does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

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/

like, this dude just kinda strolls onstage and starts singing along on free fallin' and... it kinda sounds like Axl... and it kinda shimmies like Axl does in the sweet child video... but what would axl be doing in Syracuse tonight? and now they're on to knockin on heaven's door and holy shit that is really axl fucking rose up there this is bonkers.

it was 1989 we didn't know yet that he was a monster

well, the Bogdanovich documentary wouldn't be made for another fifteen years.

solid zing

Apparently Hypnotic Eye is his first ever #1 album.

kinda lol but mostly sad: it's bc only olds by albums

well, and people who bought tickets had the option of buying the album.

and because 100 copies gets you a slot in the charts nowadays

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

― da croupier, Wednesday, August 6, 2014 2:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

draw the line fucking smokes, so much better than pump gtfo

Just seeing this sentence:

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.

I was able to guess who wrote it and where it appeared

Steve Hyden is really good at making me feel like I should hate something I like

just be thankful he didn't do the 'underrated, overrated, properly rated' thing again

I don't know what it means that my Petty deep cuts playlist only has 3 songs in common with Hyden's. probably just a testament to the strength of Petty's catalog.

hope you have Let Me Up tracks; he just chose the three tracks on the double-disc comp

everyone sleeps on runaway trains. I guess it was technically a single so maybe not deep enough?

that's a great song

for some reason, my five year old daughter is reallllly into tom petty all of a sudden. she drew this picture of him
https://scontent-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11001682_10206058481601581_2667046924968240590_n.jpg?oh=b34b76efa393faecf0f861d30a60f8ef&oe=5587AA02

that mic stand is very stable

future engineer imo

petty plays a mean lute

Probably the Vox?

http://www.edroman.com/guitars/abstract/images/TomPettyVoxTeardrop.jpg

oh shit for sure!

tom should for real use that as his next album cover

totally.
someone pointed out it could also be sandy bull w/ his oud
https://oudmusic.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/sandy-bull-e-pluribus-unum.jpg

hahah!

I think every kid goes through their Sandy Bull phase

if they've got hair

lol yeah, an easy path from petty to bull. she'll be listening to nothing but deep oud jams from somalia in no time.

it is kind of interesting though... trying to figure out what it is exactly that makes kids respond to tom petty. i know i responded to him when i was eight or nine. it might specifically be the full moon fever album. i mean, obviously really catchy songs, but wondering if there's something about the production that gets right to a kid's brain.

i guess petty has some muppet like qualities

tom should for real use that as his next album cover

m@tt OTM, somebody get Mr. Petty on the phone

That picture is very good for a five year old!! Thanks for posting it!