Thursday, February 12, 2009

If Tom Petty Had Married Helen Reddy...

...who then divorced him and married Johnny Cash, she'd be Helen Reddy Petty Cash.

Okay, lame joke, but it will have to do as a lead-in for this interesting clip of Petty and the Heartbreakers (in 2006) taking on one of the greatest but never-covered records of the 60s, to wit Them's astounding proto-psychedelic Mystic Eyes.



I'm not sure this really gets to the heart of the original in the way most of Petty's 60s covers do, but like I said, this is one of the greatest songs that nobody has ever (to my knowledge) remade, so I guess I appreciate the effort.
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5 comments:

  1. David2/12/2009 9:22 AM

    Great covers on that Petty retrospective DVD...I found the whole thing quite moving. "Mystic Eyes" was featured as the music for some heavy scenes in T.C. Boyle's Drop City, about a '60s commune that moves to Alaska with ugly results. A brilliant usage that made me go running to hear it.

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  2. Kid Charlemagne2/12/2009 10:53 AM

    Any number of obscure 60s R&B groups took a swing at "Mystic Eyes" such as the great New Zealand band Chants R&B.

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  3. steve simels2/12/2009 11:58 AM

    KC --

    I stand corrected. I'm guessing none of them were as good, though...

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  4. Kid Charlemagne2/12/2009 12:37 PM

    True, Steve. I wanna say the Shadows of Knight did it too, but I can't find evidence of that.

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  5. Anonymous2/12/2009 5:17 PM

    I heard Tim McCarver say this one on a Mets broadcast sometime in the Mookie Wilson years:

    If Tuesday Weld successively married and divorced Bobby Orr, Rick Monday, Ray Knight, and Frederick March III she'd be...

    Tuesday Orr Monday Knight March the Third.

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