I suspect a lot of us respected him and his music but did not own much of his material. He certainly had a long skein of success right up until the end, much longer than many of his more well known singer songwriter counterparts. As you say he also had a lot of heavyweight friends. I was impressed at his musical knowledge which he freely shared on his Sirius show.
Ironically I was in a used CD and record store today and had a copy of Playback in my hands. No idea what inspired me to look at it but it sure looks like a well put together overview of his great career.
Sad to hear. He had a real knack of writing catchy tunes that were hard to get out of your head. RIP Tom
Yeah, almost every single was immediately enjoyable and memorable. I can't believe how many times I watched that video for Don't Come Around Here No More on MTV! Also, anyone who listened to his Buried Treasure show on Sirius XM knows how much he loved old, classic music, and knew a lot about it.
RIP
http://abc7ny.com/entertainment/poli...ized-/2480453/
Straight outta Python, "I'm not quite dead yet."
"Henry Cow always wanted to push itself, so sometimes we would write music that we couldn't actually play – I found that very encouraging." - Lindsay Cooper, 1998
"I have nothing to do with Endless River. Phew! This is not rocket science people, get a grip." - Roger Waters, 2014
"I'm a collector. And I've always just seemed to collect personalities." - David Bowie, 1973
Big Petty fan here... too bad if this is it.
He apparently isn't dead, but on Life support, in verrryyy bad condition.
The "King's Highway" track that Kavus posted also makes me remember how important Buddy Holly was to TPs writing style on a number of songs ("Listen To Her Heart" & "The Waiting" for example).
"My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"
President Harry S. Truman
Very sad day indeed. Progeezer and myself saw TP and the HBs thrice in the 2000s and on top his ability to craft so many great songs, he seemed nothing short of a true gentleman every nanosecond, thanking and heaping praise on Milwaukee (Howie Epstein'so hometown). RIP Tom. You've more than earned it, AFAIC.
'The smell of strange colours are heard everywhere'- Threshold
Got to see TP & the Heartbreakers a couple of times. A good show.
He wrote catchy tunes.
RIP ( as it will be )
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
-- Aristotle
Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
“A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain
Always enjoyed this one RIP Tom,
Eric: "What the hell Hutch, it's all Rush, what if we wanted a little variety?"
Hutch: "Rush is variety, Bitch! Rule number one: in my van, its Rush! All Rush, all the time...no exceptions."
From "Fanboys" 2009.
Bad day all around.
RIP TP...,
There's a great documentary on Tom and the Heartbreakers called Runnin Down a Dream from 2007.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Shocked and saddened by this news. I like a lot of Tom's stuff, and for what he does I have a lot of respect for him as a pop/rock artist. Seemed like a pretty decent guy too, from what little I could tell. Just sad all around.
Probably my favorite song by him. He leaves some great music.
Bill
Always enjoyed his music, over the years grew to appreciate what a great songwriter he is. His songs are Earworms, great hook after great hook. So very sad we have lost another great one. He always came across as someone you could have a beer with, very genuine. RIP Mr. Petty, your music will live forever.
He just got done with a pretty substantial tour. Over 50 dates, I believe.
I just signed on to his email list so I can get any updates sent to his fans.
Not sure why people post who say "don't like his music but......."
RIP Tom.
Good music from Tom. Is he really dead or on life support? If so I hope he can pull through.
Still alive and well...
Hope he pulls through. 'Southern Accents' is a great song and a great album.
Does it matter that this waste of time is what makes a life for you?
Damn. Official now. Would have been the coolest thing in the world if he would have come out of it and proved all the early reports wrong.
Refugee is a genius song, and it's only one of many he came up with. Huge amounts of respect to you, Tom.
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