Articles
Tom Petty: Runnin’ Down A Dream
Posted by Scipio Tex on January 14th, 2009 under Uncategorized
I’ve always liked Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
A few nights ago I stumbled across Tom belting out one of his many hits on the IFC channel. Though I was about to hit the rack, I decided to watch for a bit. Four hours later I’d just finished watching the best musical documentary since This Is Spinal Tap. It’s called Runnin’ Down a Dream, it’s directed by Peter Bogdanovich (Last Picture Show, Mask), and it opened a floodgate of nostalgia for me; not to mention cementing my respect for Tom Petty as a true artist and a major deity in Rock’s pantheon.
The genius of Petty is that anyone who was in their late teens or twenties sometime between 1975-2000 feels like they uniquely own his music. Think back to the summer of your youth: when July lasted a year; hanging with your friends was everything; finding a crisp bleached ten dollar bill in the pocket of your blue jeans after the wash was cause for riotous celebration.
You’re behind the wheel of an American car with bench seats and a cracked vinyl interior, there’s a fine-limbed beauty smiling without guile in the passenger seat; the radio is blaring a song of defiance and longing, the sky is crystal blue, the highway is long, the wind blowing through your windows smells of fresh cut grass; there’s a little Jack mixed into the Big Gulp balanced precariously between your thighs; while your knees steer, one hand beats a rhythm onto the outside of your door, your other tracing silk and tanned caramel. You’re just out of your senior year football practice/college finals/your first job. The destination is irrelevant and the moment is what matters. You don’t know what an obligation is. You have everything.
Who is playing on that radio?
Tom Petty.
And if not, it should be.
You think youre gonna take her away
With your money and your cocaine
Keep thinkin that mind is gonna change
But I know everything is okay
Shes gonna listen to her heart
Its gonna tell her what to do
She might need a lot of loving
But she dont need you
You want me to think that Im being used
You want her to think its over
You cant see it doesnt matter what you do
Buddy, you dont even know her.
There’s more simple genius in those lines in evoking a place, time, and feeling than a haiku. The stakes are clear, the line in the sand is drawn, and there’s the sincere belief of a naive but self-aware youth that good will win out in a world run by money, bullshit, and doubletalk.
Bogdanovich wisely eschews the use of a narrator, preferring to allow the band and its music tell the tale. Petty’s ascendancy and three decade popularity was maintained during a time when popular culture was careening between some of the most insipidly self-conscious music ever created (disco, New Wave, 80s hair bands); short attention spans and fad ruled the day. Several notable legends either fell off the map completely or transformed themselves shamefully to mirror the times.
Not Petty. Throughout it all, Petty and his band managed the nearly impossible trick of growing musically while never really changing. He was always relevant to each generation’s youth – whether it’s Listen To Her Heart or Free Fallin’. Sure, they had great hooks and his songs have a consistent echo, but there was always a substance there, a solid core and conviction that few bands possess. This is what we stand for and while you chase down the latest fad, we’ll still be here for you to come back to, carrying the banner for what’s real, smirking at your trangression against good taste.
The key to Petty’s music is its utter sincerity; the genius of Tom Petty the songwriter and performer is achieving range in utter simplicity. It’s true Americana. There’s no hint of the schlock and self-conscious branding that characterizes, say, everything on Country Music Television. His messages are universal. It’s not about clever. The Heartbreakers were never self-indulgent and they were never an accursed jam band, a scourge more evil than any pop triviality. Tom is all about evoking a time, place, and attitude, relaying simple truths and gently prodding us – usually implicitly – that we can all do a little better. He stands for General Good Without A Cause. And that’s a non-cause that I can rally behind.
If you’re a Petty fan, check it out. If you’re not, it may make you one.
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Ha ha ha ha! It’s Joel Osteen’s world. You just livesin in it.
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I’ll say the same thing I did at March to March…
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Turn the page, Fred said:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Petty was pretty much all over Houston FM radio in the late ’70s and 80s…and 90s…which made owning or actually listening to an entire album of his pretty unnecessary.
When I saw “Runnin’ Down a Dream” I started laughing when they cut to the ubiquitous Eddie Cheddar interview segment.
hobbs said:
January 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
I stumbled across the movie a while back and, like you, I couldn’t quit watching it. While I’m not a huge Petty fan, I do like his music and it reminds me of my youth. Agreed that the movie was very well done.
BlazerHorn said:
January 14th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
As good as that movie and the companion coffee-table-type book are, they pale in comparison to seeing the band live. Been a huge fan since I was freshman in high school (late ’70s), but didn’t manage to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in concert until about 3-4 years ago. By some fortune that I don’t completely recall – I scored 7th row center seats that were awesome. Recalling it now makes me want to grab some CDs and hop in the car with the top down and hit the road (and it’s like 22 degrees out). Man.
