“She’s a good girl, loves her mama
Loves Jesus and America too
She’s a good girl, crazy ’bout Elvis
Loves horses and her boyfriend too.”
In 1961, when Tom Petty was 11 years old, he got a brief glimpse of Elvis which changed his life. He talked about it constantly, always using the same almost religious language to describe the brief encounter. Elvis was down in Gainesville shooting Follow That Dream (my pal has referred to this as “Elvis’ Occupy Wall Street movie”: accurate). Petty’s dad owned a film developing business and had a job somehow on the film.
Petty knew OF Elvis, but only that he “wiggled.” Elvis’ rise to fame in 1956 hadn’t made that much of an impression since Petty had been so young. Petty’s uncle took Tom down to the location. There were mobs of girls hanging around waiting for Elvis. Finally, a long line of white Cadillacs pulled up, and Elvis and all of his “boys” piled out. The girls went crazy, breaking through the barriers, etc. It was scary. Tom Petty was in the crowd, a child surrounded by screaming females, watching Elvis get out of the car.
Petty recalled: (and listen to this language! True Believer!)
“He stepped out radiant as an angel. 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. We were speechless. I thought at the time, ‘That is one hell of a job to have. That’s a great gig – Elvis Presley.'”
Unfortunately the link no longer exists on Rolling Stone, but a while back Petty did one of their Playlist things, and he listed his top 10 Elvis songs, with little comments about each one.
His comment on “Mean Woman Blues” was great. He said that the line from the song “She kissed so hard, she bruised my lips” was really shocking to him as a grade school kid. He had no idea kisses could ever be like that. He couldn’t get the image out of his head. Even MORE shocking was that it was the GIRL kissing that hard … to a 10 year old that was pretty intense stuff. Who needs sex ed when you have Elvis?
Another one of his favorite Elvis songs was “Santa Claus is Back in Town” – which – if you are not familiar with it – may sound like a weird choice. (Is it possible that there are those not familiar with it? Go listen to it immediately.)
Petty’s brief comment on it was so funny:
“‘Santa Claus is coming down your chimney tonight’ sounds absolutely filthy when Elvis sings it. It might be his best blues vocal ever.”
I love Ron Rosenbaum’s essay on Tom Petty (from a while back but it makes a good tribute). He also references the encounter with Elvis and how essential it was, not just to Tom Petty, but – now – to our understanding of who Tom Petty was.
I posted these thoughts on Facebook and Twitter today, about the instantly legendary performance of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” for the Rock and Roll Music Hall of Fame, by Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, George Harrison’s son … and an absolutely epic guitar solo by Prince.
Tom Petty is basically the conductor in this famous performance. I’ve read comments about it along the lines of: “Petty seems irritated at Prince’s scene-stealing … ” You know a comment like that is from a non-artist.
He doesn’t seem irritated at all. There are moments of connection w/Prince during that EPIC solo … smiles, glances, etc. These are the glances of 2 professionals creating something together. Prince takes over, but Petty holds down the fort, also a necessary job. When Prince moves up to the stratosphere, he needs those down on earth to keep it going – so he can go where he needs to go.
You think Tom Petty was … well … PETTY about being in the presence of something so extraordinary? LOOK at him. He’s digging it. But he’s not an audience member. He’s got to be so in tune with Prince that he knows when Prince is close to wrapping it up. When Prince comes back down … the song must move to its conclusion. Petty’s in charge of that. And so he never takes his eyes off Prince.
Petty’s role here is “support staff.” Yes, Petty is a huge star. But he’s also a musician and he knows his job. He knows he’s not Prince. Come on.
I love how – in the midst of all the craziness on that stage – Petty knows when it’s time to move the group into the ending. His arm goes up. A signal. I’m always amazed by that since I am not a musician. He knows – can FEEL – when it’s time to put his arm up.
