Saturday night and instead of out playing a gig or watching some band I'm at home watching this four hour documentary on Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and it's just brilliant. Someone told me it was good but at 4 hours.. I mean is there that much to say about this American rock and roll band? well I'm engrossed at it's almost 2 hours in and they've just released The Waiting which apart from American Girl is my favourite song from a whole bunch of excellent tunes.
They were always the business. When I started getting into punk in 1976 and buying UK music papers to keep up with the news from the epicentre of music in the world (in my mind) I remember the week they had this long haired guy on the front cover of Melody maker and a whole bunch of superlative prose inside. I was just about to get my hair cut too. Then I heard American Girl on the radio. A knockout. I bought the album.. and the next album. Tried to get The Fiction to cover I Need to Know. Every few months Tom Petty would release a single that cut across my idea of what was cool. Whether I was a punk or into two tone or a Mod I kept buying his records. At the time it felt like a guilty pleasure. Until a time when we started playing a lot more with a lot of different bands and when you talked about bands you talked about The Heartbreakers. Looking back they were just a perfect group.
And then they released The Waiting in 1981. When Mick Barclay joined Little Murders this was the first song we bonded over. Singing it at the top of our lungs. A power pop classic with it's Byrdsian jangle and that great opening line. Just joyful.
No comments:
Post a Comment