not all) of Tom Petty's music -- mostly the earlier stuff, but "Wildflowers" is pretty nice too.

That said, his show tonight was awful. Guy needs to retire.

Interesting quote I just read on wikipedia: * "I want to give the radio back to the kids. That's one thing I'd like to see. I remember a time when you could turn on the AM radio and just set there all day and listen. Now I keep punching the button and hope something will come on that's worth listening to. There's nothing. They don't play the young bands. Boston is just MOR as far as I'm concerned. There's no threat there. And disco just ain't right." - Los Angeles Times 1977

The disco remark doesn't startle me, but I was surprised that he slagged Boston.

Also I read through this entire thread and found only the slightest mention of "Here Comes My Girl". Am I the only one that thinks that song is brilliant?

Prince rocked the fuck out last year.

yeah obviously. no comparison.

Guy needs to retire.

i think that sort of already happened.

Am I the only one that thinks that song is brilliant?

hell no. it came up on my ipod last week and i played it three times in a row.

A quote where the rocker slams disco is the ILM equivalent of finding racist newsletters from political candidates "back in the day."

At least one of the other quotes in the wikipedia entry is so outrageously rockist that if I were to paste it here I think it would make people's eyes bleed.

x-p:

so then what is a rocker touring with a giant rebel flag the ilm equivalent of?

i mean, i love tom petty, but i'm not defending that.

"About to Give Out" is fantastic late Petty and a classic old guys rocking out hellraiser. We need more of them.

He smokes weed...

Vocally, he sounded incredible. I don't think he's sounded that good in about 25 years.

I thought the show was well-performed but boring. Good job to him for doing what he does well; I just don't like what he does.

Me? I'm not a fan of the Nu Country.

I was surprised that he slagged Boston.

He was new wave then; he had to slag Boston. (Honest -- he even had songs included on "new wave" compilation albums.)

Anyway, didn't watch the Super Bowl thing. But I still have nothing against the guy, even if his albums have been mostly useless for the past couple decades, even longer than albums by Cougar (who is still way, way better, career-wise.)

(Well, okay, guess I could see owning Full Moon Fever from '89; that's technically two years later than The Lonesome Jubilee. So I'll give him that. But I've always figured the Greatest Hits CD would make owning Full Moon Fever redundant. And Cougar's early/mid '80s beat Petty's early/mid '80 by several miles.)

ilx never tires of picking on aging rockers...

Most of them deserve it. (Then again, so do most young rockers. And most aging and young non-rockers, too.)

some excellent singles, thus the greatest hits compilation plays very nicely
don't think i really have the patience to sit through his studio records though.

i liked the outrageously fecund imagery of the gibson flying-v guitar outline swerving towards the open and waiting heart outline, which exploded into flames the moment the guitar "penetrated" it

first prince with his guitar-cock last year, now simulated neon intercourse with a flying v - next year's going to be crazy

I thought it was great, but I like all those songs. At different points it looked like there were no fewer than 6 guitarists onstage at once (7 necks total).

One of those balearic dudes does a crazy dub edit of "Don't Come Around Here No More."

Anyway, yeah, I am definitely surprised by the Petty hatred on here. But then, I'm a definite rockist (who happens to like dance music (aka "but several of my closest friends are minorities")).

Petty's double-disc comp is as solid as Mellencamp's, although JCM produced better albums.

haha i'm kind of the reverse. i think petty has better albums (i like damn the torpedoes and long after dark both better than any jcm album), but i might give jcm's best-of the edge.

Better than any Petty album, easy:

American Fool
Uh-Huh
Scarecrow

Better than any Petty album except maybe Damn the Torpedoes (a close call, but I honestly think I'd go with the Cougar records):

Nothin' Matters and What If It Did
John Cougar
The Lonesome Jubilee

Better than any Petty album except the first three (and quite possibly better than Petty's first two):

The Kid Inside

Vocally, he sounded incredible. I don't think he's sounded that good in about 25 years.

Did anybody else think he sounded really processed, though?

ugh, i think he's abt as bad as it gets. whenever i hear his voice i feel the life force seeping out of me.

so then what is a rocker touring with a giant rebel flag the ilm equivalent of? i mean, i love tom petty, but i'm not defending that.

That's pretty much indefensible. I remember at the time (1985? 1986? Southern Accents tour) he tried to defend it along the lines of "I'm proud to be from the south." R.E.M. said something like, "Hey, so are we, but you don't see us with a fucking confederate flag."

