OT: Tom Petty Documentary

[ti_boi]

Wow....did anyone happen to catch that 4 hour masterpiece on Sundance last night....what a terrific look at a great talent. It had it all. :cool:

[Ray]

Wow....did anyone happen to catch that 4 hour masterpiece on Sundance last night....what a terrific look at a great talent. It had it all. :cool:
I saw a really good review of it, but didn't realize it was on the tube. I'll look for a replay of it. He was happening when I was in my late teens, early 20's. A crazy (in all senses of the word - good, bad, ugly, amazing, etc) period for most and his first four albums were a big part of the soundtrack. He was surprisingly good live too. Not quite to the Bruce / Dead / Stones level, but very high on the second tier of live performers. One of the best pop/rock lead guitarists in the bidness too in Mike Campbell - an amazing craftsman if not quite a great artist.

-Ray

[cmg]

thanks for the notice. Saw tom petty twice, once with bob dylan and on the tour with the replacements opening. was there for the replacements. i was amazed at how much music i was familar with. great band.

[RABikes2]

I took my son to see him in concert last year in Gainesville. We got picked to move from the outer seats of this place to three rows from the stage. My son was ecstatic and so was I. Tom was great in concert...Stevie Nicks joined him onstage 1/2 way through the night. Good stuff and a great time with my kiddo. ;)
RA
This "Sundance" program is on cable? No cable here... :crap:

[ti_boi]

I saw him in 1985 in Nashville...on the Southern Accents Tour. I had just completed my first year of college. I can remember getting a phone call from a friend who had two tickets. One of those really rare events -- it was great. I remember driving down there in my 77 Ford Ranchero and how much fun the weekend was.

He sang "rebel" with a giant rebel flag at least 100 feet high behind the stage...and the song "southern accent" takes on a whole new meaning when you see him in Nashville. Amazing talent. I was blown away by the details of his legal wranglings with his label MCA...the bad deal he signed and eventually got out of...and the candor with which he spoke. Also the rock and roll tragedy of their second bass player Howie Epstein....the film has some of the best performance video I have ever seen. They were/are true musicians in every sense. Crafting real songs and innovative sounds.

[bironi]

but then I am recovering from a head first crash into a chain link fence gate at about 20 mph. It was interesting how much he revealed of his not so admirable side, that is some of his very self-centered dealings with band members. I wish that I had paid more attention to his music after his first hits like "Breakdown". He was one of only a few american rock artists doing anything on the airwaves at the time. I did appreciated what he had to say about american rock at that time, that it was overblown, pretentious, repetitive........
I would have liked to see him with Dylan.
Byron

[jimcav]

so i heard them all the time. and i like the music too--full moon fever was the album i taught myself to play guitar to.

it was a great documentary--i stayed up to watch it, then had to play a little guitar--my a$$ will be dragging this afternoon.

jim

[Ray]

I TIVO'd it and have been watching it over the last couple of days. Well done, but I was beginning to wonder if it was ever gonna end. I like Petty more than most, but FOUR hours of Tom Petty? Yowsa!

-Ray

[Keith A]

I've been listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for a long time. I also had the chance to see them in Gainesville while I was going to school there. Sadly, it appeared that Mr. Petty had a little too much of something and appreared wasted on stage and his performance was lack luster.

Anyway, I see that Runnin' Down a Dream (http://www.sundancechannel.com/films/500254630) will be airing again this Saturday (Nov. 3) at 3pm. Just got to remember to set my DVR!

[ti_boi]

I guess I am one of those weird souls who can stomach a four hour rock doc....I watch them all...especially love when they feature live footage and in this case they played the whole song! What a concept...let the music take center stage....I have to admit I was in heaven the whole time....These were the guys that were always my heroes.

[Ray]

I guess I am one of those weird souls who can stomach a four hour rock doc....I watch them all...especially love when they feature live footage and in this case they played the whole song! What a concept...let the music take center stage....I have to admit I was in heaven the whole time....These were the guys that were always my heroes.
Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed it. I just didn't realize what I was getting into. After two hours, the screen went blank and it said, 'end of part ONE' and I just had to laugh. Watched the whole thing though. As someone who was just decent enough to play for beer and pizza in sorry little combos when I was ski-bumming, I'm always amazed with people who not only make a living playing music, but do it playing their OWN music. I loved it just as much as those guys, but never had the talent or the single minded drive. And guys like TP who have a lot of integrity and balls are pretty few and far between. Which, I guess, is why they're the ones who make it.

