Baby Even The Losers Get Lucky Sometimes
I pay very little attention to celebrity and the going-ons thereof -- I don't really understand the obsession. When a celebrity dies, and people have dramatic emotional reactions, I just don't identify in that they've not played a role in my life, with some exceptions, of course. A week ago Tom Petty died; that day was also the day after the terrorist attack in Las Vegas. I work in LA and many people here have connections to Las Vegas. Numerous people at the hospital had loved ones or friends at the event. Perhaps that is why when I heard the news on Monday afternoon I felt like it was a bigger blow than it might have been otherwise. Today, while driving around completing errands, I had the Tom Petty channel on Spotify playing. It got me thinking, Tom Petty has been a part of many different memories and pivotal points in my life. I'm sure you want to hear about some of them. Here we go.
I kinda think of Tom Petty, Rush and U2 as occupying the same area in my musical catalog, in that when I was a teenager, I loved these bands but it was not cool to be found listening to these bands. NOFX, Pennywise, Minor Threat and Black Flag were the cool bands that I "should" be listening to. I explicitly remember studying in the library in high school with my discman and some of the only other skaters in the school wanted to know what I was listening to and when I reluctantly told them I was listening to Tom Petty's Wildflowers I was looked at with scorn. I got over it, though. Even back then, while much more sensitive to what others thought of me, as is the understandable perils of being a teenager, I had a lot of individuality, for better and worse.
Back to Tom Petty and (sometimes) the Heartbreakers. I am old enough that as a child I was able to witness the MTV when they played music videos. My parents had cable and I remember MTV was channel 25, and in order to not get in trouble for watching MTV, I had to make sure when I turned the television off it was on a different channel, as to not alert them to my watching MTV. Sorry mom and dad -- what can I say, I want(ed) my MTV!
Real quick side track here: I saw this video having kids listen to Led Zeppelin and reacting to it. As a child I remember hearing songs that immediately struck me and had some kind of magic to them. Free Falling off of Full Moon Fever was one of them. Baba O'reilly by the Who is another.
In my early teen years, my week revolved around Tuesday night free skate night at SkateChurch, and every year they would have a sleep-over -- basically, from 6 at night to 6 in the morning, or something like that, the kids were locked in the basement where all the ramps, funboxes and such were and we skated until the wee hours of the morning. My mom picked me up going home and I distinctly remember lying on my bed trying to go to sleep but the excitement of the previous night, and all the tricks we learned and saw others pull off ringing in my head and on the radio was Last Dance With MaryJane. It was 1993.
This song was released as a new song on a Greatest Hits album. I listened the shit out of that album, or, is it, I listened to the shit out of that album? Either way, I also remember driving with my friend David and his older brother Josh as we left what was the called the "Youth Rally" and was held in the mountains of Idaho every year at the end of summer. We would start the 10 hour drive home on Labor Day morning and I remember settling into the drive with this album in the CD player -- it may have been a cassette player, I don't know.
This song was released in 1994, on the Wildflowers Album, which, like Full Moon Fever, was a Tom Petty solo album.
And while I probably appreciated this song when it came out, as I definitely had this album on CD (I miss those rainy afternoons dedicated to perusing the local music shops -- Music Millennium, Everyday Music and 2nd Avenue Records -- I mean I still could go to music stores, but I haven't used a CD in over 10 years!) but it was in my early 20's when I found it and felt the sappiness and melodramatic nature appropriate to help me move on from a certain woman. This song, along with Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, and any post-breakup sentimental fool can really start to feel sorry for themselves with earnest.
I have my favorites for long drives, when I feel like I could fall asleep and I need some "sing-along" music and Tom Petty is always a favorite. I also think that some of his videos are truly works of art -- and reviewing some of them while writing this further reinforces that. Some of my favorites are below.
The end of this song is so brilliant. Slog through a few minutes of heavy synthesizer, drum machine and weird vocalizations pay off with the ending which holds my favorite Petty moment, where he goes, "EHHH eeehhh EEEH HEEEH e EHHHE." Unfortunately on the video above the last part of the song fades out and you can hardly hear the 'Ehh Ehhe' thing, but, yeah, I love that last part of that song.
"Runn'n Down a Dream" has an animated Tom Petty in another weird but impressive video.
"Learning To Fly" is still an interesting video, and one that I don't really remember from my clandestine MTV watching days. The song, however, is one of my favorites -- simple, and cautiously optimistic -- kind of like me, I guess.