I like Tom Petty a lot, but the rebel flag's gotta go.

petty is a bro hands-down

poor j0hn d upthread feels like he has to apologize for defending petty's guitar playing!

if bryan adams kissed ass he'd be tom petty

his mistake was to make nice with tina turner rather than bob dylan

wtf @ bryan adams comparisons

like he wouldn't have killed to write "Summer Of '69."

except petty wrote tons of songs that great and adams only wrote one

I'm trying to think of a second-tier Wilburys: Bryan Adams, Ted Nugent, Frankie Valli, Mickey Dolenz, and Bill Wyman.

petty's definitely better at writing bryan adams songs than bryan adams is, but they're in the same fuckin genre of mewly radio-single guitar-pop. one guy just settled into AC ballad retirement while Petty kept it "real," got pally with Ringo.

I'd pick John Entswhistle over Wyman.

that documentary of petty that was just out blew my mind cuz i didn't know that mike campbell wrote BOYS OF SUMMER which sort of took away my one thing i always defended don henley with.

one guy just settled into AC ballad retirement while Petty kept it "real," got pally with Ringo.

petty was having hits with actual good songs like mary jane and you don't know how it feels, hits w/ppl that couldn't have given 2 fucks about the wilbury shit....

I like the Heartbreakers fine! Howie Epstein produced two excellent John Prine records; Stan Lynch co-wrote the only other Henley song I can give a damn about ("The Last Worthless Evening").

...around the same time Bryan was having bigger hits with have you ever loved a woman and please forgive me. its the wilbury/down with jann wenner shit that just kept him getting to put out non-hit crap like The Last DJ while Adams was stuck in a less classy-by-acclamation context.

if Bryan Adams, Donovan, John Entswhistle, Frankie Valli and Barry Gibb made an album I'd be all over that shit.

x-post, obv

Barry Gibb would be an EXCELLENT sub for Jeff Lynne – he's even got a better beard!

also a better songwriter

Tom's <i>Greatest Hits</i> >>>>> Bryan's <i>So Far So Good</i> but I always find it ridiculous when TP's treated like some revered icon of class solidarity because he grouses about his pretensions now rather than singing with barbara streisand.

Gotta love Petty for playing the bat mitzvah of a defense contractor's daughter, though.

I think 99% of songwriters would have killed to have written "Summer of '69"

bryan adams tina turner bob dylan Ringo Wyman jann wenner Donovan John Entswhistle Frankie Valli Barry Gibb barbara streisand

i like some of those guys

shoulda stuck Colin Meloy in there to see if we're paying attention

I might take Reckless over Damn the Torpedoes myself (and "Cuts Like A Knife" is up there with all but the very best Petty songs).

Either way, people who like Tom Petty's and Bryan Adams's hits really ought to check out This Is It, the country album last year by Jack Ingram, a better Tom Petty album and a better Bryan Adams album than either of them have made in eons.

it's too bad tom petty didn't write more soul-destroyingly normalized MOR region-free white-bread pop songs about the high school and post-high school experience

"EVEN THE LOSERS" DUDE

anyway tom petty was really boring last night but i barely paid attention after the guitar raped the heart at the beginning. i like his greatest hits album and wildflowers a lot. i like him about as much as JCM.

You could debate whether Kenny Aaronoff makes JC better or if the staggering depth of the Coog's need to be taken seriously makes him worse, but at this point they both need to stfu and play the song they wrote twenty years ago about fighting authority.

as a friend said last night, "If Coog had been asked to play you can bet your ass he'd have done `Jack & Diane' as a bluegrass number."

aw, I saw him play some turkey day football game a few years ago and he just did one pretentious new "What Price Sweet America's Freedom" song, ROCK In The USA and some other oldie

So many of Petty's songs (actually, more "hits") are so bitter and corrosive, you'd have thought that Jess would have been more of a fan.

you mean "whiny."

give him the right night, the right drink and "Don't Come Around Here No More" and otm.

x-post

though alfred otm too

I like lots of them despite his singing. I said on the other Petty thread that I wish George Harrison had sung "Don't Come Around Here..."

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/060511/135612__king_l.jpg

For a minute I thought that was from The Simpson's "Rock Camp" episode.

Bryan Adams' has a bad voice and is a shitty songwriter.

^^^

^^^

^^^

he got to sing with BABS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXuQJX30Vuc

I don't care, even if he had sung with POPS, he's still a drag.

