Tom Petty, Rock Iconoclast Who Led the Heartbreakers, Dead at 66

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^ best use of "shit down your throat" @ Rolling Stone -once a fine music mag, but now just scurrilous trash
 
Bummer.

I was first aware of Tom Petty in 1979, when the tune "Refugee" came out. In my opinion, I think that was a truly watershed moment. The late 70s were largely a wasteland for rock music. I mean, Cheap Trick and the waning days of Bad Company were sadly amongst the best that could be ginned up.

When I heard "Refugee" it was like everybody knew his song was instantly iconic, timeless, haunting, soulful, real - dripping with musical integrity. Everything that had heretofore been missing in the mid to late 70s. Petty hit realms in the stratosphere that few have ever reached.

Petty - Not a great singer, but man what a voice. Instantly unforgettable.
Petty: hella cool, without even trying. Whatever it was, he had it.
Petty: Backed by one of the most under-rated bands ever, the Heartbreakers.

Well Tom, thanks for the memories .....
....and in the immortal words of Angus Young - For those about to rock, we salute you!

 
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Text Drivers are Killers said:
Another silly useless entertainer. Who cares when someone like this dies.?
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It must be miserable to be you.

All that useless pent-up hate that a useless motherfucker like you can't do shit about.

Obviously lots of people care about Petty .. but nobody cares about you.

You could drop dead right now and nobody would notice.

Sad .. but fitting. No one should care about you.
 
Music and awesomeness have taken a heavy hit with the passing Tom Petty. As with Bowie, this is like losing a family member.

 
blackascoal said:
It must be miserable to be you.

All that useless pent-up hate that a useless motherfucker like you can't do shit about.

Obviously lots of people care about Petty .. but nobody cares about you.

You could drop dead right now and nobody would notice.

Sad .. but fitting. No one should care about you.
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Well, Text Driver and people like him hate the liberal arts. It must suck having only Meatloaf and Ted Nugent as your only sources of music talent.
 
Petty's uncle, Earl Jernigan, owned a local film-developing business and worked on location shoots whenever filmmakers came to the area (Uncle Earl's proof included one item that had already gained young Tom's fascination: the rubber suit worn by the creature in "Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon," which had been shot in Silver Springs).

So when Jernigan's wife, Tom's Aunt Evelyn, rolled into the driveway and asked her nephew if he'd like to "go and see Elvis Presley," he was licking his chops at what would in a few hours become the adventure of his young life.

After driving 30 miles, Aunt Evelyn and Tommy, along with his brother Bruce and cousins Sadie and Norma Darnell, pulled up near the film set in downtown Ocala - where Elvis was to shoot a scene of him driving up in a car and entering a bank. "There was a huge crowd; the biggest crowd I've ever seen in the streets of Ocala," Tom said in "Conversations."

"And then I swear to God, a line of white Cadillacs pulled in. All white. I'd never seen anything like that. And I was standing up on a box to see over everyone's head, because a big roar started up when the cars pulled in."

Guys in mohair suits and pompadours began bounding out of each car - to Tom's startled cry of "Is that ELVIS?" every time.

While Presley's impact would later be carved into two halves, often referred to affectionately as "Young Elvis" or "Skinny Elvis" for his '50s persona, and "Fat Elvis" for his later days in the '70s, the character who appeared before Tom Petty in 1961 was firmly entrenched in an "Elvis No Man's Land" between the two.

Presley had long ago stormed the charts with "Hound Dog" and "Love Me Tender." But this was the era that saw the rise of "Elvis movies," celluloid affairs that ranged from the critically acclaimed ("Jailhouse Rock") to pure star vehicles ("Clambake," "Spin Out" and others) in which the Pelvis usually saved the day and got the girl (played variously by everyone from Ann-Margret and Nancy Sinatra to Mary Tyler Moore).

So when the real Elvis finally appeared, Tom knew. Immediately.

"He stepped out radiant as an angel," Tom said. "He seemed to glow and walk above the ground. It was like nothing I'd ever seen in my life. At 50 yards, we were stunned by what this guy looked like. And he came walking right towards us."

Elvis' hair was so impossibly black that it glistened a deep blue when the sunlight hit it. And that's when Elvis walked directly over to Uncle Earl, Aunt Evelyn and little Tom Petty.

"We were speechless," Tom said. As Uncle Earl introduced Elvis to his nieces and nephews, The King of Rock 'n' Roll smiled and nodded to each open-mouthed youngster.

"I don't know what he said, because I was just too dumbfounded," Tom said. "And he went into his trailer."

Then, young Tom got "really excited" as hundreds of girls pressed against the chain-link fence. Many brandished album covers and photos, which one of Elvis' "Memphis mafia guys," as Tom described it, dutifully took into the trailer and returned, bearing authentic Elvis autographs.

Seeing the girls go wild over Elvis only added to the lasting impression on Tommy, his cousin Sadie said. "My sister and I were excited to watch them film a movie. But Tommy got caught up in the moment. It was like he was mesmerized with an imprint on his brain."

Tom and his cousins hung out the rest of the day and watched as the crew spent hours filming that one scene of Elvis getting out of the car and entering the bank. And every time Elvis' car rolled up, the crowd went "insane," breaking through the barricades and charging toward the star.

"And I thought at the time, 'That is one hell of a job to have. That's a great gig - being Elvis Presley,'" Tom said.

Young Tom began collecting anything he could find on Elvis. He ordered "The Elvis Presley Handbook" - which he had to send $1 for, all the way to England. And he stayed inside the house - constantly - and did nothing but listen to Elvis music. "My dad was concerned that I didn't go outside, that I just played these records all day."

Tom Petty's fascination with music began with Elvis Presley in Ocala. And though he never saw Elvis again, the flames from that fire have never waned.

"I learned all of those early Elvis songs," Tom said. "And having that kind of background in rock 'n' roll, of where it had come from, has served me to this day."
"It became an invaluable thing to have. So for that, I thank him."
 
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