Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Might as Well Face It, It's Turned Into Tom Petty Week!

TP and company, 1977. Performing Bobby Troup's immortal ode to road trips...


..."Route 66." 'natch. Live in Germany, and I have no relevant joke about THAT.



I should add that I saw the Heartreakers -- opening, ironically enough, for Roger McGuinn -- perform this song at the Bottom Line that same year and it was devastatingly great, by which I mean really loud.

4 comments:

FD13NYC said...

Wow, I saw the same show, they were terrific. Then a little later on I caught them at The Academy Of Music. They were growing.

Anonymous said...

Sweet!! Great mood-enhancing tune to wake up to and rattle the bones. Makes me wanna have a liquid brunch and catch some waves. Thanks, Steve.

Not a bad version. Matching Flying V's too! I think they're Ibanez guitars. Thank God for Rockpalast and Beat Club. Those Krauts had some pretty cool music shows. The wealth of stuff there.

Is the Bottom Line show you're referring to the one that also had the Dingoes on the bill?

When they got a little bigger in 1977 they started opening for acts at the Santa Monica Civic. Being a big fan and at the time living in West L.A., I went to pretty much every local show they did. Weirdest bill was when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers opened for Nektar. They also did a Santa Monica Civic show with Be Bop Deluxe. A more suitable billing was when David Johansen opened for them near the end of 1977.

I was still going to UCLA at the time - and dancing my way through school. They did a lot of gigs here in the beginning since this was their adopted home base.

I was in a couple of party bands that covered this one and we changed the names of the cities to a bunch of California ones along that route. For instance, "Don't forget Winona" became "Don't forget Pomona." The towns fluctuated and were kinda sour of the moment ad lib. Claremont, Glendora and Cucamonga all got their due as well. Why people cheer when they here the name of a town they lived in is beyond me, but it never fails.

Vickie Rock - Would you get hip to this kindly tip? And go take that California trip. Get your kickssss on Route sssss66.




Anonymous said...

Really good but the definite version for me is still The Stones on the "Got Live" EP.

Capt. Al

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that "Got Live" version is amped and raw. They were downright vicious then. 1965 was a great live year for them in spite of the short sets of the era.

Me and Sandy went to three shows on the 1965 spring swing through California. Route 66 was still in the set. The Byrds were one of the opening acts at a couple of those. They weren't that happening live. Kinda timid. My beloved uncle, a major Stones fan, took us. I had such a major unrequited crush on him that it was fuckin' sinful.

The Fresno afternoon show was memorable in that we met my equally precocious cousin who had driven down from Modesto with her mom. This was the first in a long series of hook-ups with her at Fresno shows that ran well into the Seventies. Hadn't seen her in a while and discovered that she had developed early just like us. The three of us were delighted with the revelation that we were all thoroughly corrupted far beyond our years. We proudly sported our recently sprouted and substantial boobage. Older guys were checking us out. It was thrilling and empowering. And sometimes kinda creepy. Didn't stop us from flaunting our majesty though.

The Stones were badass even though the crowd was kinda small. It was the second time we got autographs from them. But not the whole band.

That said, I'd still give the live "Route 66" nod to Petty due to the better sound quality. The attitude is perfecto too.

Liked the Stones version of said tune at the Nicaragua benefit at the Forum in 1973 too. It was nice to hear it again in a new arrangement. It would take too long if I told you about the week of that Nicaraguan Earthquake show and the circumstances surrounding it. So...I'll just say it was one exciting wink in eternity's eye!! Made ditching school and home for long periods of time monumentally educational. And Captain Beefheart's in the story too. But not now. Only when the gods will it.

Here's the Stones' Route 66 at 2:45 with some nice Italian sauce for your stimulation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNO-Ep1ZO94

Vickie Rock - Still Majestic After All These Years:-)

P.S. and OT: Bummer about Percy Sledge