Tuesday 3 October 2017

End Of The Line For Tom Petty

For me Tom Petty's death rates up there with Michael Jackson, George Michael, David Bowie and Prince but apart from a mention way down the news items, i have found myself having to explain who he was to anyone born after 1990. 
Like the rest of the big names, he was a constant from my teenage years although obviously not as widely known, one of those musicians who everybody knows the name but they struggle to name more than a handful of his songs.
His back catalogue has some classics songs, 'American Girl', 'I Won't Back Down', 'Runnin' Down A Dream', 'Learning To Fly', 'Mary Jane's Last Dance' and my favourite Petty song, 'Into The Great Wide Open' but surprisingly he only had four songs in the UK Top 40 and the highest chart position was 'I Won't Back Down' at 28 in 1989 although he seemed much more appreciated in his American homeland.   
Even as a member of supergroup, The Travelling Wilbury's, commercial success eluded him in the UK with only one song, 'Handle With Care' breaking the top 40.
I'm not sure why his star failed to shine quite so bright this side of the Atlantic but he was certainly treasured in the Lucy household and in homage to a very much under appreciated guitarist and musician i badly sang along to 'End Of The Line' and 'Into The Great Wide Open' on the way home tonight.
I'm sure he would have appreciated it but of The Wilbury's, the ultimate Supergroup of the late 80s and early 90s featuring Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and George Harrison, only two remain and that's quite sad.

3 comments:

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Falling on a bruise said...

Reading about him now it seems he was a massive heroin and cocaine user back in the day so he had a bit of fortune getting to live to be 66.

Liber - Latin for "The Free One" said...
This comment has been removed by the author.