There’s something beautifully humble about him in this performance. He sets the stage, he establishes the well-known song … But what he is REALLY doing is creating space for what comes next. What comes next is Prince. And Prince will need a TON of space. Petty knows that so he goes about creating it. It’s world-class what Petty does in that performance. He is the net underneath Prince.
There’s a lot more to say about Tom Petty – I’ve always loved him – but this performance – his clear and steady maintaining of the song while Prince goes apeshit, his almost ESP-level of concentration on Prince so he can anticipate what’s happening but also just stay in tune with it … and then … his arm raising up – time to get back to what we established, time to wrap it up – is what I thought of this morning.
Terrible, terrible news. I wrote this a while back, but it’s still my best tribute. Hard to convey to those who didn’t live through late 70s radio just how much he meant to us…
http://theroundplaceinthemiddle.com/?p=9043
I kept hoping he’d pull through. 66. Too young.
Losing Bowie and Prince was rough, for sure, but this . . . Tom Petty has been part of my life since I was born. There was not a single family vacation in my childhood that was not set to a soundtrack of Petty (is there any better road trip music?), my entire family singing along with American Girl or Into the Great Wide Open or Free Fallin’ together. I once psyched myself up for a difficult confrontation with an evil boss by singing along with I Won’t Back Down at top volume on repeat in my car. There is probably a Tom Petty song for every significant moment in my life. I feel like I lost a friend who has always been there for me. I ugly cried for hours yesterday.
I love your observations about the Hall of Fame performance. His priority, I think, was ALWAYS to do what best served the music. He was not concerned about having center stage, it was always about making good music.
Natalie – I am so sorry! These people mean so much, music means SO much.
// I once psyched myself up for a difficult confrontation with an evil boss by singing along with I Won’t Back Down at top volume on repeat in my car. //
That is amazing. Petty would have loved that!
I agree in re: not caring about center stage. He knew he was in a continuum. That’s one of the reasons I love the Elvis story so much, and how often he talked about Elvis (and the Stones). He was in awe, and he remained in awe – as big a star and as wonderful as he was. You can just FEEL that awe as he held the beat for Prince as Prince went crazy. And! He KEEPS singing – he never loses where he is in the song. I mean, this is probably no big deal for someone like him – but still, it amazes me. As THAT is going on stage right, he keeps his head!
Petty was such a good songwriter. Those lyrics … we’ll have them forever.
Fun fact, Prince was there…because he was a huge fan of Tom Petty, https://twitter.com/kenlowery/status/914940681206067201
I love that SO MUCH.
A friend mentioned last week that he had the blues. I sent him I Forgive It All, from Tom’s Mudcrutch. My ringtone for my daughter is “American Girl.” “Refugee” is one of the first songs I learned on the guitar. As chance had it, I was listening to the album Hypnotic Eye on the way to school Monday.
I’m with Natalie and Nondisposible Johnny. The guy has been a part of my life since I was 17 and I heard “Breakdown” for the first time.
He wrote so many simple, great verses.
Somewhere deep in the middle of the night
Lovers hold each other tight
And whisper in anxious ears
Words of love that disappear
(from A Thing About You)
and
Oh give it up to me I need it
Girl, I know a good thing when I see it
Baby wrong or right I mean it
I don’t believe the thrill is all gone
Real love is a man’s salvation
The weak ones fall, the strong carry on
(from Straight Into Darkness)
Terrible, sad news. There are so many wonderful songs and performances of him with the Heartbreakers and others. I love this wistful version of “Learning To Fly” from their The Live Anthology album. Just another reason to thank God for Tom Petty, for Elvis, for music ,and for all the people who make it for us.
I wonder how many people first encountered Tom Petty when they saw Silence of the Lambs.
Didn’t that really help establish her character?
What a great song choice by Demme, and a great intro to the character by Brooke Smith!
She’s totally An American Girl!