RIP in Tom Petty -- you're death actually touched me and this time around, it is an appropriate emotional response, in that your music played a such a longstanding role in my life. Earlier this week I pronounced a patient dead and within that hour was pulling a baby into the world, screaming and squirming, as if it knew what life was about and wanted to go back to the safety of the womb. The cycle of life continues and getting old is not for the young, but once in awhile we have to pause and recognize the innate frailty of being human and that none of us get out of this life alive.
I kinda think of Tom Petty, Rush and U2 as occupying the same area in my musical catalog, in that when I was a teenager, I loved these bands but it was not cool to be found listening to these bands. NOFX, Pennywise, Minor Threat and Black Flag were the cool bands that I "should" be listening to. I explicitly remember studying in the library in high school with my discman and some of the only other skaters in the school wanted to know what I was listening to and when I reluctantly told them I was listening to Tom Petty's Wildflowers I was looked at with scorn. I got over it, though. Even back then, while much more sensitive to what others thought of me, as is the understandable perils of being a teenager, I had a lot of individuality, for better and worse.
Back to Tom Petty and (sometimes) the Heartbreakers. I am old enough that as a child I was able to witness the MTV when they played music videos. My parents had cable and I remember MTV was channel 25, and in order to not get in trouble for watching MTV, I had to make sure when I turned the television off it was on a different channel, as to not alert them to my watching MTV. Sorry mom and dad -- what can I say, I want(ed) my MTV!
Real quick side track here: I saw this video having kids listen to Led Zeppelin and reacting to it. As a child I remember hearing songs that immediately struck me and had some kind of magic to them. Free Falling off of Full Moon Fever was one of them. Baba O'reilly by the Who is another.
This video was in heavy rotation in 1989. I was 10 years old and just getting to the point where skateboarding was becoming I was very fascinated with. The skateboarding in the above video is kind of a last hurrah for that classic 80's fashion, board shape and skateobarding sensibilities. Soon, neon and spandex would be replaced with ultra big pants and unimaginably tiny wheels. Vision Street Wear and Airwalk were out and World Industries, SMA and 101 were in.
Around this time I remember an afternoon where I was at my friend Adam's house and he had a neighborhood friend a few doors down from him, I believe his name was Billy. Weird and random memory but for some reason this has always stuck with me -- we were at Billy's house, playing, whatever, and he had a CD of Full Moon Fever in his room. I remember looking at it and was just transfixed with the cover.
This song was released as a new song on a Greatest Hits album. I listened the shit out of that album, or, is it, I listened to the shit out of that album? Either way, I also remember driving with my friend David and his older brother Josh as we left what was the called the "Youth Rally" and was held in the mountains of Idaho every year at the end of summer. We would start the 10 hour drive home on Labor Day morning and I remember settling into the drive with this album in the CD player -- it may have been a cassette player, I don't know.
This song was released in 1994, on the Wildflowers Album, which, like Full Moon Fever, was a Tom Petty solo album.
And while I probably appreciated this song when it came out, as I definitely had this album on CD (I miss those rainy afternoons dedicated to perusing the local music shops -- Music Millennium, Everyday Music and 2nd Avenue Records -- I mean I still could go to music stores, but I haven't used a CD in over 10 years!) but it was in my early 20's when I found it and felt the sappiness and melodramatic nature appropriate to help me move on from a certain woman. This song, along with Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, and any post-breakup sentimental fool can really start to feel sorry for themselves with earnest.
I have my favorites for long drives, when I feel like I could fall asleep and I need some "sing-along" music and Tom Petty is always a favorite. I also think that some of his videos are truly works of art -- and reviewing some of them while writing this further reinforces that. Some of my favorites are below.
"Runn'n Down a Dream" has an animated Tom Petty in another weird but impressive video.
"Learning To Fly" is still an interesting video, and one that I don't really remember from my clandestine MTV watching days. The song, however, is one of my favorites -- simple, and cautiously optimistic -- kind of like me, I guess.
"Learning To Fly"
Well I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, and the world got still
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing
Well the good ol' days may not return
And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn
Well some say life will beat your down
Break your heart, and steal your crown
So I've started out for God knows where
I guess I'll know when I get there
RIP in Tom Petty -- you're death actually touched me and this time around, it is an appropriate emotional response, in that your music played a such a longstanding role in my life. Earlier this week I pronounced a patient dead and within that hour was pulling a baby into the world, screaming and squirming, as if it knew what life was about and wanted to go back to the safety of the womb. The cycle of life continues and getting old is not for the young, but once in awhile we have to pause and recognize the innate frailty of being human and that none of us get out of this life alive.
Comments