"Girl on LSD" is an amusing song.

this has probably been said elsewhere in the thread, maybe even by me, but i just don't get the "normalized MOR region-free white-bread" tag on petty, apart from him being white. his reference points are way more specific than whatever "MOR region-free" means. to me he sounds like a north florida pothead who learned his riffs from dylan, the byrds and the stones, and who for years (and maybe still now) wrote about the kind of guys from gainesville who didn't become rock stars. the tom petty narrator is a really specific and identifiable character. (and hardly region-free, even without the rebel flag.)

i wasn't talking about petty, bro

^^^^

(xpost)

now, for fun, try it again with bryan adams

http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:R-JMxs42CN3MzM:www.americancheer.com/images/tour/pyramids.jpg

haha ok well ... bryan adams sounds like a canadian ... guy ... who wanted ... to get laid ...

no ok. but i do love "cuts like a knife" and "summer of 69."

and "lonely nights." he had his moments.

Bryan Adams' arrangements are soooo predictable; he has the sonic diversity of the one ply poo paper at my office ruffling. Production is so fucking flat and his voice (his weakest point) is mixed to appeal to the Lite Rock radio set, which may be an unfortunate artifact of his aboriginal fanbase that vaulted him to stardom.

^ HEY LOOK, I WROTE MORE THAN 3 WORDS

"cuts like a knife" is pretty unfuckwithable, but c'mon, Petty pisses all over this guy.

ew

I'm not a major fan of either, but I'd pay to see that.

aboriginal?

I mean, I'd take those pre-fame Huey Lewis & the New records over Bryan Adams.

Johnny Cougar will forever get a pass for
1. I need a lover
2. ain't even done w/ the night
3. Authority song
4. Rumbleseat

but when Petty was still putting solid stuff outlike Wildflowers, Mellencamp was Dancing Naked. No thanks.

pre-fame pre-superstardom I guess I should say.

aboriginal?

the natives of suburban ontario are a proud people, and strong.

"wait, we're talking about the guy that did that fuckin We Come From A Land Down Under song, right?"

nobody's claiming Bryan Adams is better than Tom Petty. What's being claimed is that Tom Petty is a better Bryan Adams.

men at work were pretty tight too

"wait, we're talking about the guy that did that fuckin We Come From A Land Down Under song, right?"

Unfair. Men at Work also did Overkill, which is teh great.

and "It's a Mistake."

I'm listening to "Learning to Fly" right now. Oh the memories of early 90's LA malls...

and "It's a Mistake."

Yes! Johnny Be Good, too.

Men at Work are better than Tom Petty, John Cougar and Bryan Adams put together.

hahaha

Another one for the ILM FAQ.

I heard a recent song from Colin Hay (men at work singer) and was totally impressed! Let me see if I can youtube it for you guys.

hahaha Steve Shasta watches Scrubs

scrubs is funny

NOOOOOOOOO I DON'T WATCH SCRUBS!

Some weird chick I met from NYC who works for MTV 0put it on a mix for me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4tcRlHY-3Q

I thought the voice sounded familiar. But what interested is that the guitar playing is straight up Uncle Tupelo circa Jay Farrar's songs on Still Feel Gone.

...by Uncle Tupelo.

hahaha, i shouldn't post when I'm on the phone.

OK, as a result of this thread I just got a hold of a Carlene Carter album produced by Howie Epstein, so maybe some good will come of it.

it's supposed to be decent!

like I wrote upthread, I can't recommend the Epstein-helmed Prine albums highly enough.

Another one for the ILM FAQ.

THANK YOU. May I add that Men at Work are also better than LED ZEPPLIN and BOSTON combined. (n.1)

_______________________________
(n.1) Actually, I was kidding in this and the original post. I do like Men at Work, tho.

the original question could have been answered with a quick "no". i love the extrapolation but other threads deserve it more.

Lock thread.

Seconded

yeah let's get extrapolating on the 700 poll threads about terrorizer poll results

agreed

i do like a lot of his songs but by no means does he warrant this much discussion, positive or negative.

xp!

i love the extrapolation complaints that something isn't worth discussing, but other threads deserve it more.

It's fun to talk about Tom Petty, I think Michael Ian Black forgot to.

haha ok well ... bryan adams sounds like a canadian ... guy ... who wanted ... to get laid ...

B-b-but he fucked Princss Diana!

...or Princess Diana as she's more commonly known.

Carlene Carter album pretty good.

It's not bad. But the best song on it is one she first recorded 28 years ago, for whatever that's worth.

We talking about the same album, I Fell In Love?

that colin hay song is pretty good! it's at least as good as iron and wine and stuff like that that's big in indie circles

that colin hay song is pretty good! it's at least as good as iron and wine and stuff like that that's big in indie circles

Hey hey hey hey, easy there.

We talking about the same album, I Fell In Love?

I guess not! I'm talking about Stronger, out March 4 on Yep Roc.

Princss Diana has such great style sheets.

