Review: 'Tom Petty: The Life & Music'

At a time when traditional rock and roll had seemingly flat-lined, when old-guard bands like the Stones were simply going through the motions and punk seemed determined to burn the very notion of traditionalism to the ground, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were playing the kind of music the old-guard had been playing when they were still new. Without any of punk's nihilism or politics, any of Cheap Trick's self-effacing irony, or any of the Boss's overcooked productions and song structures, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers kept the purest essence of Rock and Roll alive while every artist was striding away from it like it was yesterday's rib roast. 

Review: Tom Petty's 'The Best of Everything'

After a few stale years, seventies rock started getting interesting again in 1976 as punk blew in like a fresh, filthy breeze from the future. At the same time, a brand new band also provided hope for the future even as they unabashedly drew on sounds of the past with their Byrds jangle and Stones toughness. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was one of the most invigorating debuts from a year that also brought us firsts from The Ramones, Blondie, and The Damned, which is saying a hell of a lot.

Yet while the other new bands of 1976 I mentioned would get caught up in trends at times (eighties metal and disco, for example), Tom Petty never did. He never lost sight of his singular goal to make tuneful, tough, terse, truthful rock and roll. If you need proof of that, check out two discs worth of The Best of Everything, a new compilation that dips through most facets of Petty’s career as a leader of Heartbreakers, member of Mudcrutch, solo artist, and Stevie Nicks collaborator (only his days as a Traveling Wilbury are unrepresented, and I doubt anyone will cry too much about that). While there are variations in the slickness of the production, there is little variation in the quality of the music from 1976’s “American Girl” to 2016’s “Trailer”. That there wasn’t room for such essentials as “Change of Heart” and “Woman in Love” also speaks for the strength of career, since there isn’t too much included that I’d swap with them (“Southern Accents” and “American Dream Plan B” are a couple of candidates). There’s also a nice unreleased Heartbreakers track from 2000 called “For Real”.

The one down side to this set—and way too many contemporary releases—is the absurdly brickwalled mastering. Message to masterers: stop doing this. Thanks.

Farewell, Tom Petty

He wasn't revolutionary like The Clash, innovative like Patti Smith, or ironic like Cheap Trick. Tom Petty just got by on writing rock solid songs and performing them with a rock solid band. His talent was such that albums such as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Damn the Torpedoes, and Hard Promises didn't need to shake things up to still stand out among the great albums of the seventies and eighties. And he was always  so resolved in his refusal to follow trends that he ended up seeming oddly hip, as cool as any of the new wavers and as edgy as any of the punks. The timelessness of his music was certainly a factor in the length of his career, which left most of the new wavers and punks in the dated dust. Sadly, that career came to an end last night. Tom Petty has died of cardiac arrest at the mere age of 66. Rock & Roll will never be quite as cool again.

Psychobabble’s Ten Greatest Singles of 1985

The music scene had gotten pretty rough by 1985. Top-notch artists like Elvis Costello and the Attractions, The Rolling Stones, and Stevie Wonder were making the most appalling music of their respective careers, while Foreigner, Chicago, REO Speedwagon, and USA for Africa were otherwise shitting up the charts. Yet, as in every year since the dawn of Rock & Roll, great singles could still be detected amid the muck. Here are ten…



10. “Bastards of Young” by The Replacements

With Tim the constrictions of ‘80s pop production started to have their way with The Replacements, who had recently made the leap from small time Twin/Tone records to bigger time Sire. Well, you can gate Chris Mars’s drums all you like and you can shoot a spiffy MTV-ready music video (and the accompanying video was mighty spiffy), but you can never tame Westerberg’s whiskey yowl. It is in furious form on “Bastards of Young”, perhaps the most insightful teen anthem of the ‘80s.


9. “So Far Away”by Dire Straits

Some seven years had past since square British Blues combo Dire Straits had a hit in the US. As we all know, that changed most assuredly when they dropped the ultra-slick, DDD monster Brothers in Arms in ’85. That year you couldn’t blow your nose without having “Money for Nothing” blare out of your nostrils. However the truly great single from the band’s comeback triumph was its first. “So Far Away” barely sneaked into the top twenty, but it’s as hooky and alluring as anything Dire Straights ever did, their taut rhythm section pulsing beneath an utterly sublime guitar lick. Mark Knopfler’s six-string impersonates a Hawaiian pedal steel and fools me completely.

8. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers