What does /mu/ think of Tom Petty?

Like him a lot, written countless classics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0JvF9vpqx8

>>71039987
undisputed king of adult contemporary

>>71040054
I like that track, but for the most part I don't get the appeal. Reminds me of Uncle Cracker--nice, melodic songs that don't really do anything unexpected or make a strong impression.

Christgau said "It's hard now to grasp what a breath of fresh air that Tom Petty was in 1976", but I found his debut album pretty damn boring.

>>71039987
Super underrated as a songwriter, particularly by younger folks.

Also underrated for his influence on the proto-new wave scene. He was a new kind of energy in music in the late 70s, after being fairly well traveled and struggling a lot with close calls in the industry.

The guy's written at least 5 songs that almost everyone knows. That's impressive on its own.

>>71040326
>nice, melodic songs that don't really do anything unexpected or make a strong impression

That's what most music is, friend.

>>71040421
That's the point though. You had to be there to appreciate his back-to-basics pub rock in an era of stadium AOR bloat.

>>71040326
Oh yeah he's a greatest hits artist for sure. Wouldn't want to trawl through his entire discography, but those select hits are iconic songs.

>>71040596
Damn the Torpedos and Full Moon Fever are great albums from top to bottom, not to mention his later work with Rick Rubin. He's more than a greatest hits artist.

>>71040573
Petty kind of explained it this way. "In the [late '70s], suddenly all the critics and the music world were going ape over us, like our music was some exciting new revelation, when in reality we weren't doing anything special, it was just the same old Southern rock we'd all been playing for years."

Good enough for RHCP to steal one of his songs.

You got lucky, babe

When I found YOU!

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Southern Accents [MCA, 1985]

Petty's problem isn't that he's dumb, or even that people think he's dumb, although they have reason to. It's that he feels so sorry for himself he can't think straight. Defending the South made sense back when Ronnie Van Zant was writing "Sweet Home Alabama," but in the Sun Belt era it's just pique. The modernizations of sometime coproducer Dave Stewart mitigate the neoconservative aura somewhat, but unmitigating it right back is Petty's singing, its descent from stylization into affectation most painful on side one's concept songs. Side two is less consequential, and better. Note, however, that its show-stopper is "Spike," in which a bunch of rednecks, I mean good old boys, prepare to whup a punk. It's satire. Yeah sure. B-

Also, not sure if any of you guys have SiriusXM, but Tom Petty's Buried Treasure is one of the few reasons I've kept my subscription over the years. He's a great DJ, plays a lot of interesting deep tracks and offers a good bit of insight.

Of course, the grandaddy of 'em all as far as radio shows is Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, which isn't on anymore but you can listen to every episode here
http://www.themetimeradio.com/cat/themetime/season1/

>>71041065
Good ol' Christgau. Forever projecting his fear of jocks from high school.

>>71041065
>goes out of his way to trash it the entire review
>gives it a B-
You can just sense the self-loathing in everything he writes.

>>71039987
DAD ROCK
A
D

R
O
C
K

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OH BABY DON'T IT FEEL LIKE HEAVEN RIGHT NOW

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Full Moon Fever [MCA, 1989]

He wanted something off-the-cuff and got lucky: except for the punk putdown and the pseudo-Dylan throwaway, both nice on their own terms, nary a lyric nor tune clashes with the terrific early-Byrds cover. If guys made roots-rock albums anymore, anything here would spruce one up. B+

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>>71041546
>your tendies are done

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>>71040596

>>71041708
>>71041065
mmmuh punk rawk how dare you meany rednecks make fun

>>71041503
>You can just sense the self-loathing in everything he writes.

"Goddamn, why did I have to be born a white male? I hate my existence so much."

Oh, I fucking love Tom Petty. Introduced by GTA San Andreas. Runnin' Down a Dream. Classic.

Refugee. Classic.

American Girl. Classic.

Free Fallin'. Fuckin hate that song.

Won't Back Down. Classic.

Also his appearance on the Simpsons was a classic.

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>>71042036
>Forgetting Mary Jane's Last Dance

>>71042491
I like it. Not a favorite.

>>71042609
And no, Dani California was not a ripoff of that song. Tom Petty said himself it wasn't beyond a vaguely similar chord progression.

Daddest of dadrock.

>>71042862
The fuck does 'dadrock' even mean? It's not as if rock and roll songs are any different today than they were 40 years ago. There's just fewer of them. The only thing 'dadrock' does is qualify something - a piece of art - on the basis of the people who like it - an audience -. The audience is not the art.

>>71043085
It means anon has daddy issues from his father playing Full Moon Fever it on the car stereo while driving him to Little League practice.

>>71043085
>The fuck does 'dadrock' even mean?

It's meaningless. Neo moo pretty much hijacked it to define any somewhat mainstream pre-90's rock. Before that, the term was used to specifically define the "softer" rock bands played on 70's AOR.

The quintessential "dadrock" band is Journey.

Also dadrock:

REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, 70's Bob Seger, Rod Stewart (not Faces, though), The Eagles, Boston.

Petty would've probably been played on College Radio in the 70's.

>>71039987
Pack Up The Plantations is one of the most underrated tours and live CDs of all time.

>>71043733
>The quintessential "dadrock" band is Journey

Das momrock, dude.

>Journey
>male fans
Pick one and only one.

>>71043759

Momrock and dadrock kind of crossover. The implication for the term is a dad, maybe once a 60's rebel that listened to counter-culture music like the Doors, Hendrix, etc, losing his edge as he got older in the 70's, converting to a poppier and less-threatening brand of rock, something mom would also like.

If your dad listened to Journey, he was not only molested as a child, he probably begged for more.

I prefer Johnny Thunders

>>71039987
He got me through my last breakup, when I was living in a studio apartment and sleeping on the floor.

I found out a year later that my mom and dad went to two of his concerts in St. Louis before they divorced. I don't know why, but that made me appreciate his music even more.

All things considered, Tom is an easy top five for me.

>>71044244
Forgot to mention that I would probably have died of cardiac arrest if I ever met the full The Traveling Wilburys ensemble.

>>71044204
They're two completely different artists, but Johnny Thunders was the fucking man

I like Tom Petty, but had an awful experience at one of his concerts where I drank some skuny beer beforehand and had a headache for literally the next week. That's what I get for buying the discounted "Super Bowl" promo case in mid July.

>>71044509
*skunky

Dadrock

>>71039987
Ok songwriter, but his sense of melody is really weak. You can rarely hear one of his songs and remember it longer than 5 minutes.

>>71039987
supermarket muzak

>>71041065
>>71041708
holy shit. every time i read christgau, i can't fathom how this middle class idiot got the job reviewing anything. he literally didn't say anything of substance there. it's almost as if he was given his job by jews striving to dumb down the populace. almost...

>>71046778
All music critics are the same senpai.

>all SJW nu males to a man
>all worship punk rock, indie bands, and Bruce Springsteen
>all hate metal and prog

>>71046805
>Bruce Springsteen
but why though?

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You're Gonna Get It! [ABC/Shelter, 1978]

". . . might sound strange/Might seem dumb," Tom warns at the outset, and unfortunately he only gets it right the second time: despite his Southern roots and '60s pop-rock proclivities, he comes on like a real made-in-L.A. jerk. Onstage, he acts like he wants to be Ted Nugent when he grows up, pulling out the cornball arena-rock moves as if they had something to do with the kind of music he makes; after all, one thing that made the Byrds and their contemporaries great was that they just got up there and played. Thank God you don't have to look at a record, or read its interviews. Tuneful, straight-ahead rock and roll dominates the disc, and "I Need to Know," which kicks off side two, is as peachy-tough as power pop gets. There are even times when Tom's drawl has the impact of a soulful moan rather than a brainless whine. But you need a lot of hooks to get away with being full of shit, and Tom doesn't come up with them. B

Damn the Torpedoes [Backstreet/MCA, 1979]

This is a breakthrough for Petty because for the first time the Heartbreakers (his Heartbreakers, this L.A.M.F. fan should specify) are rocking as powerfully as he's writing. But whether Petty has any need to rock out beyond the sheer doing of it--whether he has anything to say--remains shrouded in banality. Thus he establishes himself as the perfect rock and roller for those who want good--very good, because Petty really knows his stuff--rock and roll that can be forgotten as soon as the record or the concert is over, rock and roll that won't disturb your sleep, your conscience, or your precious bodily rhythms. B+

>>71046820
Mostly because his music is a bunch of socialist whining.

>>71046827
Ok fine, cool. He's right on the money here about Petty making elevator music that you instantly forget once the song is over. I listened to a couple of Tom Petty tunes after seeing this thread, but I can't remember a single thing about them, but I'm still humming Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution hours after listening to it.

>>71046827
>a redneck acting like another redneck makes the former redneck an LA jerk
>the only reasonable argument that such music doesn't require pomp is later negated by christgau himself admitting you won't find the said arena-rock pomp on the actual record
>still, his music is dumb 'cause he's a redneck and i really wanted to get that one out there
>look at me, i like Johnny Thunders
>rock should strive to be disturbing 'cause muh counterculture
yeah... an utter dolt

>>71046827
Hard Promises [Backstreet, 1981]

Hard to gainsay the class solidarity of a rich rock star who sues his record company to keep his list price down to $8.98. And glancing at the lyric sheet, I was pleased to note that the antiboho number--"Kings Road," in which a Pakistani tries to sell Tom funny-looking English underwear--had a lighter touch than usual. The reason I hadn't noticed, unfortunately, is that Petty clobbers the thing like he's singing about how much he hates the road. Elsewhere he's more understated, fortunately, but it just goes to show you--no matter how much they respect the working fan, rich rock stars do tend to fill up on themselves. B

Long After Dark [Backstreet, 1982]

Petty's been complaining that he's tired, and this holding action--from a guy not noted for vanguard engagements when he's fit to fight--shows all the signs. In case you were wondering, he can't live with them and he can't live without them. C+

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>>71046994
he was probably no longer with it at that point.

>>71046907
>look at me, i like Johnny Thunders

mmmuh New York Dawls

>>71047060
>3-chord jingles with 50's piano rolls, that'll disturb your sleep. 'cause they're dressed like women. get it? take that, mom and pop.
what a fucking grandma

>>71044414
But they both had bands called The Heartbreakers in the late 1970s and people often confused the two until they heard both bands individually.

Hence my statement and preference.

>>71047086
Wearing makeup was pretty edgy for the early 70s, unfortunately by the late 80s, the rock world came to sorely regret the "innovations" they made.

>>71047086
Basically just mock Rolling Stones to the point of literally impersonating Mick Jagger's voice.

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>>71041065
>it's just pique

>>71047155
He means it's beating a dead horse.

is there anyone dumber and more fashion-oriented than Christgau?

Other than Trash, I find NYD painfully boring.

I liked him as "Lucky" in King of The Hill and the postman in The Postman.

The Traveling Wilburys were also pretty good.

>>71047179
https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bk-aow/presley.php

In which he admits that he has unresolved issues from football jocks kicking his ass in high school.