HAD *pow*

But hey James, this is about the Carlene Carter album you got -- from the rolling country 2006 thread (parts of which also ended up on a Cock Robin thread yesterday, coincidentally enough):

carlene carter *i fell in love* 1990 $2.99 (title track sounds familiar, so i guess maybe it was a hit? it also sounds like a nick lowe song, though he apparently didn't write it)
-- xhuxk, Saturday, March 25, 2006 11:04 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

I think Carlene's "I Fell In Love" was written by Al Anderson, ex-NRBQ; at least, he and she were having a rave-up with it, when I saw 'em on Austin City Limits (so astonished I forgot to hit "Record"). He's written a lot of other good songs too.
-- don, Sunday, March 26, 2006 9:21 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

actual songwriting credit is: Carlene Carter/Howie Epstein/Benmont Tench/Perry Lamek. ("The Sweetest Thing" on that album gives partical credit to Robert Ellis Orrall, who I've brought up a couple times on this thread. And more interestingly, "The Leavin' Side" gives partial credit to one Tom Gray: I wonder if that's the same guy who used to lead the Brains, of "Money Changes Everything" fame! They were Southerners, from Atlanta, right? So it wouldn't have been out of the question for him to go the country songwriting route.)
-- xhuxk, Sunday, March 26, 2006 10:44 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

The Carlene Carter album I bought seems consisently kinda fun but never quite fun *enough*, at least so far. Maybe I wish her poppabilly was more rockabilly, "The Sweetest Thing" is slow, and could amost be a Lorrie Morgan hit from around that time; "Goodnight Dallas," which I like more than most of the tracks, has mariachi horns and yodels, so it's "western" I guess. I'm still waiting for at least one track though to jump out at me. --
xhuxk, Sunday, April 9, 2006 3:27 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

and "lonely nights." he had his moments

OTM I haven't heard this song in probably 20 years but iirc it is played entirely in the key of win.

What's up with hating Tom Petty?

Like Christgau seems to think he's like the worst human ever.

yes. God, just have a beer and try to get head like everybody else

(I have a living room's worth of ladies, chatting and I'm a not terribly *yawn* inclined to engage in anything resembling civilized banter.)

Still, you got the word order rearrangement thing going.

i think xgau suspects petty of reactionary tendencies. which is fair enough. he needs to be understood in the context of southern rock as much as california rock.

but petty was a lot more tuned in than i think people give him credit for. the whole "new wave" thing, he wasn't new wave but he had a kind of new wave energy. he loved mtv. he hooked up with dave stewart. he was kind of a fellow traveler. and he was chiming guitars a few years before r.e.m. and the edge and so forth. he really fits into that era.

plus grace jones covered him. should count for something.

"Damn The Torpedoes" is smack full of great tunes, and "Into The Great Wide Open" isn't far behind (plus it has excellent production work by Jeff Lynne in addition).

, he wasn't new wave but he had a kind of new wave energy

Well, on those first couple albums, he sounded totally powerpop -- a lot closer to the Records or Nick Lowe or Bram Tchaicovksy than to the Eagles or Molly Hatchet or Jackson Browne. (One thing that seemed to bug Christgau early on is that, in live shows, Petty acted less new wave than on record: "Onstage, he acts like he wants to be Ted Nugent when he grows up, pulling out the cornball arena-rock moves as if they had something to do with the kind of music he makes." Which I'm guessing actually made his live shows less boring -- in the same review, Xgau says what made bands like the Byrds great "was that they just got up there and played," which may or may not be true, and sounds like a snooze either way -- but we all have our preferences, I guess.)

^^^ This. That's why Tom Petty's early stuff (e.g., "You Got Lucky") kills his later stuff (which, to me, is listless, by-the-numbers nu-classic rock).

[And I bet if you read a Creem review of his stuff around that time, they'd be more likely to mention him in relation to, say, Dwight Twilley than either California rock or Southern rock. So in 1978 he wasn't exactly new wave, but he was for sure on the borderline of it -- like Cheap Trick, or the Cars.]

The fact that he (allegedly) lip-synced his Super Bowl performance makes me love him more:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-petty_0204gl.ART.State.Edition2.4531d76.html

The Cars weren't New Wave?

(xp)

The fact that he (allegedly) lip-synced his Super Bowl performance makes me love him more

it would explain the sound quality being so much better than, say, the stones.

(see, lip-syncing is very new wave.)

The Cars weren't New Wave?

