Final Petty

LISTEN TO HER HEART

"You think you're gonna take her away
With your money and your cocaine"

Tom Petty not only fought to keep his records cheap, refusing to be the first act to charge a dollar more, he also told his label he wouldn't change the above lyric for radio. Yup, they wanted "cocaine" to be CHAMPAGNE!

But then it's totally different.

But it gets worse... The album, Petty's second, underperformed, without the giant hit single it didn't sell as well as the first. But Tom soldiered on. Because that's what you do when the music is more important to you than the fame, when being true to yourself is all you've got.

AND THE FANS NOTICE! Hell, I'm telling this story thirty five years later!

All this hogwash about the younger generation not caring if you do endorsements, if you sell out... People know whose payroll you're on, they know if they're number one. Life is lonely, you look to artists for solace, you need to know they're pure, that they're thinking of you. But if they're thinking of money, bitching about it ad infinitum, which is all today's musicians seem capable of doing, the public is turned off.

Speaking of which...despite Saturday's show being three quarters through before the fire marshal closed it down, Petty is giving full refunds:

http://www.tompetty.com/blog/ticket-and-premium-package-refund-june-8-fonda-theatre-show-137261

Huh?

Because, you see...love is a long road.

LOVE IS A LONG ROAD

You pace yourself. If you've got to do six nights...first and foremost you've got to make it through. But when you do, when the end is in sight, YOU CUT LOOSE!

Yup, last night, the final show, they started off louder, more energized, they hit the stage running. Instead of stopping the train at the station, we had to run alongside and jump on.

Are you ready to jump on?

Back then, music was the alternative. It wasn't made for commercials, it was purely youth culture. And in the thirties hobos might have hopped rail cars, but every baby boomer will tell you about hitchhiking, it was a communal thing...you stuck out your thumb and it could take you all the way across the country. We were looking out for each other, we were helping each other. Until those at the bleeding edge of financial success pulled far ahead as taxes took a dive and suddenly it became about me and not you.

FOOLED AGAIN

AND I DON'T LIKE IT!

This was the highlight of last night's show...

It's the organ, the lead guitar, the frustration...

Tom said they rarely do it, he couldn't remember where it was on the album, the first side or the second...but it was that kind of night, that kind of run, where the songs you know by heart COME ALIVE!

Sure, it's a good song, but it's an even better PERFORMANCE! The kind the Grammys say they recognize, but not until you've had massive success and have been anointed by the cognoscenti.

Awards are meaningless. If you need a Grammy to sell your tour, it's not worth going to. What brings people into the building is the belief that you're putting yourself on the line, that you're expressing what everybody feels but cannot articulate.

If you haven't been frustrated in love...you married your grade school sweetheart or you're lost and lonely and have never played. It's the essence of the game. What do they think? What do they feel? What are they gonna do? And once upon a time, unlike the rappers, unlike today's "winners," it was o.k. to say you were on the losing end...

MELINDA

Play it: http://spoti.fi/19r9KJZ

And don't tell me you don't have a Spotify account... That's like saying you still use a BlackBerry... It's all about the apps, it's all about the modern age. If you don't think it's better today than yesterday you weren't alive back then. Sure, there's so much of everything, life is overwhelming, oftentimes incomprehensible, but before the Internet, before Spotify, we had to own it to hear it, and that's no longer true, the history of recorded music is at your fingertips...PARTAKE!

And the reason you want to listen to "Melinda" is...Benmont Tench's solo. It starts about 2:40, it goes on, it's a journey equivalent to the Dead, but without any superfluous noodling. Check it out.

BABY, PLEASE DON'T GO

It's all about roots. If you've got none, we're not interested. The young may be pretty, but the lines on the faces of the old are all about experience... Experience molds your personality, it influences you...this is one of Tom's influences, every baby boomer has heard it, whether it be on the radio or in a bar or...

THE UNEXPECTED

"Best Of Everything," from "Southern Accents." Even better than the recorded version.

"Kings Highway," from "Into The Great Wide Open," when we still listened all the way through and knew the album cuts.

"Two Gunslingers," also from "Into The Great Wide Open," played acoustically. Adding new meaning. Sometimes the best version comes long after the recording is made.

"Time To Move On," from "Wildflowers." A gem. In all iterations. It was a raucous evening, but this added a moment of touching introspection.

THE COVERS

"I'd Like To Love You Baby." Eric Clapton is not the only person who listened to J.J. Cale. We all have influences. The greats can respect someone else's work...and make it their own. Fantastic Mike Campbell guitar work here, listen to the version from the "Live Anthology": http://bit.ly/12GxiJo

"The Image Of Me," originally done by Conway Twitty...

Tom told a great story about coming up, traveling around Florida and listening to country music on the jukeboxes at the truck stops. He said we pooh-poohed that music, but it was really good. Yup, the closest boomers came to country was covers on Grateful Dead albums.

Then Tom went on to say yesterday's country was not like today's, which is "rock light with a fiddle." Ha! Funny how the truth rings true.

But the absolute best part of the intro was when Petty dealt with a heckler. Someone yelled out I LOVE YOU! and Tom stopped in his tracks, looked over and said...he liked the positive feedback, it's interesting to hear that from a guy, but HE WAS TELLING A STORY!

Whew! The pros, with all those years on the road, know how to silence the interrupters and endear themselves to the audience, without even pissing off the hecklers!

RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM

On "Full Moon Fever," this is intimate. It's more Traveling Wilburys than Heartbreakers. But last night, this was a freight train with its headlight shining right in your eyes, mesmerizing you, making you unable to jump off the track. POWERFUL!

YOU WRECK ME

This too was more intense than the original, even though the take on "Wildflowers" rocks. Ferrone drove everybody forward, everybody was locked on, you could only nod your head in time...and agreement.

REBELS

"I was born a rebel
Down in Dixie
On a Sunday mornin'
Yeah, with one foot in the grave
One foot on the pedal
I was born a rebel"

That's what we were, whether we lived north or south of the Mason-Dixon line. Everything our parents told us to do, everything the government told us to believe in...WE QUESTIONED! And who were the leaders? MUSICIANS!

Yes, John Lennon was bigger than God.

Because those Bible-thumpers think everything's written in stone. When nothing could be further from the truth. If you're not questioning authority, if you're playing the game, I feel sorry for you, you're dead inside.

But Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are not. Rather than bitching about the death of the old days, they're keepin' on, giving back as opposed to taking. Sure, they're doing festivals, but those big paydays allow intimate shows like this, which not only keeps their image alive, but the band itself.

You know the feeling... Driving down the highway with the window down, your arm on the sill, with the radio cranked, truly the king of the world, that's the essence of rock and roll, that's what happened at the Fonda this week.

I just wish you could have been there, seen it, experienced it.

I wish everybody could have. Then we'd get a reset, and realize...

1. You've got to know how to play.

2. You've got to love to play.

3. Music is an end unto itself. It needs no videos, no backdrops, no dancing...when done right, the sound and the feel is enough.

P.S. It was a rogue fire marshal who shut down Saturday night's gig, there were no more people inside than on any other night. It was not his beat, he refused to count the people on the floor, he insisted on eyeballing it... Then again, the man has been shutting down our music since its inception. The question is, which side are you on? Are you for the man or against him? Do you only listen or do you talk too? Do you take risks, worry about money last and realize life is about exuberance, the moment, the high? If so, welcome to the club!


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