RIP Tom Petty

Wow. RIP to a great musician and songwriter whose work goes way, way beyond the handful of his songs they play on the radio.

One of my favorites, from his best album, "Damn the Torpedoes":

"Well it was nearly summer as we sat on your roof,
Yeah we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon.
And I showed you stars you never could see,
Babe, it couldn't have been that easy to forget about me ..."

TP, you won't be forgotten anytime soon. The music will live for a long time.

 

Not sure why, but Tom Petty may be the only star rocker I can picture as a regular high school kid learning to rock.

Great writer and musician.

Thoughts and casseroles, Mr. Petty.

 

This one jolted me when I saw the thread title.

One of my all time favorite concerts was the Southern Accents tour. Just a great show, a great evening of music and visuals.

A couple of my favorite deep Petty tracks, both from Long After Dark: "Deliver Me" and "Change of Heart".

His XM channel is a frequent listen for me; the Buried Treasure show is really good stuff.

Way too young.

 

I knew nothing of Tom Petty until I saw the Last Dance with Mary Jane video on MTV when I was in high school. I had no idea what his sound was or how to describe it, but I knew I liked it. When I discovered he had a catalog decades old of songs even better, Petty became a staple of just about every playlist I ever made through college. There really was a song for every occasion, all classics.

RIP.

 

I had heard he had added this one to his sets on his last tour but we didn't get it in Toronto...it may be a cover, but it is a great one....

 

TMZ says he's not dead yet, but not expected to make it through the day. When we took my dad off, he died within a few minutes, but I remember them telling us it was unpredictable and could hours, so that makes some sense.

 

I was in Iowa City smoking pot and playing poker when this album came out. Great album start to finish. Love this song.

 

Yeah, my mother survived several hours after we took her off life support.

 

I've loved Tom Petty since I was 8 years old and was told I could buy any cassette I wanted one day. (My dad did this for me every once in a while.) My first was "Born in the USA." My second was probably "Long After Dark," even though it was a couple of years old.
The thing that stayed with me about Petty, though, was I remember being in college when his Greatest Hits came out, with "Mary Jane's Last Dance." We're playing basketball at home one day, and the little kid brother of a friend - kid's probably about 10 - comes out and asks if he could change the music. We said, "Sure, why not?" Kid puts in Tom Petty's Greatest Hits and it just hit me - a full span of 10 years between us, but the same Tom Petty songs had knocked that kid over, too.
I don't know that I've ever met anyone who didn't appreciate and like Tom Petty's work.

 

That's a great story.

 

Saw him in 1991 when I was a 16 year old. He played three hours. Outdoors. August. What a wonderful night.

There's a part of me kind of surprised he made it to 66. Not once over the past 20 years have I heard him in an interview and thought "that guy will make it to 85."

A pretty solid run there for 15 years of making music.

 

I'm stunned. Travelled to Vancouver to see him on August 17. Last night I spent 3 hours playing TP songs on my acoustic guitar....a great way of really appreciating any artists' songs.
Words can't describe my sadness.