Love this from a Men’s Journal interview in 2013:
Oh my God, I’ve done that – without the stoned part. The Jefferson Memorial is my favorite of all the memorials. Not mentioned as often as the Lincoln – but the Jefferson Memorial is so delicate, so set apart – just like Jefferson was.
The late night we were there there was a lightning storm and the lightning was purple. A night I’ll never forget.
You nailed it – the great ones are never afraid to let other great ones shine, and that’s clearly what happened on that magical night. Greil Marcus picked up on the same thing that you did:
“He was happy to be upstaged—by Roger McGuinn, when at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert he and the Heartbreakers backed him as he sang a once-in-lifetime “Mr. Tambourine Man,” or at the George Harrison Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction when he hit his marks for “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and then stepped back and let Prince leave him in the dust, as he knew he would.”
I’m not sure why, but it kind of shocked me when I realized that with the exception of the second Mudcrutch album, I own every single album released by Tom Petty. And maybe they weren’t all GREAT albums, but who cares? It showed me that no matter who the big star was at any given moment, whatever the style of the day happened to be, I knew that a Tom Petty album was going to be worth picking up.
Somehow, I managed to never see him play in person. Damn.
Thank you for that Marcus excerpt. That’s exactly what I was trying to say!!
There always seemed to be something very gentle about Tom Petty to me, and something generous of spirit. I know the music world is supposed to be a collection of outsized egos and I am sure it often is, but I don’t think people realize how common it is for creative people to just support each other, to groove on each other’s work, to get excited about collaborating. All of which is demonstrated so beautifully in the clip you reference. It’s not some big competition.
// I don’t think people realize how common it is for creative people to just support each other, to groove on each other’s work, to get excited about collaborating. //
This is so true.
There’s a fantastic anecdote about the same performance – at the rehearsal before the show – where Steve Winwood was absolutely blown away that Prince knew who he was, and was familiar with his work.
It’s very touching (I love these Hall of Fame concerts for that reason – famous people performing other famous people’s work … in service not to their own career but to holding someone else up. It’s amazing.)
I loved him, and he’s probably my favorite performer I never saw live (that I could have seen – Mozart wasn’t an option), which I can’t explain and now really regret.
He was so HUMBLE, which is one of my favorite traits in a star. I remember him on Letterman, I think, during the release of Wildflowers, I think, where he performed You Don’t Know How It Feels, I think.
During the interview, Letterman asked Petty about the fact that he played some lead guitar on the album, which was unusual for Petty. Petty’s response went something like this (paraphrasing).
“Well Dave, what I am is a fairly decent rhythm guitarist. I’ve always wanted to lead, but we have people much more qualified. But I worked on it, and was ALLOWED to play a little lead on this album, which was real fun for me”.
His music was America. RIP.
Todd – wow, I love that quote from him on Letterman! Beautiful!!
I know, I’ve been trying to find the clip but can’t.
I did find this great piece on how amazing he was with lyrics, able to scene set and evoke in just a few choice words.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/10/02/tom_petty_was_rock_s_best_writer_of_opening_lines.html
I haven’t watched this video since Prince died. I noticed what you did about Petty the first time I saw it. This time, all I see is Prince playing to and for Petty. Or maybe to Petty, and for George. Either way, the whole thing is just absolutely mindblowing from a performance perspective. At a tribute, you have to go all in, or what’s it worth? Like Springsteen and the E-Street Band when Prince died. Prince plays his fucking heart out. For George. The joy this releases is all over his face. But he’s part of a band. The Beatles did what they did because they played to each other, for each other, made each other better. I see this dynamic between Prince and Petty.
You often write about the “other” actor opposite the “star” (as in the Powers Boothe éloge). Prince needs Petty’s eyes, needs his smile, to perform at that level. Petty is not just anchoring him, he’s bandleading, driving the musical forces and giving the star everything he needs to blow the roof off.
What a performance by both artists. What generosity and understanding and mastery. What a tribute to George, what a testament Petty and Prince left to their own legacies. RIP.