I just eventually got a bit tired of the level of detail about every latter day album. I still like his stuff and own or have owned every one of them, but I was a fairly typical fan in that Damn the Torpedos helped get me through plenty of my own 20 year old rage back in '79. The first album sounds real pop-like to me now (but with great songs - ALWAYS great songs) and the second one was a start down the road of something really strong, but man, Torpedos was so unexpectedly great and almost out of the blue. Songs like Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, and Even the Losers are as good as they get. And at the time of his big legal battle and triumph, it still stands as a peak, even after such a long and fruitful career. I first saw him on that triumphant tour right after that came out and he was a level beyond any time I've seen him since. Part of it was my own lack of expectations going in, but he was never quite as great after that. The ultimate craftsman, to be sure, but for that shining moment, he was a frickin' ARTIST. So I'd have been ok if it ended after the first couple of hours. Or maybe condense the last two hours into one good one (hey, when you don't have enough material for a strong double album, make a great single!).

Amazing that a guy could be sooooo strong-minded about what he wanted his music to sound like and still be able to accommodate guys like Campbell and Tench and keep them together for over 30 years. Really impressive guy. And God I loved it when he was taking on that record company hack for McGuinn - that was a great scene to have on film. Tough as nails.

-Ray

[Keith A]

I checked my cable last and was excited to see that they carry the Sundance channel, but it doen't come as part of our package :crap:

[paczki]

And God I loved it when he was taking on that record company hack for McGuinn - that was a great scene to have on film. Tough as nails.
He owes McGuinn. Haven't seen it, but he should send Hillman and McGuinn weekly checks. That holds of many, many other musicians.

[Ray]

He owes McGuinn. Haven't seen it, but he should send Hillman and McGuinn weekly checks. That holds of many, many other musicians.
Oh yeah, McGuinn's influence is discussed a lot. Petty acknowledges how strong it was. And there was an interview with McGuinn who, upon hearing American Girl for the first time, jokingly asked his agent when he recorded it. But, evidently, the two became sort of close over the years. And Petty helped McGuinn out with some of his comeback albums in the 1990s. At that time, Petty was a strong presence in the record industry and McGuinn, sadly, was a has-been. And there's a scene in a recording studio where McGuinn was going along with trying to record some crummy pop song that the record company hack (and he was a young kid without any real grounding in what McGuinn or the Byrds had been about) was pushing on him. Petty was there and just read the kid the riot act. At first he was being sort of funny and light about it, but very critical at the same time, and as the guy wouldn't back down, Petty got increasingly angrier and more direct on McGuinn's behalf while McGuinn kind of listened passively. I don't know what song it was about, but it was pretty clear that Petty got the better of it. McGuinn thanked him later in the film in an interview, saying that Petty was a lot stronger and more willing to take the guy on than he (McGuinn) had been.

Its ironic that Petty ended up having a much longer and more sucessful career (in terms of longevity, sales, etc) than one of his primary influences, but I guess that's not unusual. Look at Led Zepplin or the Stones and every blues artist they listened to as kids. But Petty ultimately went past his influences into something pretty uniquely his own. By the time McGuinn and Petty traded vocals on McGuinn's 'King of the Hill' in 1990, the Rolling Stone review admitted that you had to wonder who was imitating who?

Anyway, it sounds like the debt has been repaid in any number of ways over the years.

-Ray

[Kevan]

if you don't have anything good to say, don't say'em at all... I''m going to stick my neck out here and risk your wrath.

I like Petty's music, it's fun stuff. The melodies and instrument playing is top drawer rock 'n' roll, but the lyrics...the lyrics never struck me as being his strong suit. Am I alone here? Soon to be tarred and feathered...

Sorry I can't see the documentary.

[ti_boi]

if you don't have anything good to say, don't say'em at all... I''m going to stick my neck out here and risk your wrath.

I like Petty's music, it's fun stuff. The melodies and instrument playing is top drawer rock 'n' roll, but the lyrics...the lyrics never struck me as being his strong suit. Am I alone here? Soon to be tarred and feathered...

