There will always be one song: 'American Girl.' And not only that, there will always be one line in that one song: 'Raised on promises' ... In that line resides the promise of America, and rock and roll, and the intercontinental railway, the interstate highway system, and Microsoft and Apple and Google and even Facebook. | | | | Tom Petty at the Palladium, New York, Nov. 11, 1979.
(Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “There will always be one song: 'American Girl.' And not only that, there will always be one line in that one song: 'Raised on promises' ... In that line resides the promise of America, and rock and roll, and the intercontinental railway, the interstate highway system, and Microsoft and Apple and Google and even Facebook.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// New waver, Heartbreaker, Wilbury, free fallin' solo star, classic-rock elder statesman. So much more. He transcended genre and generation to become one of the great American rock and rollers. He was 66. He had time left. Was it the good Lord's attempt to give him back some of that time or some cosmic joke on all of us that the man who once sang "You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't back down" essentially had to die twice Monday? The LAPD mistakenly announced his death in the afternoon, shortly after news of his sudden hospitalization broke, causing round one of worldwide mourning. Then the police admitted the error, obituaries were unpublished and confusion reigned until long after dark, when Petty's death was announced by his family, this time for real. In between, a lot of people, old, young, rock, pop, white, black, English, Japanese, Swedish, listened to a lot of ringing open chords and stories of men and women in love, out of love, always searching for something more, something indefinably, indescribably American. A little Southern, a little Western, a little Great Wide Open. "AMERICAN GIRL." "LISTEN TO HER HEART." "REFUGEE." "DON'T COME AROUND HERE NO MORE." "RUNNIN' DOWN A DREAM." "WILDFLOWERS." Your 10 favorite songs that I'm leaving out. How many classic rockers crossed as many borders of fandom as he did? How many are as universal? I love this, from VULTURE's JEN CHANEY: "[B]ecause his career was so long, it felt like the sound of him was always around, and because his songs were written with such specificity, they felt extraordinarily personal. Those two things make going through his discography... like flipping through an old photo album." There were letdowns and difficulties along the way. But he never stopped swingin'. Below are interviews and essays covering Petty and the HEARTBREAKERS, from 1976, when he was a local GAINESVILLE, FLA., rock and roll throwback calling himself Tommy Petty, through September 2017, when the Heartbreakers were still runnin' down that dream at the HOLLYWOOD BOWL. That was last week, by the way. RIP to a life cut way too short. (We'll continue collecting stories and remembrances over the coming days in our MusicSET "Remembering Tom Petty: He Was an American Boy.") | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
|
|
 | The New York Times |
| A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Mr. Petty melded California rock with a deep Southern heritage in hits like “American Girl” and “Free Fallin’.” | | |
|
 | The New Yorker |
| His songs, which have brought so much pleasure to so many people for so long, now resonate with a darker mood. | | |
|
 | Vulture |
| Because his career was so long, it felt like the sound of him was always around, and because his songs were written with such specificity, they felt extraordinarily personal. | | |
|
 | The Gainesville Sun |
| There’s at least one guy around who is carrying the rocker’s cross, crusading for the music of a decade past, straining against the winds of change. His name is Tommy Petty. (Originally published Dec. 10 1976.) | | |
|
 | Rolling Stone |
| Tom Petty talks about the lawsuits and band troubles that preceded the release of "Damn the Torpedoes." | | |
|
 | Trouser Press |
| Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fight the good fight — for decent rock on AM radio, $8.98 albums and the American way of life. (Originally published August 1981.) | | |
|
 | The Petty Archives |
| Okay, lights, cameras. Take One. Winter in Hollywood, sun beaming like a Moonie, friendly guard at the Universal Studios gate points out the path to Soundstage Four. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are there rehearsing for a tour. (Originally published in Creem magazine, April 1983.) | | |
|
 | BillDeYoung.com |
| This freewheeling interview was conducted around midnight July 16, 1986 in Tom Petty’s suite at the Omni Berkshire Place in New York, after the first show in a three-night stand at Madison Square Garden. Bob Dylan with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were playing three-hour concerts that summer, with no intermission. This was the only interview he’d agreed to do on the entire tour. | | |
|
| Rolling Stone |
| The solo artist and Heartbreakers bandleader comes clean. (Originally published May 4, 1995.) | | |
|
 | The Washington Post |
| The idea for a new unauthorized Tom Petty biography came from a surprising source: Tom Petty. "He didn't want it to be authorized because he felt like authorized meant bull--," says Warren Zanes, whose "Petty: The Biography" arrives next month. "He said, 'I want it to be yours. | | |
|
 | Billboard |
| Excerpts from Warren Zanes' gripping Tom Petty biography reveals the rock icon's legendary highs and secret lows, including heroin abuse and heartbreak | | |
|
 | Los Angeles Times |
| With an iconic shades-and-long-hair look, a nasal voice gloriously unsuited to any other genre and a seemingly bottomless bag of tunes that felt as though he’d written them to soundtrack the specifics of your life, Tom Petty was the quintessential American rock star. | | |
|
| The Washington Post |
| Even his most straightforward rock songs had a special Petty twist. | | |
|
 | MassLive.com |
| Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne talk about the wild and wondrous history of the Traveling Wilburys. | | |
|
 | Men's Journal |
| At 65, with 40 years of classic songs, Petty could coast into a cushy malibu semiretirement. Instead, he's back with his best record since the '90s - and he's stll got something to prove. | | |
|
 | Poynter |
| There may be no more efficient form of short writing than the song lyric. | | |
|
| Rolling Stone |
| Behind the scenes as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers battle the elements, remember old times and celebrate a 40-year bond during their "last big one." | | |
|
 | Lefsetz Letter |
| He’s the last rock star. And he’s finally comfortable in his own skin. | | |
|
| Vulture |
| We forget it now, but when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers first started recording, it wasn’t clear exactly what genre they represented. (Such things mattered back then.) | | |
|
 | YouTube |
| | | | Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers |
| | | | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
|
|
