Tom Petty Appreciation Thread

I just got Playback and WOW.

I picked up Highway Companion a few months ago. Totally dig Saving Grace and Turn This Car Around.

I only have Wildflowers and and some anthology that came out eight years ago. It's Good To Be King gets me every time.

He is responsible for one of my favorite crazy film cameos where he basically plays himself in The Postman

Plus, The Waiting is a great fucking song.

Petty is my all time favorite musical artist. I love him.

I recently added him as one of my Pandora stations and it has been good listening. I hadn’t listened to him or Springsteen in a long time and I was pleased to see most of his stuff holds up very well. I need to check out the new stuff.

When I was getting my pilots license I was on a solo cross country flight south of Minneapolis and I was playing with the radio direction finder. I found an AM station playing “Learning to Fly”. It was one of those cheesy moments that kind of sticks with you forever.

Saw him at ACL in 06. Storm rained him out at first, but he personally kept coming back on stage to beg everybody to stick around so he could finish his set.

Badass show.

Love me some Tom Petty. Been a fan since I saw the video for "Letting You Go" on MTV waaay back in 1982.

I think that LET ME UP, I'VE HAD ENOUGH (1987) is one of the most underrated rock albums in history. If you're a Tom Petty fan (hell, if you're a rock'n'roll fan), you owe it to yourself to track down this release. No tracks from this even made it onto his Greatest Hits package and the CD is hard to find. "Runaway Trains", "You're Jammin' Me", and "My Life, Your World" help make it Petty's version of DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN.

Had no idea that they had kicked their bass player, Howie Epstein, out of the band several years back and that he had O.D.'d later. The irony is that they replaced him with their original bass player.

I won't back down is a terrific song.

He's playing Calgary in August. I'm beside myself with anticipation. Weird thing is that Steve Winwood is opening.

I plan on seeing him in Jersey on 6/18. Always a great show.

Petty, REM, and The Cure on back to back to back nights. Good way to start the summer.

I've never seen She's The One, but that soundtrack is pretty great. That and Wallflowers get a lot of play from me to this day. I haven't seen the documentary though. How is that?

There are still people who don't know that? I know a lot of people who have complained that they can't tell the difference between a solo project and the stuff Petty does with the Heartbreakers. It's all in Tench and Campbell's work.

A friend did ADR on The Postman and got to meet Petty. Said he was one of the nicest guys you'll ever want to meet. Humble and sweet. Plus he recorded an outgoing message for my buddies answering machine.

That'd be me.

I just watched the half time show on YouTube and i love the man even more!

Free fallin was awesome.

First I remember him was back when I watched videos on NightTracks (SuperStation WTBS). "You Got Lucky" (from Long After Dark) got alot of airplay back then. Been a fan ever since.

Unfortunately, I married a woman who can't stand him. Shame I had to let her go...

First CD I ever had (I got two at the same time) was Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker's 'Into the Great Wide Open'. Learning to Fly is a godlike song and the video is fantastic. Still gets tons of play to this day (hell, the damn CD skips because it's been played to death over the years).

Loved his gig at the Superbowl. Not flashy, no malfunctions, just a bunch of olde time rock and rollers doing what they do best: rocking the fuck out.

Need to see him in concert one of these days.

Mike Campbell is a vastly underrated lead guitarist too. His slide solo on Learning to Fly is simplicity at its most sublime.

You know, I've always been one of those cynical whippersnappers who groans at the mention of Tom Petty, but looking back, that's only due to his association (and over exposure) with classic rock radio stations all my life. I had a similar problem with The Rolling Stones, before I bought Exhile on Main St. and Beggar's Banquet. Now I know that the Stones are boss. And Tom Petty, despite sounding (almost but not quite irritatingly) like Bob Dylan, and being a little to "good 'ole rock n roll" for my tastes, has written a multitude of very good songs.

So I guess, by forcing me to reconsider my biases, this thread has transformed me from a Tom Petty nay-sayer into a mild Tom Petty supporter. And maybe after I check out one his albums, I'll even be a Tom Petty fan. Stranger things have happened.

