RIP Tom Petty

Mike Campbell would be set for life if all he'd co-written was "Boys of Summer."

Quality zings in that thread:

I saw some of your joke posts on the other thread, and that's the version of those two guys I was expecting. But again, I found them to be surprisingly thoughtful.

― clemenza, Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:07 AM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They're especially good at thinking about themselves.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, December 26, 2013 9:10 AM

Don't know if anyone else has ever noticed this, but Tom seemed like he was really struggling to play guitar recently? Maybe from his injury when he punched the studio wall back in the 80s? I always wondered if the Mojo album was just an opportunity to let Mike Campbell go nuts with Tom just adding lyrics and melody.

"i think that was the eagles thread, scott. with the petty discussion."

i think that's the one! no wonder i couldn't find it. was i the one who turned it into a petty thread? sounds like something i might do.

when did Petty clean up? Was that before or after Mojo?

Damn the Torpedoes came out while I was in high school in the south. It was like we had our own classic rock god rather than some old gods borrowed from another era. For a while, TP pushed aside Zeppelin, the Stones, Skynard, Pink Floyd, etc. As I said on some other thread, back then I couldn't fathom why all the girls were hot for TP. Must have been the star power. RIP.

I'll go you two albums prior, since I'm lolold. I was working at a radio station when the debut album came out. It was so underproduced, like a demo almost, compared to Boston or Fleetwood Mac records huge in 1976. That record, and the two Modern Lovers albums that came out that year, gave me the inkling something in music was changing, predating my discovery of Graham Parker, the release of My Aim Is True, etc.

I was just having a quick look at Tom Petty's UK chart history both solo and with The Heartbreakers and was surprised to find he had no Top 20 hits. Only four singles made the Top 40, the highest of which was 'I Won't Back Down' which peaked at #28.

when did Petty clean up? Was that before or after Mojo?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 3 October 2017 17:10 (forty-five minutes ago)

Way before then. Sometime in '99 after Echo and meeting his new wife.

Even with Traveling Wilburys he didn't crack the UK Top 20 - their biggest hit 'Handle With Care' peaking at #21.

listening to the first album this morning, god i love it so much

re Springsteen parallels, Wild One Forever & the live E Street boxset version of 4th of July Asbury Park sound like they could slot nicely next to each other in a mix, feel like they come from the same kind of nostalgic longing

Wild One Forever
https://youtu.be/US-pEqevjvc

4th of July Asbury Park
https://youtu.be/WdX_I4Qn73Q

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.

massive coronary, read the news maybe?

Generally I found something about his songs a little bit less personal and his characters a bit more archetypal than those of some of his songwriter cousins, but maybe that's the tradeoff for the ability to have such a ridiculous number of hits.

― the last famous person you were surprised to discover was actually (man alive), Tuesday, October 3, 2017

yeah so about this... are we implying there's a hierarchy of virtue here? bc there's a longer discussion here but imho petty's abstracts find a way to express a few very specific emotional states (longing, nostalgia) in a way that springsteen's portraits never will. precisely bc they're unresolved. there's no pulling out of here to win (ironized tho it may be), just a cold breeze on the balcony overlooking the interstate.

Petty could never write an Atlantic City, but Springsteen could never write an Insider. I'm good with both.

Re.: H., It has been mentioned here and there that heroin is rilly rilly bad for your heart, so it seems possible that he may be reaping consequences of shit done years ago. No suggestion that he had needle in arm or whatever recently.

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

or touring. this is definitely the right place for speculation on the challenges of the rock'n'roll life. let's definitely do that now.

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