In retrospect it seems like they obviously were, but in 1978 (at least in Detroit) they were pulling in too many mainstream rock REO/Styx/Frampton fans (like my older brother, who also bought Cheap Trick) to seem completely new wave. (From Xgau's 1978 Pazz & Jop essay: "most music bizzers are relieved that the Sex Pistols have vanished into infamy; they still find the Clash strident and the Ramones simplistic, declaring such bands unacceptable to the imaginary consumer who personifies their own complacency and cowardice. But because it's the nature of complacent cowards to hedge all bets--and because they want to prove they're not, you know, square--they reassert their own putative attachment to 'good' rock and roll at the same time, thus easing the sales breakthrough of 'twixt-wave-and-stream bands like the Cars and Cheap Trick. " Earlier in the essay, he counts up the number of new wave finishers in the top 30, and says the Cars and Cheap Trick [and Eno] don't count. Also says "the Cars may share a producer with Queen, but they share a&r, not to mention key musical ideas, with Television and the Dictators." Though I'm not sure what musical ideas he thinks they specifically shared with those two.)

he Cars may share a producer with Queen, but they share a&r, not to mention key musical ideas, with Television and the Dictators.

Heh - I'd have reversed these two clauses.

I think Richard Lloyd was quoted in Please Kill Me about hearing an advance tape of the first Cars album during the sessions for Adventure and he told Verlaine that it was over for Television because Elektra had found a group that souded like them but with radio-friendly songs.

The Cars = Geir Television.

Most Tom Petty fans are unaware that the original title of his smash hit 'Don't Do Me Like That' was originally 'Don't Screw Me In Scat', a bawdy tale about Petty's experiences in Tiajuana. When record execs balked, he re-recorded the song as "Don't Jew Me Like That". However MCA's chief audio engineer, Hymie Goldberg, merely dubbed over the word Jew and the song was released in the form we now know it.

Thank you.

he re-recorded the song as "Don't Jew Me Like That". However MCA's chief audio engineer, Hymie Goldberg, merely dubbed over the word Jew and the song was released in the form we now know it.

Joking, right? I've never heard this. No mention of it on the all-knowing internet, either.

this thread at first seems pretty annoying and full of silly challops but after reading it more closely i'm finding it quite entertaining.

while we're here, let's talk about long after dark.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/PettyLongAfterDark.jpg

the most overlooked tom petty record, imo. great singles -- "you got lucky," "change of heart," "straight into darkness," "we stand a chance" -- and some of my favorite petty album tracks: "finding out," "the same old you," "deliver me."

"Straight Into Darkness" is terrific.

I got up the (underrated?) Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) for a buck a couple of months ago. It's worthwhile as the back-to-basics album Petty never recorded in the seventies; call it a post-reactionary reactionary album. "Jammin' Me" has always been one of my favorite singles, inexplicably omitted from the original greatest, and there's a couple of other numbers ("Runaway Trains") where he doesn't yowl so much.

anyone heard "Waiting For Tonight," with absolutely killer harmonies by The Bangles? Wonderful song.

let me up has some nice songs. i love "runaway trains." "it'll all work out" is pretty, "think about me" is good. "ain't love strange."

xpost: yeah, that bangles song is on the petty box set (which i found for like $20 a few years ago -- six discs!). it's a good tune.

Oh, come on. He's about as mainstream as my taste goes, but he's a swell fellow, a very consistent artist and his catalog is full of unexpected surprises. "Here Comes My Girl" is a perfect example of exactly the sort of heartbreakingly perfect song that Chrissie Hynde might have written for the first Pretenders album - check it out. And for more than 25 years, he's engaged in anti-price-gouging battles with his label over high list prices and whatnot. He's made a record with his pre-Heartbreakers band thirty years later to help his old buddies out for giving him his start. Roger McGuinn said when he heard "American Girl" he assumed it was one of his old classics he'd forgotten about and was crushed to learn it wasn't his song at all, but a deliberate McGuinn tribute by Petty. A fine fellow.

Good race car driver.

tipsy mothra and alfred completely otm re: long after dark and let me up and especially re: runaway trains. jeez lord I love that song.

"Don't Come Around Here No More" with Dave Stewart's help was the only redeeming quality Tom Petty had

I recently heard Hard Promises all the way through for the first time. Wow. Pretty damn awesome. It's a lot tougher than I expected. Hell, I have to give Petty props for being so influenced by Gene Clark, too. Now that's good taste.

yeah besides the obvious classics ("the waiting," "a woman in love") hard promises has "thing about you," which is one of his best rave-ups.

while we're here, let's talk about long after dark.

the most overlooked tom petty record, imo. great singles -- "you got lucky," "change of heart," "straight into darkness," "we stand a chance" -- and some of my favorite petty album tracks: "finding out," "the same old you," "deliver me."

