does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

"You Don't Know How it Feels" was the lead-off single from Wildflowers the following year (which was originally supposed to have a b-side called Girl on LSD lol)

It did! My wife (who was in middle school or something at the time) says she bought the single solely for that reason, and she and all her friends thought it was hilarious.

Listened to the greatest hits while catching up on the top 20 of the classic rock poll countdown. Bliss.

I'd like to see a greatest hits 2 covering the era from 'wildflowers' to the present, I'm only really familiar with that album and a handful of cuts from 'she's the one' tbh.

I guess one of the big casualties of radio's move away from certain types of rock music was tom petty, I mean probably if I still listen to wxrt in chicago I'd be hip to all of it.

dude lasted longer than most of his peers, though - came in new wave, made friendly with the old guard but wasn't fazed by grunge. eventually just became too old to function

hit-wise i mean, obv still has his cult and can join any all-star award show jam he likes

i was wondering if he'd ever made the slightest effort to tap into the pop-country scene, where 80s rock has gone to die (shit, even the b-52's did love shack with sugarland at one of those award shows), and apparently he's got this to say

http://tasteofcountry.com/tom-petty-blasts-country-music/

“I don’t really see a George Jones or a Buck Owens or any anything that fresh coming up,” Petty explains. “I’m sure there must be somebody doing it, but most of that music reminds me of rock in the middle 80s where it became incredibly generic and relied on videos.”

BIG TALK from a rock star from the middle 80s with an MTV Video Hall Of Fame award

Said mr. Petty, clad in top hat and sitting cross legged on a mushroom

on my FB wall J0dy R0sen wondered if he made peace with the women who stole his sound. I don't think the guy likes women much.

country women, that is

tbf, i doubt he likes keith urban either

Urban gives him serious hair competition.

sartorially he might want to hang with the zac brown band but sound-wise he'd probably find them too pablo cruise

as hilariously un-selfaware as his dis on country was, i kinda admire that he won't let florida georgia line prance around him going "the WAAAAAAAiting" at the CMAs

the Heartbreakers could totally back Jake Owen except he's a brunette.

was everyone aware that peter bogdanovich made a 4hr doc about tom petty. i wasn't.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0965382/

Yep. It's a splendid way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

i get that it's pretty uncool to dis on modern country these days, but TP otm re 'bad rock w/ a fiddle'

i had originally chalked my aversion up to ignorance. but moving to Nashville has confirmed (most of) my notions

The problem with those statements -- yours and Pettys's -- is that if I wanted to be churlish I'd say country in 1974 sounded like bad rock w/a fiddle.

it's not even that it's uncool to dis pop-country for me, it's just the irony of tom petty shitting on video-centric '80s pop-rock

and there's the fact that Petty has never been shy of being a video whore.

whoops -- croup beat me

pop-country would be within its rights to retort "I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU, DAD!"

" I'd say country in 1974 sounded like bad rock w/a fiddle"

a lot of it was!!

yeah not touching the video remark, i mean

at his most boring Petty is bad rock with a singer

the bad rock bedrock

Petty otm. I'm disappointed he hasn't talked hella smack about Sam Smith yet.

The problem with those statements -- yours and Pettys's -- is that if I wanted to be churlish I'd say country in 1974 sounded like bad rock w/a fiddle.
--guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Let's leave Charlie Daniels out of this ;-)

Steve Hyden on Tom Petty. And, yeah, I agree: 1988-1996 was his peak period, not Damn the Torpedoes

MUSIC

Career Arc: Tom Petty
Taking stock of the legendary rocker’s steady, stunning 40-year career

BY STEVEN HYDEN ON JULY 22, 2014PRINT
Who is Tom Petty? Naturally I’m asking this because there’s a pretty good Heartbreakers album called Hypnotic Eye coming out July 29. But that explains only why I’m asking this question now. I’ve been listening to Tom Petty for nearly my entire life. It’s time to get to the bottom of this guy.

Here’s what I think I know: Tom Petty has been a rock star for almost 40 years. He has a dozen or so songs that will be played on classic rock radio for as long as there is classic rock radio. If you’re a music fan of a certain age, there was a time in your life when he seemed inescapable. Even now, Petty is still a guy that most people know, even if you don’t actively care about him one way or the other. Tom Petty’s music doesn’t necessarily demand a value judgment. It’s like having an opinion on tap water or concrete. Why bother? It’s just there, reliable to the point of invisibility. If it went missing, you would notice. But it’s never going missing, because Tom Petty has existed since the beginning of time, and will continue to exist until time is extinguished.

So, for real: Who is Tom Petty? He has always been an aloof presence in his music. He’s like the stoner Clint Eastwood, wielding a crooked smile like a long-barreled hand cannon to prevent any too-close attachments. He’s a hard guy to get a read on, particularly in the last 20 years, when he receded from pop culture and became an eternally cranky and fitfully insightful recluse. And yet, again, his music is still there. It’s summertime, and Tom Petty songs are playing in baseball stadiums, across outdoor bar patios, and inside cars embarking on cross-country road trips. He’s always with us even when he’s not present.

