Tuesday 3 October 2017

Tom

I wasn't planning on posting anything so soon, but I'm pretty crushed after hearing Tom Petty died. The first time I came across him was when this video was shown on a Saturday morning TV show when I was 13-14 years old.



It freaked me out a little at the time. He made a marvellously creepy Mad Hatter. I suppose my favourite Petty album has to be 'Full Moon Fever' because of those songs, but 'Into The Great Wide Open' was a huge store favourite when I worked at Our Price. It was hardly off the deck for the best part of a year.

Then there was his work with the Travelling Wilburys. Handle With Care is still a wonderful, wonderful tune, and reminds us, sadly, that three fifths of them are no longer with us.



Sensational.

Tom Petty was 66. Far, far, far too fucking young. A couple months ago he played Hyde Park looking fit as a fiddle. There are so many songs of his I could post, I love loads of them. But I'm going to finish off with this live version of Learning To Fly which has the added bonus of having Stevie Nicks on backing vocals. Let's face it, very few people could ever boast that!




2 comments:

  1. Truly gutted. I tried to put some words together myself, but just couldn't do it. Sweet tribute Robster.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Don't Come Around Here No More was the song that really got me into Tom Petty. I was aware of him before, but this is the one that made me go and listen to the earlier albums. Luckily I was with a student radio station at the time, so they were easy enough to access. Loved the Wilburys, too and likewise Into The Great Wide Open saw some serious action when I bought it. A sad loss.

    ReplyDelete