RIP Tom Petty

the Rosanne Cash version is one of my favorite songs

the only Petty-Tench collaboration ever released btw

the doc:

a.) dave stewart sez TP and the HBs was the only American band of the time that his friends in the UK liked. this statement needs some qualifiers, otherwise I'm calling booshit.

b.) Stan goes through a lot of looks throughout; mid late 70s, he looks a Johnny thunders poseur…

c.) it suffers for a four hour effort that does not answer questions: when Stan says "i was successful by 1994 and didn't need this shit": what is Stan talking about here, Peter B?

d.) don't know much about Peter B. but don't know him to be a big rock fan a la Scorsese, only know him to be a big cineaste. seems possible that he had his team do the whole thing, said "OK warner bros.,you can call this my work, cut me a fat ass check."

Been spending some time reconsidering his work over the last few days and now I think Here Comes My Girl might actually be my favorite Petty song.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive)

leaning towards this as well after my first trip through the big parts of the catalog and all of DTT & 1st album

(xp) i like the doc but i thought it weird that for a movie in which every single person says "the songs" "it's all about the songs" "he had the songs" "incredible songwriter" "songs songs songs," it's about two hours in before the writing of said songs is ever mentioned. they finally talk about it with "the waiting" and it's a fantastic little scene.

They could get Tom Leadon from Mudcrutch to sing for them.

Here's a good piece from Stereogum: https://www.stereogum.com/1965601/74-artists-on-their-favorite-tom-petty-song/franchises/list/

i was successful by 1994

Maybe he meant he had plenty of cowrites with the likes of Don Henley?

Biggest failure of the doc is cutting out all the stuff about Petty's drug abuse. Which itself doesn't change much, but it does raise the possibility that other huge but secret revelations were left out as well, which hurts its credibility as a comprehensive, definitive account, as good as it is.

that's exactly what he meant, but Peter B., or his lackeys, or Tony Dmitriades, or somebody should have clarified, being that a goodly portion of the people sitting through 4 hours of the thing may not know. similarly, no mention of the "boys of Summer" and any of Campbell's work with Donster.

Isn't it time for Don and the ghost of Glenn to well yeah Tom's passing?

Mike Campbell’s dreadlocks sure are...something

no mention of the "boys of Summer"

this was really glaring

fairly long section on it in the Petty bio iirc — at some point Tom apologizes to Campbell for rejecting it (or at least admits he should've taken the song, since it was clearly a hit). Always thought that "Runaway Trains" was Petty's "oh shit why didn't I use the 'boys of summer' track" moment.

another kinda sketchy thing re: campbell in the Zanes bio — Campbell recorded a solo album in the 2000s that Petty wouldn't let him release (because it sounded too close to the Heartbreakers style or something).

By every account Petty gave "Boys of Summer" a shot. It's not unlike Phil Collins and "In The Air Tonight" - Collins played his demo for the band and they passed. There's a chance Petty poo-pooing Campbell's solo album had something to do with saying no to "Boys of Summer" and not wanting to make the same mistake twice, but iirc his biggest concern was, yeah, how much it sounded like a Tom Petty album. Which, tbf, if you're the guitarist and co-writer of much of the Heartbreakers stuff, is pretty much going to happen.

Xpost

That and 'no girls' are the two things that have come up itt to make me mad at him

patterson hood

so good

fairly long section on it in the Petty bio iirc — at some point Tom apologizes to Campbell for rejecting it (or at least admits he should've taken the song, since it was clearly a hit). Always thought that "Runaway Trains" was Petty's "oh shit why didn't I use the 'boys of summer' track" moment.

― tylerw, Thursday, October 5, 2017 6:42 PM

Agree.

By the way, in the Zollo book, Petty says that rejecting "Boys of Summer" had as much to do with drugs as anything else; the Southern Accents period was the only time, he said, that they took more than a year off the road, camped in L.A., and fell prey to every vice.

lol

At one point, lead singer Paul Westerburg told the crowd, “Last night, Tom Petty said that if we fuck up again, we’re fired. Fuck you, Tom Petty. And fuck you, Nashville.”

Then, they played an instrumental version of Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” for about 10 minutes before leaving the stage 20 minutes before their scheduled time.

The Heartbreakers came out 20 minutes early and told the crowd, “Since the opener didn’t bother to finish their set, we’ll play a little extra. Because we care!” Then, they pulled out a scathing version of The Clash’s “Should I Stay Or Should I Go.” My sister has been a Petty fan ever since.

A year or so after that, Petty wrote a satirical song about a musical screwup called “Into the Great Wide Open” which lifted a line — “rebel without a clue” — from a Replacements song (“I’ll Be You”) for the chorus. A case of supreme assholery, but done just right.