I saw him last month on the current tour and he didn't do anything from this record. ;_;

Hey! I thought I was crazy to rent that four hour documentary, but it turned out to be pretty worthwhile. Tom's audibly stoned to the gills in every interview clip, but he has some surprisingly thoughtful things to say about the record company turf wars, how they adapted to MTV, and working with Roger McGuinn, Del Shannon, etc. It peaks, of course, with the Wilburys period.

Relieved that Bill Flanagan thinks Let Me Up is a personal favorite.

I saw about 10 mins of that doc on VH1-something-or-other. Hoooolllleeee shit does that look like (even more of) a tedious piece of shit (than I'd thought it did). The only thing I can think of that's worse-looking is that book of interviews with him.

that's cuz you've never heard Stan Lynch as an interview subject/object.

haha the 10 mins I saw involved him leaving the band, so I'd say that's a good amount of WHY it sucks!

not surprisingly, i want to see this. "stoned to the gills" sounds like par for the course, pettywise. he, willie and snoop could do some kind of cannabis wilburys thing.

the traveling potbrownies

the kottonmouth kings

I had the same reaction to the documentary that I did after reading Bill Flanagan's U2 book: it succeeded in reminding me that above average bands can talk GREAT shit when interviewed, which means I'll give their work another try.

I just heard "Insider" for the first time. Good song!

I just heard "Insider" for the first time.

!!!

Baffled how you missed it what with Stevie and everything. Better than good imho... probably POXworthy and in a catalog like his that's saying something.

If the answer to the original thread question revolved solely around how he carried himself in this story, no.

Credit to Shawn Macomber at Decibel for doing some raking over the coals.

This article has got me wondering if Anal Cunt can be connected to The Heartbreakers in three or less degrees.

i ~guess~ i'm beginning to understand why X'gau called TP a "dick" in his Wildflowers review (that coincidentally is the worst piece of writing i think i've ever read by the Dean)

I've listened to the bastard more often in the last fourteen months than I ever have, but, well.

the concert footage at the end of that bogdanovich doc (which i watched on sundance, mostly in ffwd) is hysterical. dude comes off like Ted Nugent wishing he was Van Morrison.

This bandtoband site thinks 9 degrees is shortest!

Anal Cunt/Scott Hull
Agoraphobic Nosebleed/James Randall : "Jay Randall"
Isis/Aaron Turner
Old Man Gloom/Nate Newton
Converge/Aaron Dalbec
Only Crime/Bill Stevenson
Minuteflag/Mike Watt
Wylde Ratttz/Ron Asheton
The New Order/Scott Thurston
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers

from a live review circa Great Wide Open: Forty-five minutes into the show, during a strobe-lit version of "Don't Come Around Here No More," three characters masquerading as Presidents Bush, Reagan and Nixon chased Petty around the stage until he banished them by waving a mammoth peace sign.

sadly this isn't included in the documentary or easily found on youtube

yeah i remember that. 13 years old at the Inglewood Forum. It was awesome.

heyheyhey he was born a rebel.

Petty doesn't say anything particularly dickish in the WSJ article and the Decibel post is kind of hostile about totally random stuff (also seems to misinterpret "listened to 169 live takes of 'American Girl' for a live box set" as "took 169 takes to record the studio version of 'American Girl'").

Yeah, Petty seems pretty mild in that interview. The interviewer seems to want to create a Petty vs. Springsteen rivalry, but Petty doesn't really pursue it.

For a few minutes I wondered why I accepted Keef's routine avowals of his band's one-of-a-kindness and not Petty's, but, really, it came down to Petty's hair, and his interviews promoting The Last DJ.

I ask you, would a “rock god” really need to run 169 takes of “American Girl” to get it right, as Petty did according to this article? I’m gonna go ahead and posit probably not.

Uh, that's not what it said, Shawn Macomber of Decibel. It says he listened to 169 different live versions to pick one for the live box set. Anyway, ROCK STAR IN BEING COCKY, OVERCONFIDENT SHOCKER.

xxxp

I ask you, would “rock gods” really need to run 40 takes of "Start Me Up" to get it right, as the Stones did?

Also lol at this piece of question-begging: There’s some whining about Petty getting lost in Springsteen’s shadow--as if there were actually a comparison!

pretty weak sauce in both articles.

i kinda sympathize with folks who have to deal with the albatross of an endless shitstream of music journos for 30+ years tbqfh.

