Tom Petty

I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and they did a feature on Tom Petty, and once again I realized that he is a rock star that I frequently forget about. I would imagine that there aren't that many music fans who would list him as their favorite, but on the other hand it's hard to imagine anyone disliking him. I have a CD of his greatest hits, and I listened to it in the car the past few days, and by doing this I'm reminded of how many great songs he has. One finds one self muttering, "Oh yeah, he did that one, too, that's a good one." He's sort of like the rock equivalent of a baseball player like Paul Molitor or Craig Biggio--you don't notice them much while they're playing, but when they retire you realize they're Hall of Famers.

Petty is one of the most radio-friendly artists of all time. He's indebted to roots music--just listen to his satellite radio show to hear his influences--but his music is completely timeless. He was never one for trends, and though the songs on his greatest hits CD are in chronological order, musically there's not much there to pin them to one particular period.

Lyrically, however, he has grown over the years. His early hits were the boy-meets-girl stuff, with incredibly catchy hooks and moon-june-spoon lyrics. But they were pretty awesome songs: "American Girl," "Refugee," "Don't Do Me Like That," "Listen to Her Heart," and most especially "The Waiting," a polished little gem of a song. He did some experimentation, with my all-time favorite song of his, "Don't Come Around Here No More," with a psychedelic sitar and a video, made during the heyday of MTV, that was set in an "Alice in Wonderland" theme with Petty as the Mad Hatter.

But his later stuff, and by later I mean the early nineties, which is ancient by now, his lyrics expanded and he crafted some songs that are like exquisite short stories. The opening of "Runnin' Down a Dream": "It was a beautiful day/The sun beat down/I had the radio on, I was drivin'/Trees went by/Me and Del were singin' "Little Runaway"/I was flyin'." All that set to a beat that makes it a fantastic driving song. Or consider "Free Fallin'": "She's a good girl, loves her Mama/Loves Jesus, and America, too/She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis/Loves horses, and her boyfriend, too." What's great about those lines is that Petty steers clear of irony, and presents the character, and the singer who corrupts her, as the genuine article, and not some representation to be sneered at. I also love the opening of "Into the Great Wide Open": "Eddie waited 'til he finished high school/He went to Hollywood, got a tattoo/He met a girl who had a tattoo, too/The future was wide open."

I also loved Petty's little side project, The Traveling Wilburys, who also included some guys named Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, George Harrison, and Roy Orbison. I admire musicians who are respectful, if not reverential, to those who came before, and also embrace the new. Unlike the four other Wilburys, Petty is not an instant conduit to a particular style or period or rock history, but he's amassed an impressive body of work that's fun to drive to.