Sorry I can't see the documentary.


"....Oh baby don't it feel like heaven right now Don't it feel like something from a dream Yeah I've never known nothing quite like this.........."

"....out on four-fortyone like waves crashing on the beach And for one des'prate moment there he crept back in her memory..."


I hear/see Great lyrical imagery......I love his 'voice' and point of view....ATMO

[Keith A]

Runnin' Down a Dream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eW91-5TC78)

ti_boi -- what song(s) are those lyrics from?

[J.Greene]

[QUOTE=ti_boi

"....out on four-fortyone like waves crashing on the beach And for one des'prate moment there he crept back in her memory..."
[/QUOTE]

For those of us who went to UF that line has a lot of meaning. Never mind the story is an urban legend in Gainesville.

JG

[J.Greene]

Runnin' Down a Dream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eW91-5TC78)

ti_boi -- what song(s) are those lyrics from?

The first is the waiting and the second american girl

JG

[jimcav]

i think as a whole, his lyrics are as good as you'll see in billboard top 40 songs
coupled with the melody it works so well

somebody said a poem should should feel like a remembrance to the reader.

for me, lots of his songs evoke an emotional feeling in me or strike something that is akin to that. for his old stuff, some of that is true brainwashing--my sister is 6 yrs older, but a song like southern accents--i NEVER heard it until the movie. I spent the first 6 yrs of my life in Georgia. I connected in many ways with that song


jim

[Keith A]

For those of us who went to UF that line has a lot of meaning. Never mind the story is an urban legend in Gainesville.I must have lived a sheltered life while I was in G'ville as I haven't a clue what this is in reference to.

[Fixed]

keith bro you went to gville did you see him in the old days ?
cheers jg went there too..... my uncle went there too ..played on the golf team grad in 57
cheers

[J.Greene]

I must have lived a sheltered life while I was in G'ville as I haven't a clue what this is in reference to.

Some hottie supposedly jumped out of the 13th floor of one of the beatty towers after dropping acid. She thought she could fly. It's an Urban legend that the song refers to that.

JG

[Keith A]

keith bro you went to gville did you see him in the old days ?Hey fixed -- I went to school there between '82 and '86. I saw him at the O'Connell Center sometime during that time frame. That was a weird night...split my head open messing around before went into the center, got stiched up at the hospital and still saw all of TP's performance. I just missed the opening band(s).

[J.Greene]

keith bro you went to gville did you see him in the old days ?
cheers jg went there too..... cheers

I had heard that being a townie he had some hostility towards the University growing up (or was that a bike movie)? He was long gone by the time I got there. His first album was the first album I ever bought with my allowance growing up. I loved that stuff.

I spent two years at UF and graduated from UCF. I have incredible memories from that town and go back as often as possible.

JG

[Ray]

i think as a whole, his lyrics are as good as you'll see in billboard top 40 songs
coupled with the melody it works so well

somebody said a poem should should feel like a remembrance to the reader.

for me, lots of his songs evoke an emotional feeling in me or strike something that is akin to that. for his old stuff, some of that is true brainwashing--my sister is 6 yrs older, but a song like southern accents--i NEVER heard it until the movie. I spent the first 6 yrs of my life in Georgia. I connected in many ways with that song

Yeah, I think the guy can write. They talked about that a lot in the movie - specific enough to tell the story but general enough to let the listener fill in the specifics as they see fit. I know that some of the songs from his first three albums fit me to a "T" during my late teens and early 20s. Some of it pretty negative - Looks Like I'm The Fool Again, Even the Losers, I Need to Know. Some of it real positive - Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Listen to her Heart, etc. Actually, theres a pretty good mix of positive and negative in a lot of those songs. And I'm sure there were all sorts of people in circumstances wildly different than mine who related to it just as well for their own reasons. Real catchy and pop-like but with just enough edge to make it real - not fluff. Just because it's popular doesn't make it bad!

-Ray

[ti_boi]

ahhhhh duuuude, you guys are killin' me with the memories.... :beer:

OK here's mine....little home-town in Western Kentucky sittin at the stoplight one summer afternoon, 19 years-old...saw my girlfriend--a gorgeous little thing and proof that yes, "even the losers get lucky sometimes"..Though I was at the height of my powers at that point or close....heck-of-an athlete and a pretty darn good musician, plus I was making it through college....