How do you explain Tom Petty? Is it foolish to even try? Perhaps, but let’s try to break it down anyway.

Photo of Tom PETTY and Tom PETTY & The HEARTBREAKERS

Peak Petty (1988-96)

Many of Petty’s best-known songs — “American Girl,” “Refugee,” “The Waiting,” “Breakdown,” “Listen to Her Heart,” etc. — originated in either the late ’70s or early ’80s. His third record, 1979’s Damn the Torpedoes, is commonly regarded as his best. (It’s the one that got the Classic Albums documentary treatment.) Nevertheless, I would posit that Peak Petty actually occurred a decade later. It’s true that the years I’ve designated as Peak Petty coincide with the time when I personally became a Tom Petty fan, so I can be fairly accused of being self-serving. But that doesn’t mean my assessment of Petty’s career is wrong. This is one of those rare moments when wanton solipsism and universal truth can peacefully coexist.

Tom Petty entered this period as a 37-year-old journeyman with a fading career and exited an unassailable 46-year-old bedrock of modern music. Anything that was good or notable in rock seemed to be associated with him in some way. He sang with Axl Rose at the MTV Video Music Awards when GNR was at its peak. He played with Dave Grohl on Saturday Night Live seven months after Kurt Cobain died. He backed up Johnny Cash on his second-best American Recordings album. Petty cowrote Roy Orbison’s last hit and hired (then fired) the Replacements as his opening act. He covered an obscure but great song by Beck and wrote an obscure but great song that was covered by Rod Stewart. He seemed neither young nor old. He didn’t belong to any specific scene. He was an Everyman for everybody. If rock had a fulcrum, it was him.

Peak Petty starts with the first Traveling Wilburys record and ends with the She’s the One soundtrack.1 But as far as Petty’s life goes, it really begins with a house fire. In May 1987, Petty’s L.A. homestead was set ablaze by an arsonist who to this day remains at large. “Why in the world would anyone do that, especially to Tom Petty, who’s just cool?” says Stevie Nicks, asking the unanswerable, in Peter Bogdanovich’s exhaustive four-hour documentary Runnin’ Down a Dream.2 Petty himself claimed to not be haunted by this question. Instead, the fire became Peak Petty’s origin story.

http://grantland.com/features/tom-petty-career-arc-heartbreakers-hypnotic-eye/

I'd like to see a greatest hits 2 covering the era from 'wildflowers' to the present, I'm only really familiar with that album and a handful of cuts from 'she's the one' tbh.

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Friday, August 1, 2014 7:16 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo you're not missing much as far as singles since then, although i personally love his last two singles that scraped the top 20 of the rock charts, both from Echo in '99:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UZwDBHhiYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4vJM4L2D2U

It’s true that the years I’ve designated as Peak Petty coincide with the time when I personally became a Tom Petty fan, so I can be fairly accused of being self-serving. But that doesn’t mean my assessment of Petty’s career is wrong. This is one of those rare moments when wanton solipsism and universal truth can peacefully coexist.

pretty sure those moments come to petty all the time, why shouldn't they come to petty fans

"Room at the Top" is a winner. I like The Last DJ's "Blue Sunday" too.

It’s true that the years I’ve designated as Peak Petty coincide with the time when I personally became a Tom Petty fan, so I can be fairly accused of being self-serving. But

cut

hey he states his biases up front

i wonder if petty would be proud of his Full Moon Fever 4ever fans for celebrating the music of their youth or pity them for having such a shitty, video-centric time to grow up in

i am a full moon fever 4ever fan, just to be clear

this is like saying Peak Aerosmith begins with Permanent Vacation. not false in a certain sense, but very wrong.

"Peak McCartney starts with the first Wings record..."

And then...bam..."Mama I'm Coming Home"

yeah but Permanent Vacation is (a) not the band's best seller (b) not considered a good album by anyone

ok pretend he said pump

it's not an indefensible position

Pump would def be in my top five Aerosmith

I was torn tbh but went w/permanent vacation for ushering in the Nu-Aerosmith era

my point is only, it's not unlike Hyden to stake out a dumb position and double down

hey I'm more offended he thought Petty's playing with GNR showed how hip he was

you gotta go to bat for some pairing of Aerosmith, Draw The Line, Done With Mirrors or Get A Grip for Pump NOT to be in your top 5

tbf I remember seeing petty on that tour with the Mats and the moment when Axl just strolled onstage unannounced was pretty lose-your-shit awesome

aaaaand here's another: http://www.stereogum.com/1696031/tom-petty-albums-from-worst-to-best/list/