He's more The Byrds then Dylan but I see your point.

I've always thought of him as Bob Dylan with more pop sensibilities, which isn't a bad thing at all. I really only hear The Byrds in his first and second albums.

I've always thought of Full Moon Fever as the most Byrds-esque thing he's done. Maybe it's the first album of his where I was looking for it but i sure hear Roger McGuinn's influence all over it.

I absolutely love Petty. He's ridiculously talented and cool as hell, and he knows how to have a great time with his audience in concert. He has (or had, don't know how often he does it) a fun little thing where he lets his audience sing the entire first half of "Breakdown" during his concerts while he and the band play along - no vocals from him, the fans do all the singing till he takes over. But before he begins the second half of the song himself, he strolls over to the mike, leans in and tells the audience, "Y'all are gonna put me out of a job", or some slight variation thereof - actually, on this particular night, he tells them, "That's nice, I liked that". And everyone goes nuts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNxfPAF1frM

Right around the time that he did his 1982 duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Dragging My Heart Around", the two of them did another song together that seemed to get very little attention - it's really beautiful, called "Insider", and it's on his Hard Promises album. If you're interested, here's the video they did for it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZZn8RMNBhg

I also think that Pack Up the Plantation is one of the best live albums on this planet. Truthfully, I'm not huge on live albums, but I love the hell out of that one.

I saw him in 1995 at Madison Square Garden, but out seats were so high up, we only heard a rumor that the ant-like figure on the stage was Petty - but we had a great time anyway.

You've got a point, but to me Full Moon Fever will remain the quintessential Tom Petty sound. His work with Jeff Lynne had the most original sound of his career, a sound that was carried over to the Traveling Wilburys, and one that stuck with him for a while there. Perhaps I just didn't listen to enough Byrds growing up (my family was all about Credence, The Stones, The Beatles, and the Alman Brothers).

I didn't put together the fact that my favourite album, Wildflowers, was produced by Rick Rubin until I finally sat down to watch the documentary. It makes total sense looking back.

Did anyone else notice the way they glossed over She's the One and Petty's brief acting career in Running Down a Dream?

Truth. A great band all the way 'round.

I thought about starting a similar thread after the half-time show, for the same reasons.

I've always liked the guy. FMF was the third CD I ever bought (back when it was a new release), and I've picked up a good percentage of the stuff he's released since then. "Room at the top of the world" is a real favorite from recent years.

I saw him in a light rain at Music Midtown here in Atlanta back in 2005. They didn't have a problem with the rain, it seemed, but he was a bit peeved that there was some audio bleed from the country stage. I think Trace Adkins or someone playing at the same time. Anyway, he initially said, "Is that Marshall Tucker over there? We'll just wait until they're finished, and come back out later..." They left for a few minutes, then were probably prompted back into action by someone backstage. They finished the set, but Tom wasn't totally happy. He mentioned the noise again later, and said, "I'll tell you what... we'll never play for this promoter again." Even with the annoyances, it was a great, memorable show, and we had fun watching jerks fall down this hill into the mud. Heh.

The Petty Wrath was felt the next year, when Music Midtown was cancelled. If you anger the Petty, you pay the price!

Oh, and also, he's hilarious on "King of the Hill."

I can remember the first time I heard this fellow. I was four, in the car with mom and my sister, and driving to her friend's lake house in Oklahoma. It was Damn the Torpedos and then Full Moon Fever. It was a great trip there, and a great trip back. I don't know how he keeps the consistency, in songwriting or in play-style, but Tom is one of the best there is.

Petty played Summerfest last year with Pearl Jam opening - I got tickets mainly to catch PJ, but I certainly don't DISLIKE Petty by any stretch;

Petty opened with "Listen to Her Heart", probably my favorite song of his, and proceeded to put on a FUCKING AWESOME SHOW. If you are in any way predisposed towards his music, you've gotta see him live.

I'm not a live music kind of guy.

