Tom Petty is awesome.--Travis Keller
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:17 (nineteen years ago) link
The man who told the world "I Won't Back Down," "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Don't Come Around Here No More" doesn't need any assertiveness-training course. Tom Petty's determined, sometimes defiant attitude has collided with the music business throughout the years. For instance, in 1982 Petty recorded Hard Promises with the Heartbreakers, only to find that his then-record company had plans to use his name to initiate a new, higher $9.98 list price for albums. Petty withheld the tapes and threatened to retitle his record $8.98 in protest.
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."
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 11 September 2004 05:40 (nineteen years ago) link
Which makes McGuinn's cover of it that much better than Petty's original
― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 11 September 2004 08:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 12 September 2004 05:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 12 September 2004 05:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― danh (danh), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:22 (nineteen years ago) link
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).
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― shmarken, Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:37 (nineteen years ago) link
And Billy Squier too
― shmarken, Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 12 September 2004 08:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 13 September 2004 03:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Monday, 13 September 2004 18:28 (nineteen years ago) link
Ha! Ha! I heard that same story, applied to Neil Young and "A Horse With No Name". Fun-ny!
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 05:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 06:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― Donnie Smith The Quiz Kid, Tuesday, 14 September 2004 07:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 07:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 12:18 (nineteen years ago) link
― doomie x, Tuesday, 14 September 2004 12:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― doomie x, Tuesday, 14 September 2004 12:25 (nineteen years ago) link
Destroy:When he sings like Bob Dylan Impersonating Neil Youngthat "Into the Great Wide Open" song.Everything Else.
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 14 September 2004 12:44 (nineteen years ago) link
well it was nearly summer we sat on your roof
(thread revival cuz tom petty car-drivin windows-down season is upon us)
― tipsy mothra, Sunday, 27 May 2007 07:27 (seventeen years ago) link
http://www.julecarey.com/images/Tom-Petty-Ass_large.jpg
― tipsy mothra, Sunday, 27 May 2007 07:34 (seventeen years ago) link
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, 27 May 2007 11:25 (seventeen years ago) link
That song in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is pretty brilliant when you're cruising thru the desert towards Las Venturas.
― Noodle Vague, Sunday, 27 May 2007 12:19 (seventeen years ago) link
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...
― iago g., Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:02 (seventeen years ago) link
He has great songs. Doesn't need anything else than that.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:05 (seventeen years ago) link
-- Just got offed, Sunday, May 27, 2007 11:25 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Link
irm?
― and what, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:07 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Bimble, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:10 (seventeen years ago) link
why the hell would you worry about that?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Surmounter, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:17 (seventeen years ago) link
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)
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:17 (seventeen years ago) link
i see the great american songs thing as a lack of culture in his music
― Surmounter, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:21 (seventeen years ago) link
it's like bologna
with mayo. and pickles?
― Surmounter, Sunday, 27 May 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link
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”
― xhuxk, Sunday, 27 May 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link
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?
― kingkongvsgodzilla, Sunday, 27 May 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 27 May 2007 15:28 (seventeen years ago) link
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.
― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 27 May 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link
holy shit I didn't realize "Free Fallin'" came out in 1989!
― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 27 May 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link