does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

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.