There she was in her little maroon car at the other light (I was head over heals...UK cheerleader/valedictorian....*sigh) on the radio at that very moment plays....."Here comes my girl"......on cue. You could've scraped me off the seat with a spoon. I was done for. :cool:

Pretty much how I lived my life...one soundtrack to the next....I felt music so profoundly, so intensely....it drove every workout, every party, walkman on the head, car stereo blasting, playing guitar constantly....my goals all centered around putting a band together....the apex of my career was an awesome cover band (with a few originals) and filling the best club in town twice a month for a year and half....great times....looking back maybe some of the best, not counting today....

[Keith A]

Great song...Here Comes My Girl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=800KU4VtJws) All this talk of TP makes me want to grab my skateboard and hop in the car and make a trip to G'ville to go skate all the spots I used back in college. When I was in school, if I wasn't in class, working or doing homework...I was skating!

[Ray]

Pretty how I lived my life...one soundtrack to the next....I felt music so profoundly, so intensely....it drove every workout, every party, walkman on the head, car stereo blasting, playing guitar constantly
I hear that. Always had a soundtrack going - it was remarkably important to me at the time. The role that music played in my life took a real nose-dive sometime in my early 40s for reasons that I never quite figured out. I wouldn't have predicted it, but it just stop being in the forefront over the period of a year or two. But, hey, I still love it - I just have to make time for it - can't have it going 24-7 anymore.

And needless to say, this movie and thread have me going back to a LOT of Petty and I'm digging it all over again. Although I gotta say, mostly the first 3-4 albums when they were fighting to make it. That stuff just BURNS. Once they got huge, they became, as I've said before, master craftsmen, but with less fire in the belly. The stuff after Hard Promises still SOUNDS great, but it just doesn't move me anywhere near as much as the early stuff did. That may have as much to do with where I was when I was listening to it as with the music, but I don't think that's all of it. I guess it's almost inevitable for everyone but the true heavyweights - people like Springsteen and Dylan who keep evolving as artists (with the occasional misstep) even after they're sittin' on top of the world.

Anyway, its been a fun trip back...

-Ray

[ti_boi]

Music has changed for me too....and when I let it take me away it's great, but now I'm more like my dad, in fact I turn OFF the radio in the car sometimes and just enjoy that delicious silence or the rumbled of the straight six...I am not as edgy or unsettled as I was when I was a kid. The miles that I have gone and the places I have been while that radio was on are really part of a wonderful tapestry and the threads that run through it are musical.

How many times have you gone somewhere and heard a song in a pub that just sends chills down your spine...or taken a road trip, flipped on an old tune and just let yourself go way back to when life was so different. You had that youthful energy, you were searching and struggling to make sense of everything....well now it makes more sense...at least to that experienced person that you are.

But nothing can replace those years when you were just getting started....the tension was high and the energy simply overwhelming. That is when the great creative forces thrive, though I have heard excellent work by veterans, that first album as they said in the documentary was 15 years in the making........but hey, life is great, or sad, or lonely....and here's a song that sums it up for me. Turn the amp to 11!

[Fixed]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdwd4bfCilg&NR=1

[J.Greene]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdwd4bfCilg&NR=1

That was filmed on the avenue of the americas. These crazy a$$ traveling evengelical preachers used to hold court there when I was in Gainesville. We used to laugh hysterically as these guys would call us sinners and fornicators and whores. The hare krishnas would also march past there. I got a big kick out of the children wearing air jordan sneakers under the krishna robe.

JG

[ti_boi]

My wife got me the DVD for a present this year....Gotta say after viewing it again...two thoughts come to mind...

1. I miss Stan Lynch.....the current drummer doesn't hold a candle to Stan and the back-up vocals Stan added...now that Howie is gone.


2. Petty looks strange...like he is medicated, perhaps a steroid? Getting old is tough...I see a strange bloat on the guy. Glad he found redemption in his new *trophy* wife.( :D )















***of course Petty sounds fantastic.......the Doc DVD w/ concert and CD is amazing....a must-have for all fans.