RIP Tom Petty

[Dick Whitman]

Dammit. This day, man.

Nobody has written a better rock song than "American Girl."

"Hold my beer."

 

[Riptide]

Rolling Stone obit ...

Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66

 

[PCLoadLetter]

"Hold my beer."

Body of work? No question.

Single song? I'd put "American Girl" up there with anything.

 

[Huggy]

As great as Petty's show were, I saw some terrific acts open those shows too: Peter wolf, the Replacements, Georgia Satellites (who were truly incredible that night) and Split Enz (sounds like an odd double bill but they were great, and I know that mention will **** @PCLoadLetter off)....

 

[swingline]

I like his earlier work a lot. Refugee. Pretty much all of Long After Dark, too. I worked as a radio DJ when Full Moon Fever came out, and we played the **** out of seemingly every song on that album, which I pretty much despise to this day. Still, a rock titan who will be missed.

 

[CD Boogie]

Body of work? No question.

Single song? I'd put "American Girl" up there with anything.

For many years ruined IMHO by its association with Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Big Circus]

There was a thread on here a few years back where folks listed their favorite deep cuts by various artists. I picked one of the versions of Angel Dream for Petty and another poster independently picked the other. Then we had a facetious back-and-forth about which one was actually better. That stuck with me for some reason.

Anyone keep up with Tom Petty, the poster?

 

[Steak Snabler]

This is an all-timer mainly due to Prince, but Petty was prominently involved:

 

[I Should Coco]

Wow. RIP to a great musician and songwriter whose work goes way, way beyond the handful of his songs they play on the radio.

One of my favorites, from his best album, "Damn the Torpedoes":



"Well it was nearly summer as we sat on your roof,
Yeah we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon.
And I showed you stars you never could see,
Babe, it couldn't have been that easy to forget about me ..."

TP, you won't be forgotten anytime soon. The music will live for a long time.

 

[Ace]

Not sure why, but Tom Petty may be the only star rocker I can picture as a regular high school kid learning to rock.

Great writer and musician.

Thoughts and casseroles, Mr. Petty.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

This one jolted me when I saw the thread title.

One of my all time favorite concerts was the Southern Accents tour. Just a great show, a great evening of music and visuals.

A couple of my favorite deep Petty tracks, both from Long After Dark: "Deliver Me" and "Change of Heart".

His XM channel is a frequent listen for me; the Buried Treasure show is really good stuff.

Way too young.

 

[TyWebb]

I knew nothing of Tom Petty until I saw the Last Dance with Mary Jane video on MTV when I was in high school. I had no idea what his sound was or how to describe it, but I knew I liked it. When I discovered he had a catalog decades old of songs even better, Petty became a staple of just about every playlist I ever made through college. There really was a song for every occasion, all classics.

RIP.

 

[Huggy]

I had heard he had added this one to his sets on his last tour but we didn't get it in Toronto...it may be a cover, but it is a great one....

 

[Dick Whitman]

TMZ says he's not dead yet, but not expected to make it through the day. When we took my dad off, he died within a few minutes, but I remember them telling us it was unpredictable and could hours, so that makes some sense.

 

[Songbird]

I was in Iowa City smoking pot and playing poker when this album came out. Great album start to finish. Love this song.

 

[Steak Snabler]

TMZ says he's not dead yet, but not expected to make it through the day. When we took my dad off, he died within a few minutes, but I remember them telling us it was unpredictable and could hours, so that makes some sense.

Yeah, my mother survived several hours after we took her off life support.

 

[UNCGrad]

I've loved Tom Petty since I was 8 years old and was told I could buy any cassette I wanted one day. (My dad did this for me every once in a while.) My first was "Born in the USA." My second was probably "Long After Dark," even though it was a couple of years old.
The thing that stayed with me about Petty, though, was I remember being in college when his Greatest Hits came out, with "Mary Jane's Last Dance." We're playing basketball at home one day, and the little kid brother of a friend - kid's probably about 10 - comes out and asks if he could change the music. We said, "Sure, why not?" Kid puts in Tom Petty's Greatest Hits and it just hit me - a full span of 10 years between us, but the same Tom Petty songs had knocked that kid over, too.
I don't know that I've ever met anyone who didn't appreciate and like Tom Petty's work.

 

[Riptide]

The thing that stayed with me about Petty, though, was I remember being in college when his Greatest Hits came out, with "Mary Jane's Last Dance." We're playing basketball at home one day, and the little kid brother of a friend - kid's probably about 10 - comes out and asks if he could change the music. We said, "Sure, why not?" Kid puts in Tom Petty's Greatest Hits and it just hit me - a full span of 10 years between us, but the same Tom Petty songs had knocked that kid over, too. I don't know that I've ever met anyone who didn't appreciate and like Tom Petty's work.

That's a great story.

 

[exmediahack]

Saw him in 1991 when I was a 16 year old. He played three hours. Outdoors. August. What a wonderful night.

There's a part of me kind of surprised he made it to 66. Not once over the past 20 years have I heard him in an interview and thought "that guy will make it to 85."

A pretty solid run there for 15 years of making music.

 

[misterbc]

I'm stunned. Travelled to Vancouver to see him on August 17. Last night I spent 3 hours playing TP songs on my acoustic guitar....a great way of really appreciating any artists' songs.
Words can't describe my sadness.