BTW, Scipio – love reading your stuff. Hard to make a season like the one we just had any better, but you managed it time and again. Thanks.
hopefulhorn said:
January 14th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
Tom Petty, the Eagles, Counting Crows and some others all strike me as paying musical homage to Roger McGuinn and the Byrds with twangy, electric Rickenbacker guitars (like the one pictured with Petty on the cover of “Damn the Torpedoes”) and honest lyrics that don’t miss a thing.
For me, Petty will always bring back 1979, graduating from UT and spending the next year away from Texas working in the oil business in the Dakotas and ski bumming in Breckenridge, CO.
Thanks for the memories.
glenn said:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
petty is a national treasure. thank you, scip.
oh, and speaking of roger mcguinn, you may not know that he is still heavily involved in folk music and has a website with lots of music you can listen to or download. it’s not a problem to download. if you don’t know how, he tells you.
http://www.ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/
in honor of our latest conquest, here is mcguinn doing ‘banks of the ohio’:
http://ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/music/Ohio.mp3
Texoz said:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I’m in the same boat at Turn the Page, Fred. Grew up in Houston in the 70s & 80s.
Later in life I did the skydiving thing and paid the $150 for the video. Soundtrack of course was “Free Falling.”
Put on “American Girl” and let me know what movie comes to mind. I used to love that song, now it’s love & creep-me-out feeling.
Very few bands have success for more than 5 to 10 years, if they’re really good and a little bit lucky, i.e. nobody overdoses or gets run over by the tour bus. I still listen to a lot of music, old and current, and they’re undeniably one of the most durable, successful and timeless American bands we will ever see.
(the movie trivia from above is “Silence of the Lambs” if you’re wondering)
glenn said:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
tom petty is a national treasure. thank you, scip.
glenn said:
January 14th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
speaking of roger mcguinn, you may not know that he is still twanging out folk music and has a nifty website with lots of music you can listen to or download. it’s not a problem to download. if you don’t know how, he tells you.
i don’t know how to post a link here. you’ll have to copy and paste. sorry.
ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden-wp/
in honor of our latest conquest, here is mcguinn doing ‘banks of the ohio’:
ibiblio.org/jimmy/folkden/php/music/Ohio.mp3
Lowery said:
January 14th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Hello CD listener. We’ve reached the part in the album where record and tape listeners must stand up, or sit down and play the other side. Thank you, and enjoy. /or something like that.
uthookem said:
January 14th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Well, one of my first CDs was Into the Great Wide Open. I was in high school when I first discovered Tom Petty, and it was just like you mentioned above.
I have not had the fortune of seeing him in concert, but I need to get on the ball.
I did, however, have the fortune of walking right past Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers once. I played baseball my freshman year for the UT baseball club team, and we did a fund raiser cleaning up the Erwin Center…after a Tom Petty concert. I think I got my first and only contact high that night as I picked up plenty of MJ and lots of mini flasks…classic.
Hook ‘em!
gingerballs said:
January 14th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
Great read and I will be sure to check out the documentary. What I wouldn’t give to hang out with that guy for a night.
I was able to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when I was 17, 4th row at Sandstone Amphitheater in Kansas City in 1999. I was wide-eyed and in awe the entire time, it didn’t hurt the the old married hippie couple next to us kept buying us beer and passing their joints to us. An amazing night.
Parlin Hall said:
January 15th, 2009 at 12:47 am
I remember thinking “Damn the Torpedoes” was genuinely something new at the time, and a great album by which to announce oneself to several hundred other college students at once.
FWIW, one of the critics at the AAS went on an anti-Petty rant a year or two ago, and essentially urged readers to skip his set at ACL. Must have been a personal snub (over an interview not granted, I’m guessing), but, this being Austin, the reviewer ascribed it to Petty’s alleged lack of political correctness.
What a great litmus test for rock, no?
NBMisha said:
January 15th, 2009 at 4:12 am
I first took notice of him about 1980. Seemed a skilled songwriter, but I didn’t pick them out of the hair bands of the day to succeed, if I was even having any such thoughts. By another ten years, though, I’d corrected my view.
Loved the image of the cracked vinyl cruiser. I rolled out of Austin in 76, headed to CA, in a 65 Buick Wildcat.
The Petty tune that gets me going the most is Refugee. I have 4 dysfunctional sisters (is there any other type?). The song lets me rejoice in my intolerance for whining.
jinx said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:00 am
Great Story:
My wife is a Gator grad nurse and she worked at Shands in Gainesville for a while after graduating. Tom is from Gainesville for those who don’t know.
She had a Mr. Petty for a patient that one day received a huge bouquet of flowers. She said it was larger than any she had seen. Of course she commented on them and asked the kind old guy who they were from. He said “My son, you may have heard of him. He’s a singer named Tom Petty.” This was 98 so it wasn’t like he was new to the scene or anything.
