Prolific rocker earns place among greats
Music world loses rock classicist who shone for decades
Given the leather jacket and sneer Tom Petty wore on the cover of his 1976 debut, many people assumed he was one of those cheeky punks bent on tearing down the walls of rock ‘n’ roll.
He wasn’t. It’s not that Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, didn’t have their share of energy and attitude. But the kid from Gainesville, Florida, was a rock classicist to the core, and he built a body of work to stand with his heroes.
Petty, 66, died at a Santa Monica hospital near his adopted Southern California home. He had apparently suffered cardiac arrest.
His recording debut four decades ago contained songs that stood the test of time, the snaky Breakdown and American Girl, which so echoed the Byrds that it confused that band’s leader. “When did I record that?” Roger McGuinn recalled thinking when he first heard it.
Just a week ago Petty and the Heartbreakers finished a triumphant 40th anniversary tour.
His sturdy compositions built a discography so strong he couldn’t get to all of his hits. The Waiting, Listen to Her Heart, Here Comes My Girl, Refugee, You Got Lucky, Don’t Do Me Like That, Even the Losers, Don’t Come Around Here No More. And so on. All are fist-pumping favourites.
It was melodic rock ‘n’ roll built with the solid structures of his favourites from the 1960s. Petty had an impish grin and playful drawl, and in concert he raised his arms to direct both his band and the thousands of fans singing along.
“Rock and roll star is probably the purest manifestation of the American dream,” Petty said upon his 2002 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “It’s a blessing beyond belief.”
The Heartbreakers stood with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band as one of the all-time great rock backup bands. Still, two key periods of his career came without the Heartbreakers. Full Moon Fever, Petty’s first solo album in 1989, stands as the apex of his career. Working with producer Jeff Lynne, Petty fashioned a cleaner sound and created the classics Runnin’ Down a Dream, I Won’t Back Down and, most indelibly, Free Fallin’.
Petty was also a member of the temporary supergroup, the Traveling Wilburys, with George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Lynne. Pulled together by Harrison to record a B-side to a single, Handle With Care, they soon realised that the song, and their sound, was too good to bury.
Like everyone’s, Petty’s path wasn’t always smooth. As a child he was apparently beaten so badly by his father that his body was covered in welts. Biographer Warren Zanes’ book revealed that Petty slipped into heroin addiction in the 1990s. He was frustrated when the passage of time took him out of the spotlight when he actually deserved it: the 2014 album Hypnotic Eye was excellent, but the pop world had moved on. Last December Petty told Rolling
Stone that it would likely be his last big jaunt with the Heartbreakers.
It was easy to dismiss it then. Heck, they were too good and not that old. His old buddy Dylan is 76 and constantly on the road.
Sadly, it turned out to be true. — AP