RIP Tom Petty

yeah, I was going to say. Smoking kills.

oof, this always makes me wince a little bit from that old thread...

i know i'm crazy and we've been on here for a WEEK talking about the eagles but if someone started a thread where we all listened to the eagles discography track by track and then talked about the songs i would participate. i think that's enough punishment for all of us. we all probably deserve it. one track a day. or we could just forget that i said anything...probably for the best.

― scott seward, Monday, 19 August 2013 20:17 (four years ago) Permalink

best idea you ever had scott
#chugallnight

Twenty-year-old heroin habit aside, he never quit smoking.

― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, October 3, 2017 1:09 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he was also born in Gainesville in 1950 so he probably started smoking at like 10 or something

Springsteen's gotta be doing some Petty covers on Broadway over the next couple months. trying to imagine the best one, I can imagine a furious Bruce cover of "Refugee."

God, I hope not. Springsteen farting all over "Refugee" would be the worst kind of tribute.

A question I have always wanted to ask and might as well: what accent is he affecting on You Got Lucky Babe? Italian? Puerto Rican?

la lechera otm esp re non-beardo Tom
beardo Tom was more like the guy who rents out fishing boats by the lake

and he always made me feel better too!!

weird woman in a bar (La Lechera)
Posted: October 3, 2017 at 9:25:30 AM
i think i speak on the behalf of more than myself (could be wrong but i doubt it) when i say that tom petty was also a style icon, lanky and fair like bowie but scuzzier/more gnarly <3 <3 <3
obvs his music was great and so was his look, pre-beard
post beard he looked like tom petty in a beard which has its own charm but isn't a look i identify with

i feel like i hung out with tom petty during some of my most alienated moments and unlike a lot of his peers, listening to his music never made me feel worse than i already did. usually better. love him.

As posted last night on the tom petty redeeming qualities thread (sounds good so far, now he and McG. are doing "Here She Comes Again")
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, Monday, October 2, 2017
Now it's Everlys' "Walk Right Back"--says Petty talked him into doing it, good choice!

what accent is he affecting on You Got Lucky Babe?

Badass.

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, October 3, 2017 Yeah, Billboard (via that link) says he started touring Sept. 21, with his usual colleague, Herb Pederson, and Endless Tour survivor John Jorgenson (both are on this album).

I went looking on Spotify, to see if the Del Shannon album Petty produced in the 80s was there. It's not.

what accent is he affecting on You Got Lucky Babe? Italian? Puerto Rican?

It does kind of remind me of Garland Jeffreys. American soul singer filtered through Van Morrison and Jagger.

I mean it's Hillman, not Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, but Petty presents him as well as possible, ditto other friends and colleagues of yore (now it's "My Love Don't Care About Time"!)

Some good tracks on the recent Jeffreys, like "Waiting For The Man".

So this wasn't a heroin / opioid death? I had assumed it was, but I don't think the word heroin has been mentioned in this thread yet.

So this wasn't a heroin / opioid death? I had assumed it was, but I don't think the word heroin has been mentioned in this thread yet.

Fuck off

xpost Springsteen is not going to be covering Tom Petty on Broadway, I don't think. It's a very specific show, with a setlist and script and everything.

thank you for acknowledging the otmness of my post VG :)
look at this guy
http://img.wennermedia.com/social/rs-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-2bbad677-1d62-4b31-af27-e1f081f19e2b.jpg

Benmont Tench talks:

How did you feel about Tom's decision to make Full Moon Fever as a solo album?
I was pissed off and hurt. I was also worried he'd split up the band because there was conflict within the group at that time. There wouldn't be anybody coming to blows, but Tom and Stan [Lynch] would have disagreements, and Stan would leave the band, or get fired, and then come back less than a week later. Stan was always worried that Tom would go [solo], or just grab Mike and pack up. So when he did that, that's how it felt. I was also pissed by the way I found out about it. We were supposed to make a Heartbreakers record. I called the main guy on our crew about a week before we were supposed to start to ask what time we were coming in. He just said, "Uh. . . ummmm." He hemmed and hawed and finally told me they were making a solo record. Nobody told me.

Wow.
So that’s one side of the story. The other side of the story is that I was out of my mind on cocaine and alcohol. I was a very high man and deeply troubled with drugs and alcohol, so I thank Jeff Lynne. I had nothing to do with Full Moon Fever, so I got to go to rehab, and it saved my life. Also, hell, I'd been doing session work for years by that time. Why the fuck shouldn't Tom go play with someone else and have fun too?

Stan Lynch had a different take on the situation.
That may be. My take on that record is that I like bands that count to four and play loud. Jeff [Lynne] is a constructionist from the Brian Wilson school. It's a gorgeous school, but it's very different. I prefer the way we play the Full Moon Fever songs live to the way they sound on the record, but the 7 million people that bought Full Moon Fever might disagree.

xpost grade A boyfriend material

lol @ “i was a very high man”
i cant not hear it in a Forest Gump voice

la lechera & vg very much otm re: petty's earlier style

tbh never really thought of that since im used to superbowl bearded late petty but younger petty <3

total hottie

That photo's angle disguises how crazy tall Ron Blair is.

kinda blows my mind that "Don't Do Me Like That" reached #10 and "Refugee" only got to #15 in the US.

both songs are great, obv.

