Hey, kids! It's been ages since I've been around, I know, but when a semester ends with a conference and a week outta town hot on its heels, these things happen.
But I have an ethical generic dilemma to posit to my wise readers.
Is Tom Petty power pop?
I got in a discussion the other night with a new friend who objected strongly to this classification. I would argue, I think, that historically that's the wave in which he came to prominence, but that he transcended that category, or at least outlived it.
Exhibit A.
Exhibit B. (Embedding disabled by request. Feh.)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b5H0wUo37RY
I admit, I'm puzzled. Discuss.
An emphatic yes.
ReplyDeleteHow anybody can hear the opening twelve-string riff on "The Waiting" and think anything else is beyond me.
Obviously, not every thing the guy ever did qualifies, but the vast majority for sure...
What the Simels guy said!
ReplyDeleteaangus
Welcome Back, NYMary! We missed you.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'd say that Petty is Power Pop. I was gonna comment on the guitar riffs, but I see someone beat me to it.
Absolutely. What's the reasoning? His voice doesn't sound like Dave Edmunds' voice?
ReplyDelete100% pop, imo.
So say we all.
ReplyDeleteNot everything he did was power pop, but he does it when he chooses to, thankfully that is quite often, and he does it well!
OK, he has a bluesy delivery, but the music is guitar driven pop more often than not, and that is good for us.
Trey
That was me at 1:20 Mary.
ReplyDeleteVicki, Who ♥ Al Gore.
Blogger isn't accepting my name, I guess.
Trey,
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a Southern influence (he's a Gainesville, Florida boy, IIRC), but the line comes straight down from The Beatles, which is pretty much the definition of power pop for me.
Without a doubt. If Listen To Her Heart isn't PP, then I'll eat my hat. (I don't wear a hat, btw.)
ReplyDeleteWhat's the deal with the Mudcrutch disc I saw at the store the other day?
ReplyDeleteAlso, TP was billed as "new wave" when he first appeared (because music was so shitty at the time, that anything that was stripped-down R&R was lumped into that category).
There was an interesting bit in the Gene Clark bio about McGuinn resisting covering his songs as he saw him as just a mimic. Apparently, "American Girl" was written with Roger in mind.
TP was actually billed as punk, solely because he was wearing a leather jacket on the cover of the first album. I'm not kidding....
ReplyDeleteAlso, the Mudcrutch album is fricking great. Go to you tube and check out the band documentary or the video of "Lover of the Bayou."
tom petty and the heartbreakers are actually in the trouser press guide to new wave records (at least the early editions). as i guess steve was well aware.
ReplyDeletenow that was a silly classification. (maybe someone got them confused with johnny thunders and the heartbreakers?) but petty is a power popper's power popper. proof positive (let's keep this alliteration alive!):
a few years back i saw john wicks of the records play a small club, and his band did 'starry eyes.'
q.e.d.
oops- meant to say 'american girl,' not 'starry eyes.'
ReplyDelete(tho of course they did that one, too!)
Steve,
ReplyDeleteHere's the first place I'd ever heard of TP.
One of my buddies had this disc.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy skinny tie band did killer versions of "Listen to Heart", "I Need to Know" and "American Girl."
ReplyDeleteGod, I love that song. Especially right before the solo/fadeout, when he goes "whoa-oh-oh-oh" or however you write that.
:-)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am old enough to remember when TP was considered vaguely "punkish." (As were Cheap Trick, for that matter..)
ReplyDeleteAnd I second Simels on Mudcrutch - best goddamned rock record I've heard all year.
- bill buckner
Another ditto on the TP="punk/new wave".
ReplyDeleteAnd, yeah, the first couple of records have several examples of pure power pop, but on the whole, I'd say that's not his real pigeonhole. Most of the Petty oeuvre isn't - it's more like Springsteen+South-Dylan.
It also pains me to admit it, being the TP fan that I was back in the day, but it turns out that the guy just isn't that interesting; it would be hard to name someone else who's had such a long career with so little to say.
Yes TP&TH's are powerpop but they transend powerpop by exploring roots music way beyond any roots exploration required for powerpop.
ReplyDeleteROTP(lumber)
If this doesn't settle the discussion nothing will.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtube.com/watch?v=yHJMp5bz9u8
Decent band too.
:)
Oooopppssss! 9:24 was me.
ReplyDeleteaangus
;)
If I remember correctly, things are a little blurry from this period to be honest, any music that did not suck in the late 70s was called punk or new wave. Well, except for the Boss.
ReplyDeleteTrey
any music that did not suck in the late 70s was called punk or new wave
ReplyDeleteHa! That's probably true.
Though my interlocutor would probably argue for classifying Petty with Springsteen. IIRC, the conversation went something like, "He's not power pop! He's rock and roll."
Of course, there was Jameson's involved, so I could be misremembering.