Heart Attack!

Tom Petty would have been 75 today. I'd have loved dearly to have seen him tread the boards at some point but, alas, the planets never aligned; not helped by the fact that that in his illustrious 40 year career he only played a meagre 61 dates in the UK (and 23 of those were in 1977). I think it's time to dig out the time machine (again). If I can source a new flux capacitor I think I'll set the coordinates for that debut trek around around Blighty. I've never been to the Glasgow Apollo before (I've heard it can be, er, lively). Who's coming with me?

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - American Girl (1977) 

 

★

 Thomas Earl Petty (1950-2017)

Thomas Earl Petty

I don't normally mark anniversaries around here, of the living or the dead, but two years ago today Tom Petty closed his umbrella for the last time. He was one of the few acts who I always wanted to catch live but for one reason or another the planets never aligned; though looking at his concert archive Petty's appearances on this side of the Atlantic were pretty few and far between. His first gig in England, June 1977, was opening for fellow American Nils Lofgren at Manchester Free Trade Hall. His last, July 2017, saw him headlining London's Hyde Park. A career arc, if ever there was one, bookended by two shows almost exactly 40 years apart.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - I Need to Know (1978)

1979

It's long been acknowledged, between me and Steve anyway, that the 70s actually started in 1968 and probably kept going till around mid-1983. Culturally, musically definitely, and sportingly - mavericks ruled the world in concert halls and football grounds the world over. So when you talk about 1979 be under no illusion that the 1970s still had plenty of gas left in its tank.

Some stonking albums came out in '79. I particularly remember buying Joe Jackson's Look Sharp, Valley of the Dolls by Generation X (produced by Ian Hunter), this classic by Graham Parker and The Damned's Machine Gun Etiquette. It was also the year In Through the Out Door - Led Zeppelin's swan song was released, and the Clash's eclectic mixed bag, London Calling.

Tom Petty was busy too. Together with his band the Heartbreakers, he released Damn the Torpedoes the day before his 29th birthday. And if you were to press me for one song from today's featured year (go on, press me) I reckon it would have to be this:

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Refugee (1979)

Fooled Again

I made it all the way to l2 o'clock without reading about any spaghetti trees or safari parks breeding Velociraptors.

And neither did I tell the bloke in the corner shop this morning that his shoelaces were untied*.

Tom Petty - Fooled Again (1977) 

* Well OK, maybe I did

Some things are over, some things go on

In the pub this evening reminiscing about the year gone by. 2016 has had its fair shares of ups and downs, and then some.

People have left our lives. And people have entered. Where will we all be this time next year? Only a fool would bet on the outcome of that particular brain teaser.

Spirit of '76

In 1976 the emerging new wave had yet to make an impression on the American Billboard charts; in fact the coveted Number One album slot was only occupied by eleven artists that year: Chicago, Earth Wind & Fire, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Peter Frampton, Wings, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, George Benson, Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Wonder; that's right, the old guard (as they were known back then). Or heritage acts as we call them today - I suspect most, if not all, of the above will be coming to an Arena near you in the not too distant.

That said, The Ramones, Blondie, The Runaways, The Modern Lovers and Patti Smith all released their debut long players in '76. As did Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. This is Breakdown -

Positively

Bob Dylan & The Heartbreakers

He calls himself a song and dance man; though these days his critics tend not to concur. I dug this b**tleg out last night and was pleasantly surprised to hear that as (relatively) recently as 1986 Dylan still had chutzpah. In spades. Maybe it was having Seargent Petty on parade with him that night, but Positively 4^th Street never sounded so, well, positive.

Bob Dylan + Tom Petty: Positively 4th Street

Even walls fall down

Writing and performing your own songs is great fun - you can fluff the words and/or tune and nobody's any the wiser. It's only when they take on a life of their own and people start singing them back to you that I'll start worrying. I'll get back to you on that one.

Therefore I'm a bit picky when it comes to covering other people's stuff: I avoid popular songs like the plague: the one cover on my Pickering Place EP is a very obscure Slade B-Side which even the writer Jim Lea would struggle to recognise as one of his.

But when I play Tom Petty's Walls, I don't change it at all. And the last time I saw Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby they played it with a straight bat too. It's just such a good song. Who couldn't be moved by the last verse:

Some things are over

Some things go on

Part of me you carry

And part of me is gone