The first "real" concert I ever saw was Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. It was June 1980; I was 16, finally able to drive, and picked up Audrey Harwith in the 1971 lime green Pontiac LeMans to go to Pine Knob and see TPATH with opening guests Tommy Tutone. It was their Damn the Torpedoes tour, and they opened with "Here Comes My Girl," the second track on the album.
It was the beginning of a beautiful musical relationship.
At the time, I'd be hard-pressed to say TPATH was my favorite band. That honor had once belonged to Electric Light Orchestra (around 1976), and had shifted to The Beatles by the time I reached high school. It took a few more years, and albums, for Petty & Company to replace the Fab Four at the top of my musical list, but by the mid-1980s, that status had been achieved.
Number 1 on Gaba's list ... for more than 30 years.
I was blessed with the opportunity to attend 14 TPATH concerts over the years. The best of the shows - and the best concert I ever attended - was when TPATH toured with Bob Dylan. My cousin Larry Stern attended the show with me (we had damn good seats), and the show itself was amazing, even before Bob Seger joined them on stage to croon "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" for the first encore.
I've been asked often why Tom Petty is my favorite, and I don't have a definitive answer. In part it's the powerful lyrics and stories he put together. In part it's the seamless meshing of melodies and rhythms. In part it's because, let's be honest, his voice made horrible singers like me believe we could become big-time rock stars, too!
In large part, though, it's that he could relate to the "everyman" (much like Bruce Springsteen) - like the time he fought his label MCA's attempt to release his Hard Promises album at a $9.98 list price instead of the standard $8.98. (He threatened MCA he would withhold the album, and urged fans to write letters. The album was released at the lower price. Its cover shows Petty in a record store, standing in front of a crate of albums selling for ... $8.98.)
When I was growing up, I used to analyze lyrics, searching for hidden, deeper meaning in life. Songs I could relate to. Songs that were about me. In Tom Petty, I found a treasure trove of such lyrics, all depending on the mood in which I was at the time. "Learning to Fly" ... "A Face in the Crowd" ... "Even the Losers" ... "You Got Lucky" ... "Dogs on the Run" ... "I Won't Back Down" ... just a few of the songs I related to in my darkest, highest, or most defiant moods.
Tom Petty is a friend I never met, but who got me through numerous times of turmoil. And for that, I thank him.
My favorite TPATH song is "The Waiting," which is pretty amazing since my Top 10 list probably has 40+ songs. And I'll probably post the video a bit lower on this thread. But I'll go with that first song from that first concert as a starting point.
RIP, Thomas Earl Petty. You were one of a kind.
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