I always think of that down to earth old guy who was Tom’s dad when I think of Tom Petty.
Saw him in concert a couple of years ago in Atlanta. There was a surprise appearance by Stevie Nicks for a couple of duets. A close second to the best concert I’ve seen next to the Eagles at Texas Memorial Stadium in 95.
Great read Scipio. Thanks!
dedfischer said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:16 am
I was a pretty avid concert attender at one point in my life and Petty is one of the most consistent live performers I’ve seen. He doesn’t do much editing in the studio, so he always sounds great live as well.
Bartholemew Switzer said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:31 am
I’ve seen Petty twice. Once at Red Rocks amongst authentic, uninhibited fans soaking in a timeless legend. The other time was in Dallas in a sterile AAC amongst vain, image-conscious Dallasites who were told by someone else that Petty was cool.
SlickStreet said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:32 am
Petty has an awful lot of great material compiled over many years.
Refugee still reminds of my senior year of high school; same goes for a number of his other tracks related to different years of mine/ours.
Nordberg said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:35 am
Great post, but it kept reminding me of Patrick Bateman. You don’t have a chainsaw, do you?
scally said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:47 am
Saw petty twice. Once in Atlanta in 95. Most boring show i’ve ever been to. Saw him in Austin in 02. One of the top 5 concerts i’ve ever seen.
As good as his lyrics and material are, I think Mike Campbell is just as instrumental to the success of TP and the Heartbreakers. His solos always PERFECTLY fill the space. If i wrote a song that needed the perfect guitar solo, there are two guys I would call to do the solo, one of them is Mike Campbell.
However, I think Petty lost a step after Stan Lynch left the band. The dude was a dick, but he knew how to rock it.
PokeFan said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:55 am
Pickups, dark haired beauties, hot stormy spring nights,Tom Petty playing on the tapedeck. That memory is mine forever.
HenryJames said:
January 15th, 2009 at 6:58 am
Re: Stan Lynch.
Agreed. I haven’t really listened to Petty since.
BrickHorn said:
January 15th, 2009 at 7:56 am
I’ve seen Petty live twice, and enjoyed both shows. The last one was August in San Antonio. It was a great show, but the thing I’ll remember most was the opening act, Steve Winwood.
My wife and I laughed our asses off at this one skinny white guy who spent the whole Winwood set standing up and airdrumming to songs like “Higher Love” and “The High Life.” He was the ONLY person standing on the entire lawn section at the time – just one lonely Winwood fan, his devotion to lame 80’s music rendering him completely oblivious to the sea of apathy surrounding him. And then he brought out the lighter. The cliche Bic lighter. The sun hadn’t even set yet.
I’m convinced that guy, 40 years from now, will revel his grandkids with stories about this one bitchin’ Steve Winwood show he caught in San Antonio back in 2008. I don’t know if he even hung around for Petty.
Johnny Knoxville said:
January 15th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Please keep the Eagles out of any discussion about Petty…they aren’t in the same league.
chitwood said:
January 15th, 2009 at 8:06 am
American Girl. Best song.
pasotex said:
January 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I have watched that documentary two times now and it is amazing.
huge said:
January 15th, 2009 at 9:58 am
petty is a first ballot HOFer
machine that goes ding said:
January 15th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Maudlin.
I see ScipioTex is channeling his inner Bill Little.
exuLt said:
January 15th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Guileless smile and silk and tanned caramel…
God you give good prose.
scally said:
January 15th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
re: the Eagles
Don Felder of the Eagles gave Tom guitar lessons as a teenager in Gainesville. Stephen Stills, Don Felder, Bernie Leadon, Gram Parsons… a lot of the California/Alt Rock Country guys came out of North Central Florida in the late 60’s/early 70’s.
ChicagoTTU said:
January 15th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Learning to Fly – Most underrated Petty Jam.
Big Horn said:
January 15th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Another topic that I totally agree with Scipio on. One of many. I have always thought that Petty was one of the most underrated artist of his time….and his ime is about 25-30 years.
I always thought he had a lot of good breakup with a girl songs…..You Got Lucky, Stop Draging my Heart Around (with Stevie Nicks), Breakdown, I Need to Know, Refugee, Dont Come around Here No More, etc….
huge said:
January 16th, 2009 at 10:43 am
also, my petty memories are 1990, driving an old suburban, listening to full moon fever
glenn said:
January 17th, 2009 at 6:33 am
well, maybe i do know how to post a link.
here’s somebody you haven’t heard of yet.
i caught this guy last summer at a friend’s back yard get together in new york and left feeling like i’d finally got to see hendrix.
the default autoplay at this site is ‘universe’. you need to hear it.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=19968516
his drummer that night was swiss chris who is out of his mind, too.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=260009675
chris at work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7T86kcka8c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRaOqUSaTOg
what a combination they were.