Initially following its release, the album received little attention in the United States. But Following a U/K tour, it climbed up the UK album chart and the single “Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll” became a hit in the UK. After nearly a year and many positive reviews, the album reached the U.S. charts, and eventually went Gold.
It’s a great American rock album with beautifully constructed songs and a passionate vocal from Tom Petty.
It runs in at a little over 1/2 an hour so it is slightly short by today’s standards but the music there in is wonderful.
Before I mention the songs individually , I should say that there isn’t the searing guitar overload of a live performance, in that the solos are short and not as stand-out in the mix.
Live, there was more emphasis on soloing but the songs are rock ‘n’ roll works of art and this is an album that you can’t tire of. Luna, is a beautiful ballad, is my favourite song of the album and I would say that it is a unique song , part blues, part lullaby , with a beautiful organ melody that you’ll never forget.
huge anthemic track American Girl is a joy and the guitar solo at the end is a piece of magic, The Wild One Forever and Mystery Man are beautiful , gentle songs with melodies to die for.
Throw in Fooled Again, Breakdown and Strangered in the Night et.al. and you have one of the best albums ever made. Wonderful stuff !.
The singles “Breakdown” and “American Girl” became an FM radio tracks that can still be heard today.
The album was recorded and mixed at the Shelter Studio, Hollywood, California.
Petty’s breakthrough album plays like his most genuine slice of rock ‘n’ roll – probably because his two earlier albums didn’t do much, and that hunger drips through nearly every single groove. ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ heads straight into a world where Byrds-ian folk-rock collides with heartland-sized riffs. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers never hit the brakes.
Not long after You’re Gonna Get It, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ label, Shelter Records, was sold to MCA Records. Petty struggled to free himself from the major label, eventually sending himself into bankruptcy. He settled with MCA and set to work on his third album, digging out some old Mudcrutch numbers and quickly writing new songs. Amazingly, through all the frustration and anguish, Petty & the Heartbreakers delivered their breakthrough and arguably their masterpiece with the album Damn the Torpedoes.
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. 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. Their musical suppleness helps bring out the soul in Petty’s impressive set of songs. He had written a few classics before like “American Girl,”“Listen to Her Heart” — but here his songwriting truly blossoms. 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. Yet there are purpose and passion behind the performances that makes Damn the Torpedoes an invigorating listen all the same. 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.
It’s about an hour before Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers play Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre for what may be the last time. Backstage, Petty is in his dressing room putting on a frontier rebel’s headdress to fight the chill. Keyboardist Benmont Tench is tweeting about the sad state of our country under Donald Trump. Bassist RonBlair has battled stage fright for years since rejoining the Heartbreakers in 2002, after a 20-year sanity break. He wanders into Tom Petty’s dressing room and cops to something you’re not likely to admit to your bandleader unless you’ve known him for 40 years. “I’m kinda nervous, you know,” says Blair in a quiet voice.
Petty rarely describes himself as the leader of his band, but as “the older brother they sometimes have to listen to.” Tonight, he gives Blair some fatherly assurance and a toothy Southern smile: “Let me be nervous for you.”
The band takes the stage and blows through “Rockin’ Around (With You),” the first song on its self-titled first album, from 1976. Petty ends the next few songs strumming in front of the drum set, trading man-crush smiles with drummer Steve Ferrone (Tench jokes, “They should get a room”). Petty even grins through a joyous version of “Walls,” from 1996’s She’s the One, an album he’s complained about for nearly 20 years.
And then there’s a flash of lightning. Rain pours down. The Heartbreakers are shooed into the catacombs of Red Rocks, and 9,000 fans head for cover.
As the bandmates wait out the rain, Petty asks if they want to add their 1999 song “Swingin'” to the second half of the set. Everyone agrees: They do. The Heartbreakers aren’t a democracy, but more of a benevolent dictatorship. This is true when it comes to the set list. “We can make suggestions,” says Tench with a wry smile. “Sometimes they’re even accepted.”
After 20 minutes, the Heartbreakers retake the stage. They play “Swingin’,” which has a chorus where Petty lists icons who “went down swinging,” including Sonny Liston and Sammy Davis. Tench, who sings with Petty on the song, switches it up. Epstein provided the beautiful high harmonies on the record, so Tench sneaks in a tribute to his departed friend: “He went down swingin’/Just like Howie Epstein.”
Petty is supposed to do some acoustic numbers from Wildflowers,his 1994 solo album. There’s just one problem: His guitar is dead, soaked by the rain. There’s confusion and uncertainty on the band mates’ faces for a moment, like it’s a 1975 show at a honky-tonk in Gainesville. