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Tom Petty


Brian Fowler

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12 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Always appreciated how creative he was with music videos. In addition to a ones already mentioned 

 

That haunting solo from Mike Campbell still resonates decades later. What a great tune.

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You know, he never really got his due in the UK.  When the Wilburys started, he was almost portrayed as the Paul Roma of the group. When he was doing the Superbowl, the hosts gave him a bit of an underplayed intro... like, Here's Tom Petty, he's big in America, not really a fan myself but give it a listen it might be alright. Then after halftime finished it cut back to the studio and they were all blown away at how great he'd been.

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Tom's music spoke a lot more to me as I started getting a bit older (I say older I'm only 36 here); a lot like my own arc with Springsteen in that sense. But even then as someone that was a teen in the 90's (you know, when Tom was one of the old guys), he had hits that were just an absolute staple here. EVERYONE knew Runnin' Down A Dream or Free Fallin'. I think his music is really pure, he was an honest gentle soul that wrote simple, genuine music and you just cannot fake that for any length of time. It gave him an ability to transcend generation or style because people on some level understood this was the real thing. He also writes a lot of really positive songs, about good things happening, songs about people that have had troubles but find a way to move on with their lives. When you listen to a lot of his music in a row you can tell there's a really good person behind it all.

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7 hours ago, AxB said:

You know, he never really got his due in the UK.  When the Wilburys started, he was almost portrayed as the Paul Roma of the group. When he was doing the Superbowl, the hosts gave him a bit of an underplayed intro... like, Here's Tom Petty, he's big in America, not really a fan myself but give it a listen it might be alright. Then after halftime finished it cut back to the studio and they were all blown away at how great he'd been.

What's funny is I figured that everyone thought Jeff Lynne was the Roma. 

Admittedly, when your top 3 are Dylan, a Beatle and Roy Orbison, 4th is not bad and 5th is okay.

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I don't know how this video isn't in this topic already, but hot damn do I love it.  The video kind of freaked me out as a kid and I certainly didn't know what the song meant.  But as time went on I got what he was going for and just fell in love with the song.  It has this awesome flow to it with his singing and is just a damn good rock song.

 

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Funny thing about "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is that it was (I'm sure) accidentally very reminiscent of a Jayhawks song called "Waiting for the Sun." He had the Jayhawks open for him on a tour, and some concertgoers would boo when they'd do that song because they thought the Jayhawks were ripping Petty off. 

Then later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ripped off Petty via the Jayhawks with "Dani California."

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13 hours ago, jstout said:

Funny thing about "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is that it was (I'm sure) accidentally very reminiscent of a Jayhawks song called "Waiting for the Sun." He had the Jayhawks open for him on a tour, and some concertgoers would boo when they'd do that song because they thought the Jayhawks were ripping Petty off. 

Then later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers ripped off Petty via the Jayhawks with "Dani California."

Remember reading an interview a long time ago with Petty about the whole Dani California thing.  Pretty cool dude.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-petty-doubts-chili-peppers-similarity-had-negative-intent-20060628

RS: Have you heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Dani California" yet, because obviously it sounds a lot like "Mary Jane's Last Dance"?
Petty: Yes, I have. Everyone everywhere is stopping me. The truth is, I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there. And a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike. Ask Chuck Berry. The Strokes took "merican Girl"[for their song "Last Nite"], and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, "OK, good for you." It doesn't bother me.

RS: There have been news reports that you were going to sue the Chili Peppers.
Petty: If someone took my song note for note and stole it maliciously, then maybe. But I don't believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs.

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That's really cool and everything seeing a rather refreshing take on lawsuits.  I think the only one where lawyers got involved was when Sam Smith's "Stay with me" sounded a ton like "Won't back down"  But they settled out of court and he got writing credit.

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With Bowie , Prince and Merle Haggard going, last year really sucked. But this one really has me feeling my age and the price of fandom. Like, I am really not looking forward to a world without Springsteen, the Wilson sisters, Nicks, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Wonder, Debbie Harry, Mike Ness, Janet Jackson, etc. Fuck, Daryl Hall or John Oates passing any time soon is likely to crush my soul. I keep hearing how Tom Petty was 'underappreciated'. Really? Not in the world I live in.

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23 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:

That's really cool and everything seeing a rather refreshing take on lawsuits.  I think the only one where lawyers got involved was when Sam Smith's "Stay with me" sounded a ton like "Won't back down"  But they settled out of court and he got writing credit.

Petty always had a point about this stuff.  One person influences the next.  It's like when Roger McGuinn of the Byrds first heard Petty and thought it was one of his songs he forgot about.  Neat story about how guitarist Mike Campbell brought the song that became Boys Of Summer to Petty and he turned it down.  I have to Google it but I know when Petty had the Replacements opening up for him they had a lot of issues.

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On 10/2/2017 at 4:28 PM, (BP) said:

Petty has a tremendous body of work with the Heartbreakers and The Traveling Wilburys, but the balls it took to bankrupt himself recording Damn the Torpedoes to fight his record company is something else. There's nothing like artists betting on themselves and winning. 

A little truth to that.  He was getting hosed on his royalty rate and the original label he had been signed to had been swallowed up by MCA so he was worried he was going to lose all his creative control so he was smart enough to figure out if he went bankrupt a judge would force the record company to increase his royalty rate in order to meet his debts.  So MCA basically gave him everything he wanted.  He was one of the few that stood up to the big record companies in the early 80's, when the business was in a slump and they wanted to charge higher prices for the more popular bands, and he made them buckle.

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