RIP Tom Petty

um what

whatever their lives were actually like, all these guys...Bowie, Prince, Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty...they seemed like decent guys, good souls, and they tried to bring that to their music and personas. Tom Petty, he was a real performer. He almost reminded me of a silent movie actor, he was such a great, funny, warm presence onstage and in his videos.

Jon Not Jon and nomar otm, he was important to me ever since I started listening to music and was always there, like a familiar friend from high school who you don;t see very much but it's always cool when you do, the kind of classic rock that makes you happy when you hear it on the radio

The last two songs from what turned out to be his final show. If you're going to barnburn, do it like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WNHB8vROg4

His might be my favorite still-active backing band. I could listen to Campbell or Tench play for days.

His last album was a robust little thing.

he was fucking great on King of the Hill too.

Aww, damn.

A great, consistent songwriter whom I've found it all too easy to take for granted over the years. Like, he's never someone I think of as a favourite of mine, but then "The Waiting" or "American Girl" or something else will come on the radio when I'm driving and for three or so minutes I'll think I'm hearing the most brilliant pop song ever written.

my first favorite musician, and I think my daughter's first favorite musician. as dadrock as you can get, I know. i thought about taking her to see him last summer for her first show but she's still pretty young. regretting that now.

TMZ's latest update indicates that things are still tangled but that ultimately the end is near:

Sources tell us at 10:30 Monday morning a chaplain was called to Tom's hospital room. We're told the family has a do not resuscitate order on Tom. The singer is not expected to live throughout the day, but he's still clinging to life. A report that the LAPD confirmed the singer's death is inaccurate -- the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. handled the emergency.

RIP. one of the greats.

There's that great 4 hour documentary about Tom Petty, Runnin' Down a Dream. Watching it, the thing that strikes you is how little struggle he had, career-wise. Everybody loved him from the beginning. In Florida, he was instantly the top guy in his local music scene. Moves to LA, gets signed right away. His band Mudcrutch is dropped, but he gets a solo deal. First album has Breakdown and American Girl.

No years of toil, honing his craft. It was immediate success. It's a testament to how great he was (damn it sucks to type was

I thought his appearance on The Larry Sanders Show was v good. From memory he was squaring up to Clint Black and calling him "fucking Roy Rogers, here" or something similar.

Meanwhile Dylan lives.

Aw dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. I love Tom Petty, probably more than he deserves, but he's one of my all-time favorites. I love his singing more than anything else, he worked wonders with that whine.

Meanwhile Dylan lives.

DON'T FUCKING JINX IT

A shock. But worse for my poor mum. I may have to call her.

RIP. He was a good songwriter with a unique voice. Also RIP to one of the few current musical concerns that kept my mom buying records. She loved him!

Related to that, they're playing The Traveling Wilburys in my office right now. And it's like a party photo of someone gone, vs. a picture of them alone. It's good to hear.

(tom petty is not dead btw)

Didn't trust TMZ, but it's looking about as bad as possible. DNRs don't usually lead to happy outcomes.

xpost I think Petty worked really hard for his success, actually, an ambitious redneck playing everywhere from backyard parties and frat houses on up (like Van Halen did). If he got lucky at all it was by having his rise coincide right with MTV's, and also having Mike Campbell as a cohort. And also writing a dozen or so songs for the ages. That takes some luck, too.

What the fuck?

and I was listening to Into the Great Wide Open on Saturday.

i had been revisiting some of his latter day stuff last week and was struck by how great this one was:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqJS2nB4D4s

^^^ holy fuck, tylerw, "You and Me" is a jam. If Fleetwood Mac had released it, no one would've blinked.

totally. i remember staying away from the last DJ at first because of its cranky title track, but about half of it is fantastic.

Enjoying this bit of Garry Shandling and Petty hanging out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIvNe569Q9g

ah this year :-(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUiG7E1RYQA

My favorite of his ballads:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQsqMndoM9E

same, may be his prettiest track

News and social media in 2017 is so fucked up it can't even get the death of Tom Petty right. There are headlines reporting he has died, and in the body of the same pieces those claims are being reported as unsubstantiated.

Casual fan myself, but bigger fans will appreciate that the classic rock station here (which has been gruesomely schizophrenic the past couple of years as they make the transition to Simple Minds) is treating his death with a much more personal touch than not just Walter Becker's, but also Bowie's; they've done what such stations should always do when a core staple of their playlist dies (Bowie and Steely Dan were also), which is to drop everything else and play that person's music non-stop. That's what radio does best.

He always felt like the last Classic Rock guy to me, the end of a generation/way of playing + writing.

Agree. When they played "Runnin' Down a Dream," I was thinking that that's the last time anyone would ever have a hit record that name-checked Del Shannon.

otm clemenza

Credit to her, I'd say.

Tom Petty's daughter is not here to play pic.twitter.com/ol65RU0yzT

— Gabe Meline (@gmeline) October 2, 2017

Fuck yeah

Is that real?

Tom Petty satellite radio station is playing it very carefully, hosts Bill Flanagan and David Fricke acknowledging repeatedly that things don't look good but there has yet to be official confirmation. Taking lots of sad phone calls. Lots of good stories.

xpost -- Gabe's a sharp reporter (and he lost friends in the Ghost Ship fire, so I trust him to be both cautious and OTM when it comes to anything regarding death reports).

I'll say this much. This is not an obituary any publication had lying around in wait.