Petty was my first real concert experience. When Wildflowers came out I was 14, I believe, and my mother and father, and my best friend and his mother, all treked from Tucson to Phoenix. We had the cheapest 'lawn' tickets, and I've seen dozens of great shows since, but it's still my favorite concert experience ever. In the middle of the show Petty left the stage and let the band jam, after a few minutes they broke into the James Bond theme. Not to mention the live version of Mary Janes Last Dance, which is probably the best jam ever.

I usually hate jam sessions, by the way.

Live music can often go either way.

When it's bad, you're in a shitty-sounding venue that isn't helped by the band playing WAY too loud; no matter how tall you are, at least ONE guy taller than you will wade through the crowd and decide that the spot right in front of you is the place to be; the drinks are overpriced; you leave with a miasma of cigarette/stale beer stank clinging to you; etc etc. With the availability of video these days, who needs it?

But then again, I've sworn off live music only to be lured back by the siren song of the GREAT shows I've been to - and there are only a handful, but you get an artist that sounds fucking IMMACULATE, in a good venue, with a terrific, up-close view...man, it's gold.

You should swing up to Milwaukee for Summerfest; it's usually a pretty good time, cheap tickets (<$20 a day for about 10 stages of local acts during the day, national headliners of varying size at night), and the bands sound terrific. If you don't like Summerfest (or any of the handful of similar festivals), I'll concede that you don't like live music.

Nice interview with Petty.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=5586675

This is going to sound banal, but I saw him in concert a few years ago, and let me tell you it is literally impossible to keep all of his hit singles in your head at once. I own three or four of his albums and am pretty familiar with the ones I don't have and I still couldn't keep track of what was left.

He's completely mastered the rock single, maybe more than any other artist. I mean, when you toss something like "Mary Jane's Last Dance" onto a Greatest Hits album as a bonus track, you know you are a fucking rock and roll prodigy.

I've always felt Campbell was the man. Every part he plays is just *perfect* for whatever song he's writing toward. His work on "Boys of Summer" for Don Henley was damn near sublime. And that repeating riff for Petty's "Breakdown" MADE that song.

Never too much. Always just right. My kinda player.

I never knew that was him on Boys of Summer. Makes total sense. I'd like to say that Petty and Campbell taught me to play guitar, the greatest hits song book was my greatest lesson.

Somewhere, somehow, somebody must have
Kicked you around some
Tell me why you wanna lay there,
Revel in your abandon

Try to feel sorry for yourself after listening to that.

I second misfit's motion that Petty is an underrated lyricist.

The lyrics of Southern Accents chock me up, and I'm not even sure what that song's about, so that some good lyricisting.

Always liked what I've heard on the radio from Petty, but he's way down the list of artistst I'd buy an album of. I had heard a song he did a few years ago that sounded like Petty was synthesizing all his favorite bands of yesteryear, I quite enjoyed it.

And don't forget (paraphrasing)-
Clint Black:"Hey this guy won an award!"
Petty:"For what, Talk Soup?"

Um, that was suppose to say 'choke's' me up. Edited it too late I guess.

Full Moon Fever, to my mind, is one of the top five albums of the eighties. It remains one of my all-time favorites. There isn't a single track that misfires. Plus, it has that nice little historical nod on "side two" that reminds us of the advent of the CD, which is nice.

I don't know if a lot of people remember now, but Petty was also hugely influential in the rise of the music video, back when that actually meant something. The man was insanely creative during the heyday of MTV (back when they meant something, too), and did more than just about anyone else to put something interesting on the screen while the song was playing. A new Tom Petty video always meant that you were going to be seeing something much more imaginative than shots of the band playing interspersed with wacky shenanigans.

"Don't Come Around Here No More" is still one the craziest, most brilliant music videos I have seen. Ever.

So you are in good company here with a mention of his videos. Another favorite has to be "Last Dance with Mary Jane," where Petty is quite possibly the most bizarre undertaker ever to be hired. Well, he's at least on par with the Tall Man.

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdail...ive-anthology/

Word. Petty is awesome and I need to listen to him more.