The only otm thing in either article is the bit about petty's fans age/ gender diversity. it's not the case these days, but I always thought it kind of interesting that he was recruiting new fans based on NEW material 20+ years into his career (which I'm guessing dropped off in the mid-late 90s). idk too many mainstream artists who can say that... U2, definitely.Aerosmith? the Stones,i guess. did "the kids" care much about Harlem Shuffle or Steel Wheels?

no non-Boomer generation gives a shit about anything the Stones have done since You Start Me Up

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:sFTJKoLQWZijNM:http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/onion/assets/custom/oscars_2007/harvey_head_big.jpg

well, "You Don't Know How It Feels" = 18 years after Petty's first album, "Start Me Up" = 17 years after the Stones' first album, so hey

I agree with will, basically, but "Harlem Shuffle" and "Mixed Emotions" actually hit the top five while "You Don't Know How It Feels" peaked in Petty's usual top fifteen resting place.

hey i was really into "mixed emotions" as a kid

though my parents bought me the cassingle for "rock and a hard place" instead. :(

Enjoy the memories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZGgIWWesd4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElOXKt0v7-A

by the time tom petty is mick's age here he'll probably be hawking a leadbelly covers album at Future Starbucks

the question wasn't whether the artists were still successful on the charts in the later years but rather when the last time was that they were reaching the youth/picking up new fans. lots of artists keep coasting with big hits for eons after they've stopped doing that, especially the Stones.

I have to admit liking Tom Petty via King of the Hill. Also, Chuck Mangione.

i'd really be surprised if petty has more kids at his shows than the stones do

ha, i would *not* be surprised if Tom Petty's concert audience skews younger than the Rolling Stones'. As for who's buying the new records, it's gotta be the same old dudes.

i just figure petty's been aiming for "authentic bump on a log" status so while it may skew younger over all i can't figure he's grabbing the youth vote except for starbucks folks who don't realize he's a bryan adams from florida with no interest in fashion photography.

He's a weird one to quantify commercially. For most of the eighties Petty seemed more popular than he really was because MTV constantly played his videos; meanwhile his album and single sales consistently sold less than Coog's

"Mixed Emotions" >>>> "I Won't Back Down"

yeah the fact that petty has a video vanguard award always flies against his "KEEPIN IT REAL, M'MAN" shtick. Also that he did that arms dealer's daughter's bat mitzvah with 50 cent

xpost oh i can't agree with that

arms dealer's daughter's bat mitzvah with 50 cent
haha, what?

I have to admit liking Tom Petty via King of the Hill.

^^^this. Lucky is such an awesome character

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2005/301105warparty.htm

xpost

sorry not arms dealer, war profiteer

This weirdly makes me like Tom Petty a little less and 50 cent a little more.

rappers' amorality is *~endearing~*

lol I wonder if Tom told 50 about how rap isn't "music"

You don't want to read his thots on angel whores with guitars, all of which are collected in Conversations With...

man, Tom was getting so much love on ILM lately. And now he's a rap-hatin', war-profiteerin', whiney jerk.

I still like'em, but he's such a fun target.

stevie nicks apparently is also down with the war profiteers...

I would like to hear "go shorty, it's your bat mitzvah" if it was ever leaked.

playing obscene rich person/corporate events is one of the open dirty secrets of working musicians, isn't it?

i don't really see what's objectionable in that article. i've read petty being a dick about prefab pop stars and that kind of thing before -- yr standard rockist complaints -- but there isn't even really any of that in there. there's some doofy stuff said by the writer, but it's not at all clear it comes from petty. and i think the decibel guy is taking the "one of the best bands" lines somewhat wrong -- i think he's mostly big-upping his band (and campbell in particular), and at their best the heartbreakers really were great.

also tho this line

Mr. Petty has written from a female perspective on a surprising number of songs

is something i was thinking about during our recent run of petty polls, and i think it does help account for his large female audience. "american girl" is a sort of unusual song for a male rock dude to write, because she's not some object of desire, the whole song is from inside her head. and even on something like "woman in love," which is from the guy's perspective, the woman is complex, not just some witch, and the failure is mostly on the guy's part ("i don't understand the world today/ i don't understand what she needed").

His other great subject is people fucking with his head ("Breakdown," "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Jammin' Me," etc) -- a universal sentiment.

fortunately he's written many more great pop songs than fucking Timberlake.

He's also been recording music for thirty years.

the woman is complex, not just some witch

and she's always been so hard to figure out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ytcQW93yrU

Maybe that's an allusion to the Eagles "Witchy Woman"?

Dylan's voice + Roger McGuinn's voice = Tom Petty's voice

yes?

I also hear some Gene Clark in his phrasing, at times.

hey i was really into "mixed emotions" as a kid

yeah i was like 12 when it came out and i do remember liking it. but i was probably a little abnormal. somewhere around 7th grade i mothballed all my pop and 80s hair metal cassettes and began listening almost exclusively to beatles/dylan/early stones/zep for about 2 years. i'm certain i was unbearable.

o yeah, still listened to a lot of rap (that i could get my hands on, that is. parental advisory stickers etc had become a really Big Deal iirc)

He's not Sarah Palin--that always counts for something. (Even though he wasn't-Sarah-Palin long before anyone had ever heard of Sarah Palin.)