I'm hearing still technically alive but life support pulled at family's request, unconscious, not expected to make it to tomorrow

may be his prettiest track

My pick:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFFlTsYFxak

I'll say this much. This is not an obituary any publication had lying around in wait.

Eh, I'm sure those in the field know more but I'd disagree -- I've long understood that people of note definitely have obits prepped by media just in case, especially the older they get.

xp that linked track cuts off in the middle.
try this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_umeMtV4QU

At what age is it too early to ready someone's obituary?

A fave quieter moment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5o582N3wOQ

A fave ditty (with Buckingham on yelps):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfS6Nl962Qg

This song (and, say, a lot of the Wilburys stuff) shows how important a good melody really is. I grew up playing drums and never really thought about it much. Many years later I started playing guitar, and it struck me how useless so many guitar parts are without the vocal melody, from the Beatles on down. Quite remarkable, and really helped me respect Tom Petty, for the tastefulness of the playing and arrangements but mostly for the melodies.

Ned correct -- the bigger the notable, the younger they write em

At what age is it too early to ready someone's obituary?

Back when both Britney Spiers and Lindsay Logan were have their much-publicized problems, AP let it be known they'd drafted obits for quick turnarounds. So, age or noted issues are factors into what's prepared in advance.

Dumb phone.

But Petty had no (at least for years) real known issues, right? Unless being a rock star alone is enough.

doesn't matter, over 60

i'm sure all the major outlets have had a Bruce obit on file for 30 years

IIRC, the guy who wrote the NYT Castro obit died a few years before his subject.

Last job is to remove tributes from those that predeceased the subject.

petty listening thread

yes please!

I'm not a fully paid-up member of the church of Dolly Parton, but this (from a Petty tribute album) is really fucking good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2qvHyFVm20

beautiful

looking forward to this album, lotta good ppl!!

“Petty Country” Track List:

“I Should Have Known It” by Chris Stapleton
“Wildflowers” by Thomas Rhett
“Runnin’ Down A Dream” by Luke Combs
“Southern Accents” by Dolly Parton
“Here Comes My Girl” by Justin Moore
“American Girl” by Dierks Bentley
“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Lady A
“I Forgive It All” by Jamey Johnson
“I Won’t Back Down” by Brothers Osborne
“Refugee” by Wynonna Judd & Lainey Wilson
“Angel Dream No. 2” by Willie Nelson & Lukas Nelson
“Learning To Fly” by Eli Young Band
“Breakdown” by Ryan Hurd feat. Carly Pearce
“Yer So Bad” by Steve Earle
“Ways To Be Wicked” by Margo Price feat. Mike Campbell
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” by Midland
“Free Fallin’” by The Cadillac Three feat. Breland
“I Need To Know” by Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives
“Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Rhiannon Giddens feat. Silkroad Ensemble and Benmont Tench
“You Wreck Me (Live)” by George Strait

Honestly, the only other things I want to hear from that list are Jamey Johnson and George Strait. It's a real tragedy what happened to Jamey Johnson (short version: he fell, hit his head, and can't write songs anymore). I kinda like Midland but I don't like "Mary Jane's Last Dance."

fuck i didn’t know that about Jamey Johnson, such a great songwriter. i love his albums!

Seeing that Steve Earle is doing’ Yer So Bad’, I have to wonder if is in a bluegrass style?

Not enough women tbh

margo price & mike campell have played together quite a bit, looking forward to hearing their cover

Is there a tribute album Margo *isn't* on? Petty, Sleater-Kinney, Roky...

I mean, she's cool and all, but it's just funny that she's on so many of these.

Good manager?

...and good taste. She's also on the Billy Joe Shaver and Bobbie Gentry/Delta Sweete tributes.

Wow didn’t know petty wrote “ways to be wicked”. Did he put it out before the lone justice version?

At least Phoebe Bridgers is not on this. Surprised Isbell isn't.

There's some Luke Combs song my daughter plays that is just the dumbest, stupidest song ever, like he didn't have the courage of his convictions to go full "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk."

Johnny Cash did a great "Southern Accents," and of course Petty and crew are all over those albums.

Lou Barlow covered Hope You Never on his podcast last week, it sounds exactly like one of his own songs from around 20 years ago

Silkworm did a cool version of “Insider” on a 90s Petty tribute 90s. It’s worth checking out.

Johnny Cash did a great "Southern Accents," and of course Petty and crew are all over those albums.

Cash told Petty that he felt that "Southern Accents" was a better anthem than "Dixie," and Petty replied that he couldn't really believe that, but then Cash told him that it was true because "Dixie" was a terrible song.

lol

Damn never knew that about Jamey Johnson

Wow didn’t know petty wrote “ways to be wicked”. Did he put it out before the lone justice version?

The Petty version didn't come out until his box set in the mid-'90s.

adding my name to the list of those who didn't know that about jamey johnson. damn damn damn.

I assume Jimmy Iovine was the connection with Lone Justice. Campbell actually plays on the Lone Justice track, and Benmont Tench is on two other songs on the album.

Tench and Maria McKee dated for a spell too.

Silkworm did a cool version of “Insider” on a 90s Petty tribute 90s. It’s worth checking out.

Dolly is so great on this.

It's a really good version, much better than what I've heard from her "rock" album. As a resident of the South, albeit one without a Southern accent, I have mixed feelings about the "I'm not ashamed" coda. I know how Dolly means it, or how I think she means, as an anti-elitist statement. I'm just not sure that "Southern pride" more broadly is what the world needs now.