The best Rock'n Roll is just 3 chords, always has been, always will be <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ToRoOlrn-XY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
i dont think he gets enough accolades for his place in popular american music. anyone else seen the tom petty documentary? i think it was close to 4 hours, but it was really good. there is a big difference b/t the stuff he was doing pre and post traveling wilburys/jeff lynne. when people say his stuff all sounds the same i think it is the post-wilburys stuff and his work with lynne they are referencing. the early stuff had alot of different things going on.
Tom Petty is one of my favorites but I don't think he is underrated. He has great music but I'm not sure he would be considered a very influential musician. I tend to think guys like him, John Mellencamp, and Bob Seger were a wave of a very particular American Rock sound that developed from Bob Dylan, The Byrds, Lynryd Skinner, and Neil Young. They produced great music but didn't have the influence of the latter bands. On the Sam Smith thing while I really like I Won't Back Down, and think Stay With Me is melodramatic tripe I don't agree with the lawsuit or settlement. Yes both songs are very similar but the overall feel and mood is very different. A lot of popular music is similar just given that it goes back to a very limited set of chord structures. This is one where I would give Sam Smith, even if he had been listening to Petty, enough due that this is a unique work of art and not derivative of I Won't Back Down. This is very different from the Blurred Lines vs. Got to Give it Up where both were very similar in terms of structure and overall feel. On I Won't Back Down just have to include this. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N8i5NLyXZdc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Agreed with this. Very well thought of by musicians. Has anyone here seen the Sound City documentary by Dave Grohl? They pay tribute to the best recording studio where hundreds of great albums were done from Fleetwood Mac in the 70's to Nirvana Nevermind and slightly beyond. Up until Pro Tools sadly took over the world. Great movie especially for classic rock, hard rock, alternative/grunge music buffs.
Aside from his blatant racism, yes. The Tom Petty Super Bowl performance is very underrated. The bar we were watching at in New Orleans turned into a group karaoke bar that night.
One of my persistent regrets is going to see NWA instead of Tom Petty when I was living in Austin in the 90's. I love Tom Petty and that NWA show was just awful.
Saw him with some guy named Bob Dylan in '86 on the Southern Accents Tour at the Summit. Loved him with Stan Lynch in the band. Not so much afterwards..
Very underrated in my opinion. My favorite is: <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aowSGxim_O8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Damn The Torpedos is one of the most horribly mixed albums ever. All of the bass has been sucked out of it. If anything I normally cut the bass a bit on my car stereo, but for Damn The Torpedos I have to jack it way up to even hear the bass guitar at all. Just horribly mixed. Takes some of the shine off an otherwise excellent album. Early on, every song was straight forward and full speed ahead. He's learned to slow it down a bunch over the years. His radio show on Sirius is awesome, as mentioned before. I love the first lyrics of "Running down a dream", where he mentions Del Shannon and "Runaway".
I would say he's been pretty overplayed and overrated. Not that it's bad... but it's not very interesting lyrically.
Considering how many of his songs have been copied by other performers, he must be. I'm not a Big Fan of his, but I do think Listen To her Heart and American Girl have the two best opening riffs that I've ever heard. On a side note, I'm pretty sure Damn The Torpedoes was the first cassette that I ever owned. Well, or Paranoid. It was one or the other.