What is it with Mick and leotards?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdJzLpWFYJ4

what the fuck @ this thread title

i bet you listen to 1st wave emo

i srsly get confused when this thread title comes up

When I think of flower power, I think of Bryan Adams.

i bet you listen to 1st wave emo

Not if you read the post. More like the standard anti-white-guys-with-guitars-attitude.

He's not Sarah Palin

^ I meant to italicize that quote from above and add a sarcastic, "No, I don't suppose he is." And I have failed at that.

I like some of Petty's songs very much, for what it's worth.

important questions:

-- does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?
-- the pope: catholic, or what?
-- bears shit in the woods, y/n?

Well, polar bears don't.

jess totally listens to first wave emo i'm pretty sure

That live 4CD Tom Petty box that came out last year is fucking great. First of all, the performances are from a twenty-plus year span but sound like they could have all been recorded at the exact same gig; second of all, you can get it for like $22 at Target. Highly recommended.

yeah i still need to get that live box ...

ug threads like this up top are the worst of the "good old days" of ILM

ug threads like this up top are the worst of the "good old days" of ILM

i wonder what jess thinks now?

best answer:

Good god Jess, have you never been in a CAR?
― Josh, Monday, December 31, 2001 7:00 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

there was a curious form of anti-rockism that was actually anti-popism

More like anti-boringmusicism.

ah petty's ok. josh otm.

Blimey, this thread. So old, people posted with their real names!

They probably used real instruments too.

We carved out our posts on petrified papyrus.

the heartbreakers are a terrific band, even on songs i don't really like mike campbell comes up with something really distinctive -- he might be a better melodicist than his band leader.

dude wrote fucking Boys of Summer

and this is a good or a bad thing?

yeah campbell writes brilliant guitar parts, very typical of amazing guitarists that don't really get that much recognition from the guitar mag industry because they don't specialize as soloist....

me and a couple of friends were speculating that thunders and petty should have swapped heartbreakers for like 3 months and each recorded albums with the other band...that could have been pretty cool

i did not know that!

xp re: boys of summer

yep petty admitted that was a fuckup letting that go in the documentary

listen to it now, and you can TOTALLY hear that chorus as a tom petty song

"Runaway Trains" always sounded like Campbell trying to write a "Boys of Summer" sequel for Petty.

Has Petty ever covered it ("The Boys of Summer") ?

For what it's worth, I think Henley's vocal suits the snotty wistfulness of the song better than Petty's would have.

In 1984 Henley was much more comfortable with synths than Petty was.

"Runaway Trains" always sounded like Campbell...

Yes. Except he forgot to write a melody for the verses

great chorus though

He's such a riveting figure, his thread has held the top of the list for the past 40+ minutes.

In 1984 Henley was much more comfortable with synths than Petty was.

First thing I thought of too!

?? hmm....southern accents was 85, and that has "don't come around here no more" which is as much classic rock new wave as "boys of summer"

"you got lucky" is from 82 and that's pretty much a synth pop song!

Tom Petty, fronting Yazoo.

once in college i was trying to figure out how to play the keyboard part from "you got lucky" on guitar and some girl in the dorm asked me if i was playing the theme to the young and the restless

yeah, petty was collab-ing with the dude from the eurythmics so he can't have been too scared of synths. maybe he thought "you got lucky" and "don't come around here" were enough when "boys of summer" came his way.

omg mary j blige could KILL a track that used a "you got lucky" sample!

i'm tellin u ned! it IS synth pop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTAhZKP5wCY

plus the weird ambient music in the lol mad max intro totally sounds like early tangerine dream!

guys, the intro to Louisiana Rain

s'all

what, no love for free fallin'? barely even heard it mentioned, but if you ask me it's of a much higher quality than most rock bands sellout powerballads, and is a perennial staple of my ongoing classic rock itunes playlist

"You Got Lucky" was the first to feature synths, and it got some resistance, according to Petty (he's himself not very fond of it).

totally sounds like early tangerine dream..or mid period Rush

"Don't Come Around Here No More" is not a song by a guy comfortable with synths, let alone his voice. God, that thing is so annoying.

xpost on louisiana rain

oh dip that's a good one too.

NO WAY ALFRED!!!!

don't come around here no more is awesome

i don't even know how it works, so mysterious

http://www.fortunecity.com/uproar/amused/513/alice/image2.jpg

"It's just one of those things, you just can't explain"

learning to fly >> free fallin'

(it's REALLY beautiful)