"Don't Do Me Like That" actually dates back to Mudcrutch. Iovine heard it on an old tape and demanded Petty re-record it.

cool, thanks, did not know that but it makes sense

down the wiki rabbit hole and found this great quote from Kim Basinger about the "Mary Jane's Last Dance" video, where she played a dead woman:

Now that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. It was classic, wasn’t it? He was a doll, and he was so sweet and asked me to do it, and both of us are extremely shy so we just said three words to each other the whole time. I’ll never forget how heavy that dress was! And I had to be dead the whole time. You know, it’s really one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life, because I had to be completely weightless to be in his arms the way I was. It won all those awards, and the kids love it—even today!
— Kim Basinger[14]

Petty only scored two top tens solo and as Heartbreakers *: "Don't Do Me Like That" and "Free Fallin." Heavy MTV play created the impression that "Don't Come Around Here No More," "You Got Lucky," "Jammin' Me," and especially "Into the Great Wide Open" rode the Billboard top ten for months.

* "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" with Stevie Nicks is his highest charting hit (#3, fall '81).

Stan Lynch had a different take on the situation.
That may be. My take on that record is that I like bands that count to four and play loud. Jeff [Lynne] is a constructionist from the Brian Wilson school. It's a gorgeous school, but it's very different. I prefer the way we play the Full Moon Fever songs live to the way they sound on the record, but the 7 million people that bought Full Moon Fever might disagree.

iirc, in the Bogdonavich doc, Stan talks about how difficult recording with Lynne was. And it makes sense: you spend x years playing together, developing and honing and perfecting this unique band dynamic, and then the producer comes in and asks everyone to record separately.

"oh and also add 10 acoustic guitar overdubs"

what does Petty say in the doc about ITGWO? Something like "A noble experiment, but a difficult one," po-faced.

of course Tom I would LOVE to come over & listen to records with you <3 <3

https://sonicmoremusic.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/musiciansvinyl6.jpg

http://tompetty.rocks/images/George/tumblr_n9sghuEDqU1qalx0to1_500.png

this is the only one of these dumb “words on a fence paling” crafty things that i have seen that i would ever buy and that may just be grief talking

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/52/17/89/521789ca58b09cb6d2e37e9804b4ef0e--tom-petty-lyrics-tom-petty-quotes.jpg

man: hearing "it's good to be king" for the first time since the mid 90s on the Flanagan/Fricke/Griffin wake. This is where the Lynne approach really works like a muhfuh… piano weaving into the string arrangement on the outro is sooo nice…

what's the most atypical but well known TP tune?

probably "don't come around here no more" —he never really pursued that sound afterwards, right?

iirc, in the Bogdonavich doc, Stan talks about how difficult recording with Lynne was

I gotta say, in the Zanes book, Lynch comes off like someone for whom everything was difficult—and if it wasn't, he'd make it that way. He ends up seeming like such an asshole, you can't believe he lasted as long in the band as he did. It goes beyond musical differences to won't-someone-punch-this-guy-in-the-throat-already?

Naturally, Lynch found a partisan in Don Henley.

aturally, Lynch found a partisan copy editor in Don Henley.

I still end up liking Lynch a little in the doc. He's forthright. Re the FMF songs: "I thought they sucked. I didn't wanna play on'em."

re placing Petty in a Dylan / Byrds 60s tradition or a hardworking hardrocking ZZ Top / AC/DC lineage, I'm no expert but isn't a big part of his appeal that he does awesome power pop anthems?

I guess power pop is not the clearest defined genre but all the same feels like Petty was king of it

Re: Damn the Torpedoes, you can easily make the case it's not your favorite, but there's no denying Refugee.

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, October 3, 2017 7:57 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can and will make the case "Even the Losers" is better than "Refugee" which is why it's my favorite on account of my excellent and refined taste in rock music.

Anyway, my obit.

Even the Losers is awesome, and you won't get any argument from me if you think it is better than Refugee. My point is that Refugee is such a clear stand out in anybody's catalog that I won't begrudge anybody pointing to it as their own favorite. Now, if you said Jammin Me was better than Refugee we might have argument.

I feel like we have gone over this a lot elsewhere, but in the Zanes book Stan comes across a total dick, sort of like a more erratic Stewart Copeland, and Tom gives him second chance after chance after chance after chance. Scans that it caused Tom lots of stress. Keep in mind, this all began as early as the Damn the Torpedoes sessions, with Tom having to come to Stan's rescue, and he kept Stan around all the way up to the greatest hits sessions.

I think Stan is the kind of drummer who never does the same take twice, but Tom was drawn to session guys who could do the same thing over and over again. Though in Stan's defense, there is not a single Steve drum part as memorable as many of Stan's best.

Alfred - you're combining two album titles there, Echo and The Last DJ.

Walked by Potbelly Sandwich Shop in the Skyway at lunch and the guitar player/singer was playing "Free Fallin'"

Ican and will make the case "Even the Losers" is better than "Refugee" which is why it's my favorite on account of my excellent and refined taste in rock music.

Well yeah. "Even the Losers" is the pettiest petty that petty ever pettied. That and "Insider" were 1-2 on my ballot and would be today and will be in 20 years if I'm still around and we do it again.

i read the poll thread & idk why i didnt vote, lame me!! weird seeing so much later-petty ranked so high

Alfred - you're combining two album titles there, Echo and The Last DJ.

― grawlix (unperson),

good catch -- thanks

The Last Echo sounds like a missing Neil Young album.