The accounts of that tour in Bob Mehr's Replacements bio are pretty fascinating. Westerberg was wondering why the 'mats couldn't break through, and watching sidestage as Petty and the crowd exchanged "yeah-eah!"s during "The Waiting," Paul realized, "Whatever that is, our music doesn't have it."

not falling facedown on stage or cancelling every other show kiiiiiinda helps too

Ha, true, and iirc the 'mats actually made an effort for the first couple of shows of that tour before deciding, fuck it, let's do that thing where we fuck everything up. But Paul was thinking more in terms of being able to write something with that rousing quality that would connect with a huge crowd.

(I don't know if it was this tour or another one where they were given a per diem of $150 and literally set fire to it on their bus. And they didn't have any other money.)

he did write things of that rousing quality though -- he just treated his audience with more contempt/disdain/whatever you wanna call it than tom petty did

at least from my perspective

yeah i think that's true
there's another part in the Mehr book where Tommy Stinson is mocking Petty's decision to play a county fair and Tom is like 'i'm getting paid a quarter million dollars to do this, dude'

I need to read that book thx for reminder

definitely one of the better rock books of recent years

I saw The Replacements on that tour opening for Tom Petty. They were sloppy and kinda drunk but still great. I remember Paul sitting in the seats while crooning Nightclub Jitters.

Thanks for the Patterson Hood link. As it happens, I saw the Truckers last night in Jersey City and they played The Waiting, and Southern Accents.

omg - i said to mr veg the other day i’d love to year the Truckers cover The Waiting

<3

https://www.stereogum.com/1966099/watch-drive-by-truckers-cover-tom-pettys-the-waiting/video/

gah so good!!

I'll ask this here, since the Conversations book is OOP (and might not have the answer anyway), but how did they land at the two covers on She's The One? I can see them being aware "Change The Locks" beforehand, but Beck?

Every time I cringe listening to someone attempt stay in tune or hit the right notes while covering "The Waiting" (E.Vedder, DBTs) it makes me realize how underrated Petty was as a vocalist.

...for someone who will probably go down in history as an unlikely-talented vocalist.

...esp. compared to Vedder who will probably go down as the voice/vocalist of the 90s.

singing The Waiting is the hardest part

beat me to it

it always amazed me how many variances in his vocal style Petty could get w/what to some might seem to be a pretty limited instrument.

like I said, four-octave range

It seems to be Tom Petty night on BBC 4, starting at 10pm after the Nile Rodgers documentary.

I'll ask this here, since the Conversations book is OOP (and might not have the answer anyway), but how did they land at the two covers on She's The One? I can see them being aware "Change The Locks" beforehand, but Beck?

Well, don't forget, Johnny Cash, backed by Petty et al., cover "Rowboat" on "Unchained" (which also features a cover of "Southern Accents"). Unchained was 1996, same year as "She's The One," which was also produced by Rick Rubin.

Petty was a fan, he admitted in the book.

Beck was huge, "Asshole" came out in '94 and he clearly had good publishing people pushing his shit to Rubin.

btw Conversations with is probably in your local library or cheap used.

Oh yeah, totally forgot how the Heartbreakers were all over those Cash albums.

Paperbacks of Conversations start at $49.99 rn on Amazon.

Death-inspired supply and demand.

Petty said the second Cash album is among the Heartbreakers' greatest recordings.

that petty/shandling video is a joy

i had never really given tom petty much time b/c he was just always around; heck wildflowers made a dent in my 11 y/o scene and it was like who is this guy who seems to have been around forever yet isn't fossilized?

i perked up a bit when i saw a number of appreciations from women my age for whom he was clearly an elemental artist--he connected with them in a way that other male rock dudes didn't and i found that interesting.

been listening for a few days now; it isn't a revelation but the economy of his writing is staggering--i've recently had the time and space to start playing a little guitar again and it is stunning to see how many of his biggest hits never change their chord progression. even the ones that do have carved every extraneous part. as someone who aspires to simple, clear communication i should have been treating this guy as a role model for years. oh also all the records sound great. he dodged every bad production trend for like a 15-year period.

i'm still figuring out how he worked as a lyricist but as many have noted he had a feel for the in-between spaces. he wasn't grandiose.

craft and function aren't appreciated as much as they should be. he was a master of both.

regarding him as a lyricist, I need to investigate further but I think a bunch of iconic DTT songs are (like the Buzzcocks' best work) genderless in their lyrics - "Refugee", "Even The Losers" - widening the appeal to pretty much everyone

i realized yesterday for the first time that "let's get to the point, let's roll another joint" is a joke. i was always confused by that one, like rolling a joint isn't getting to the point ???? lol.

let's head on down the road to somewhere i gotta go

^not actually a run-on. i mean the last time i heard 'wildflowers' i was still a teenager so i'll cut myself some slack but it's nice to realize he had this low-key humorist side to him i totally missed at the time. some of these songs are like ideal stoner music for this point in my life.