does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (737 of them)

View Previous Page...

Tom Petty has written some very good music.

― Gage-o, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Never heard of 'we must destroy disco', could be good.

I like Tom Petty but own none of his records.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I concur that Mr. Petty's written some great tunes. I mean, so what if he's not hip, are we really going to go back into that quagmire again?

― Mickey Black Eyes, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"He's like a less great Joan Jett": the word "less" is doing quite a lot of work in this sentence

― mark s, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'll vouch that the Greatest Hits he put out circa 94 is solid and a guilty pleasure (though it doesn't include the Stevie duet, which i love), although it's been years and i dunno if i'd be able to stand it now.

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

― al, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I haven't thought about him in a long time; I actually pulled out my copies of "Damn the Torpedoes" and "Hard Promises" to jar my memory, and recalled with pleasure many songs. He doesn't top my best of list, but surely he's nothing to get upset over. And yes, his Stevie duet is killer.

― Sean, Wednesday, 2 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

wtf? you can't fuck with tom petty.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 10 September 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

A co-worker of mine is a huge Tom Petty fan, and it's his birthday tomorrow (not Petty's, my friend's). I actually went boppin' around the East Village looking for obscure Petty ephemera (vintage t-shirt from Damn the Torpedoes or something), but came up empty.

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

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

it's all about "breakdown"

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"Refugee" is the only good chord progression he ever squeezed out. The songwriting on things like "You Don't Know How It Feels" or "Running Down the Dream" is laughable.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, "Breakdown"'s alright.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:01 (twenty-one years ago)

nice

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

his lyrics are bad, and his vocals can grate, but yeah he has some good tunes: "the waiting" is esp. nice.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

"Break Down" did indeed sound tough and sexy when it was a new song. Beyond that, meh.

― briania (briania), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

but yeah a lot of his recent (i.e. past 15 years??) hits seem really lazy to me, esp. "you don't know how it feels" and "mary jane's last dance." i guess he sort of stopped trying at some point.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"breakdown" has those backing vocals that actually sound a little disco to me! or sleazy, at least.

― amateur!!st, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never understood how people can get that excited about him. I mean, yeah, he's had some good singles, but none of them have been particularly ground-breaking or life-affirming.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I find most of his songs "pleasant," and this can actually be good or bad. They don't grate or annoy, but they sometimes slip into the background. However, I have a soft spot for just about any popular act with an "ugly" voice.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

and an ugly face

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

i have the first album and enjoy some of the singles. i even took the complete videos out on video once.

― kephm, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

josh otm.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:17 (twenty-one years ago)

he had a very good guitarist in mike campbell

― amateur!!st, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah campbell and tench both rule

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I like tom petty, actually.

― cºzen (Cozen), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

he was great on the various garry shandling shows

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm pretty sure there are at least six songs by this guy i really really like

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i remember josh and i argued about this for some time. i remain unconvinced.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I was just today deciding whether or not to excise his Greatest Hits disc from my iPod. It stayed.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

tom petty is pretty frequently the weakest element of a tom petty song though

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw him live years ago (Long After Dark tour - I went because The Plimsouls were opening) and he put on a very good rock and roll show in the traditional sense of it - I could probably quickly throw together a pretty excellent homebrew greatest hits collection (which is mostly different from the "hits" collection that came out). Like other posters were saying, he's too inoffensive to really harsh on. I still remember back in the very early 80s when Petty was lumped in with the new wavers because no one could figure out where to put him.

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

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I only read the first ten or so posts, but what's the matter with you people? Petty rules. His first, like, four albums are pure pop fucking perfection. What's a better song than "American Girl?" Tell me! Every album he's ever done has AT LEAST four or five good-to-great songs.

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

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Truly, the first few TP records are fantastic. As good as the first few Ramones records. I don't even see how the question of "redeeming qualities" enters into it.

― Dark Horse, Friday, 10 September 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Wildflowers quite a bit. Breezy summer pop-rock album, the songwriting and lyrics are irrelevant to me (I never noticed that "You Don't Know How It Feels" was lazy, but I haven't heard any of his early stuff), a nice, slow rhythm for most songs.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

i like almost all of his singles and i hate all of his albums. he's responsible for some of the worst filler of his generation.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

what's filler? I mean, aside from side 2 of Full Moon Fever?

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

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Friday, 10 September 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

i was shocked to read this:

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.)

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

what's filler?

