It’s a riskier, perhaps more foolhardy performance than any of us could have expected.ĭimitriades and Petty pick me up in front of my hotel at noon the next day, en route to the Philadelphia airport. Although he skips “Refugee” because it requires him to yell like a banshee, Petty makes it through the rest of the set with an all-or-bust determination. They ease into their springy, R&B-inflected hit, “Don’t Do Me like That.” Petty still bays hard, but the strain chokes his high notes and warps his face into a flushed pang. Now, about 10 minutes after Petty and the Heartbreakers had to leave the Tower stage, they’re back.
Then today, as soon as his tour bus hit Philadelphia, it all began again with three more radio interviews.
Last night, after a day of interviews, he sat alone in his hotel room, pensive and moody, until sunrise. Still, reopening all those wounds has a way of peeving him. In the end, though, Petty emerged boasting a profitable reconciliation with MCA Records and, more important, a triumphant Top 10 album. By last summer, it seemed that the group, which in 1978 had stood on the edge of a radiant future, was tottering on the verge of dissolution, and Petty on the brink of bankruptcy. Time after time, he is asked to recount the events of his conflict-ridden year, including a bitter contract dispute with his record companies and some near-stifling wrangles within the Heartbreakers. Since then, he’s played a tour-opening date at New York’s 3000-seat Palladium, filmed and refilmed a pesky spot for British television, posed for photo sessions and given a half-dozen interviews.įor Petty, the interviews demand the most. By his own account, Petty hasn’t slept since his Saturday Night Live appearance three nights earlier. I was afraid something like this could happen.” His habitually unruffled face turns nettled, and he gets up to go backstage. Petty’s comanager, Tony Dimitriades, has been sitting next to me back by the light board. “Stay right where you are,” Petty tells the audience at the song’s end, a confounded expression crossing his face. Campbell and Tench exchange startled looks, but the group keeps pushing, with Petty’s voice chafing and yanking all the way. Then, with barely a breath, Petty’s skilled cohorts, the Heartbreakers - guitarist Michael Campbell, drummer Stan Lynch, bassist Ron Blair and keyboardist Benmont Tench - hammer into “I Need to Know.” Suddenly, something in Petty’s voice snaps, reverberating to the last row of the musty hall. Appearances aside, though, Petty still barks with all the fervor and inflection of a raving tenor saxophone when he hits the chorus tag: “Even the losers/Keep a little bit of pride/They get lucky sometime.” Instead, hemmed in by hazy lights center stage at Philadelphia’s Tower Theater, he looks strained and ashen as he sings “Even the Losers,” a hard-learned article of faith from his new album, Damn the Torpedoes.
Few mainstream rock albums of the late '70s and early '80s were quite as strong as this, and it still stands as one of the great records of the album rock era.This story was originally published in the Februissue of Rolling Stone.Īt the moment, Tom Petty doesn’t look much like a man who recently regained the upper hand in his career.
Yet there are purpose and passion behind the performances that makes Damn the Torpedoes an invigorating listen all the same. Most of the songs have a deep melancholy undercurrent - the tough "Here Comes My Girl" and "Even the Losers" have tender hearts the infectious "Don't Do Me Like That" masks a painful relationship "Refugee" is a scornful, blistering rocker "Louisiana Rain" is a tear-jerking ballad. He had written a few classics before - "American Girl," "Listen to Her Heart" - but here his songwriting truly blossoms. Their musical suppleness helps bring out the soul in Petty's impressive set of songs. It helped that the Heartbreakers had turned into a tighter, muscular outfit, reminiscent of, well, the Stones in their prime - all of the parts combine into a powerful, distinctive sound capable of all sorts of subtle variations. Musically, it follows through on the promise of their first two albums, offering a tough, streamlined fusion of the Stones and Byrds that, thanks to Jimmy Iovine's clean production, sounded utterly modern yet timeless. Amazingly, through all the frustration and anguish, Petty & the Heartbreakers delivered their breakthrough and arguably their masterpiece with Damn the Torpedoes. He settled with MCA and set to work on his third album, digging out some old Mudcrutch numbers and quickly writing new songs.
Tom petty damn the torpedoes free#
Petty struggled to free himself from the major label, eventually sending himself into bankruptcy. Not long after You're Gonna Get It, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' label, Shelter, was sold to MCA Records.
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