Tuesday, February 02, 2021

If Helen Reddy Married Tom Petty, and Then Divorced Him for Johnny Cash...

...she'd be Helen Reddy Petty Cash now.

Thank you -- I'm here all week. Try the veal.

But seriously, I chanced across this on YouTube the other day, and it absolutely blows my mind.

A surprisingly old -- but still annoyingly handsome -- Jackson Browne covering Petty's most overly Byrds-ish song, "The Waiting." And quite gorgeously.

I've probably told this story before, but it behooves repeating.

Obviously, there have been a lot of rock star deaths that have saddened me over the years, but I remain surprised by my reaction to this one.

Short version: I was home in Hackensack (taking care of my late mother) in the end of October 2017 when the word of Tom's passing suddenly showed up on my computer.

I was actually listening to his debut album at the time.

In any case,I wept out loud.

For ten minutes. Non-stop.

I mean, I didn't do that when John freaking Lennon was assassinated.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

JB's version is fine, but I prefer the original. I agree with Tonio K. in regard to JB's recordings.

While I enjoyed Petty in the past, I heard songs on the radio so often that I never bought any albums. Now that I don't listen to radio unless it's a show by my pals on KWMR (www.kwmr.org), I listen to his albums and really enjoy them. His passing was sad indeed.

- Paul in DK

Anonymous said...

John Lennon's death affected me the most, because I was a 15-year-old Beatles fan, and because it was just so completely pointless. But I would have to say that Tom Petty's death affected me more than any other recent rock star passing. He was still making great music (that second Mudcrutch album was better than it had any right to be), his satellite radio show was a lot of fun (and I still listen to the reruns), and he just seemed like an all-around good guy. I never met him or even saw him live (to my great regret), but I miss him.

Marc