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.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I think his defining moment was his role in Kevin Costner's masterpiece (after his previous post-apocalyptic triumph 'Waterworld'. Damn was that guy on fire or what?) 'The Postman'.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nrk.no/img/201114.jpeg

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

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Every album he's ever done has AT LEAST four or five good-to-great songs. -- roger adultery

The Last DJ?

― southern lights (southern lights), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Odd that there's no mention of "You Wreck Me" — classic. And I'm totally amazed by the guy's consistency, to be honest.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:25 (twenty-one years ago)

"Walls" is for me the sleeper Petty masterpiece. "You got a heart so big / It could crush this town", with its phrasing, seems pure gold to me.

― southern lights (southern lights), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i spent a month driving around europe in a crammed splitter van, and if i hadn't had my tom petty favorites mix then i would have strangled someone or jumped off an alp.

― lauren (laurenp), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

xgau's review of Greatest Hits sums it up for me. His other Tom Petty reviews are pretty dead on too.

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-

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, he can be supremely annoying, but his "Greatest Hits" LP is worth owning.

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

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Personal Tom Petty POX:
Runaway Trains
Don't Come Around Here No More
A Face In The Crowd
The Waiting
Free Fallin'
There Goes My Girl
American Girl
Refugee
Walls
I Won't Back Down

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

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:38 (twenty-one years ago)

argh link to said blog entry here. best passive-aggressive boomer dad I can think of.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

actually i'm kinda suprised i ever cared enough about this thread topic to start it

― jess (dubplatestyle), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

that xgau review OTM.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like "Spike".

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 10 September 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 637 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

that mic stand is very stable

― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 23 February 2015 18:47 (eleven years ago)

future engineer imo

― you can buy your hair if it won't grow (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 23 February 2015 18:47 (eleven years ago)

petty plays a mean lute

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 14:49 (eleven years ago)

Probably the Vox?

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

― how's life, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 14:51 (eleven years ago)

oh shit for sure!

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:01 (eleven years ago)

tom should for real use that as his next album cover

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:01 (eleven years ago)

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

― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:04 (eleven years ago)

hahah!

― how's life, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:10 (eleven years ago)

I think every kid goes through their Sandy Bull phase

― kurt kobaïan (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:13 (eleven years ago)

if they've got hair

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:13 (eleven years ago)

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

― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:26 (eleven years ago)

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.

― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:29 (eleven years ago)

i guess petty has some muppet like qualities

― tylerw, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:30 (eleven years ago)

tom should for real use that as his next album cover

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

― sleeve, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 15:30 (eleven years ago)

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

― NO CLOO (I M Losted), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 21:30 (eleven years ago)

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/0a/6a/2e/0a6a2e915a250b0feb3a8df0fe32e2ca.jpg

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 21:44 (eleven years ago)

two years pass...

Finally got around to listening to Howard Stern interview Jimmy Iovine and Iovine is still dissing Stan Lynch for being behind the beat. Once you hear the shaker in Refugee, you can't unhear it.

Warren Zanes' book far more interesting than I expected.

― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 27 August 2017 08:31 (eight years ago)

one month passes...

What I came up with when we polled'em.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 October 2017 01:47 (eight years ago)

I just came across this post of the new Petty-produced Hillman album, with some other Byrds, Heartbreakers among participants---haven't had time to listen yet, but might be redeeming: http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/7968856/chris-hillman-bidin-my-time-album

― dow, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 02:01 (eight years ago)

Oh man, slightly unfair to OP to dredge up this thread today.

― enochroot, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 12:45 (eight years ago)

i saw chris hillman at the opry while i was in nashville, played "turn turn turn" and a righteous bros. cover from the new record, both sounded wonderful, looking forward to checking it out

― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Tuesday, 3 October 2017 12:58 (eight years ago)

Tom Petty had plenty of redeeming qualities, not to mention he had the respect of a lot of prominent musicians. On the other hand, he had no classic albums and was pretty much an American phenomenon.

― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Tuesday, 3 October 2017 13:21 (eight years ago)

Eh, I'll stand up for OP.

I'm going to keep quiet for the next couple of days though. My opinions would only sound ... *ahem* ... contemptuously trivial.

― pplains, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 13:28 (eight years ago)

Oh man, slightly unfair to OP to dredge up this thread today.

― enochroot, Tuesday, October 3, 2017

My post answered the thread question!

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 3 October 2017 13:34 (eight years ago)

threadstarter earlier noted on twitter that he's listening to the heartbreakers today to lift his otherwise shitty mood, so alfred's post was evidently persuasive

rip tom

― mark s, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 13:40 (eight years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.