does tom petty have any redeeming qualities?

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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)

I'm surprised this thread was started before he turned truly evil with The Last DJ. Buddyhead gave him props for hating radio now that his new stuff isn't on it. I hate when indie asshole rags make the mistake of telling us who they respect.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:03 (twenty-one years ago)

'running down a dream' has that sweet guitar riff in the chorus. 'american girl' a great song all around. 'i won't back down' is defiant and semi-inspiring and shit. 'refugee' is totally not bad and doesn't make me want to change the radio station.

― 6335, Friday, 10 September 2004 21:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I assume Buddyhead was being sarcastic.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:10 (twenty-one years ago)

sadly, very, sadly, they weren't.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Nope. They were not.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

their review of the Last DJ, which got their highest rating, consists solely of this:

Tom Petty is awesome.
--Travis Keller

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:17 (twenty-one years ago)

from their gossip page when the album came out: Tom Petty is pissed. His new album, as always, totally rules. Buy it. Besides bringing the rock, he’s dropping mad knowledge. Props to mtv.com for showing some balls for once and putting up Tom’s rant on their site besides the latest word on who Britney Spears is dating. This is important enough for you to read the whole thing…
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 (twenty-one years ago)

they should read Lester Bangs' essay about why that fuckin' dollar from Tom Petty back when was pure bullshit.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:22 (twenty-one years ago)

if Bryan Adams flipped a bitchswitch about radio not pushing his new crap, do you think they'd support him too?

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

yes

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

well not really

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought you were being literal, that their review was along the lines of "he hates radio now that his new stuff isn't on it, awesome!" - making fun of him for only hating radio now. That sounds more like a Vice review, I guess.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 10 September 2004 21:55 (twenty-one years ago)

tom petty's finest hour: sandra bernhard's version of "stop draggin' my heart around" on the rodney dangerfield 75th birthday special

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 11 September 2004 05:40 (twenty-one years ago)

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

Which makes McGuinn's cover of it that much better than Petty's original

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 11 September 2004 08:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Anthony, "Face in the Crowd" -- nice.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 12 September 2004 05:02 (twenty-one years ago)

mcguinn says that when he heard "american girl" on the radio he wondered "did i record this song and forget about it?"

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 12 September 2004 05:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom Petty is great because he's like all the guys in Dazed and Confused except for real, coming up with rock'n'roll when it meant longhair girls and good weed and the sort of hazy endless beer blast that represented rebellion or freedom or just, you know, being your own dog to all those redneck riviera Florida kids, for lack of imagination or opportunity or, hell, desire to do anything else. And also because he loved Dylan and the Stones not for what they said or meant but how they sounded, because they sounded fucking great and he wanted to sound fucking great, which is exactly what the Byrds wanted too and that's the other reason he sounds like the Byrds (apart from sounding like the Byrds), that he's a sonics guy just like McGuinn and his music never means more or less than that perfect aching tremor in his voice or that Rickenbacker twang in his amp. And also because he deploys his minor falls and major lifts as well as any four-chord rocker of his generation. And also because, fuck it, even the losers get lucky sometimes.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:06 (twenty-one years ago)

My own POX:
American Girl
I Need to Know
Even the Losers
Louisiana Rain
A Woman in Love
Straight Into Darkness
You Got Lucky
Dogs on the Run
Free Fallin'
You Wreck Me

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)

what has tom petty done for me other than make me feel nostalgic for a time that didn't even exist or I wasn't even alive for. come on it's fucking nostalgia rock with all the trimmings. and a few good singles.

― danh (danh), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:17 (twenty-one years ago)

You oughta hear me and Wifey cover "Hometown Blues"

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:22 (twenty-one years ago)

if he were more of a jerk or a blowhard, he'd be the american paul weller. i think that some folks get really into him b/c he's always been a sort-of alternative to other pop music. when i was a teen in the mid/late 80s, for instance, tom petty was sorta-alternative to the hair-metal and vapid dance-pop that dominated the radio. he could've also passed as "new wave" in that he's always had a back-to-the-basics ethos (even when his music came slathered in dave stewart/jeff lynne studio syrup) that's similar to roughly-contemporaneous british pub-rock. in a similar vein, one could argue that "refugee," "american girl," et. al. paved the way for rem and other american groups of that type to make the leap onto mainstream rock radio.

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 (twenty-one years ago)

That Mad Max-ripoff video they did for "You Got Lucky" was HELLA cool.

― shmarken, Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:32 (twenty-one years ago)

One thing that helped him sell a lot of records in the 80s was that he really liked making videos. You can tell. He liked dressing up and everything, and doing all that goofy Alice in Wonderland shit. Him and ZZ Top, they were some of the only 70s rockers who figured out MTV.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:37 (twenty-one years ago)

And Billy Squier too

― shmarken, Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:52 (twenty-one years ago)

j. geils, the cars...

― stockholm cindy (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 12 September 2004 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)

and yes ... "owner of a lonely heart"!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 12 September 2004 08:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, he seems to *not* be a heartbreaker, as his bands title does not extend to him. That's quite nice.

― Sasha (sgh), Monday, 13 September 2004 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

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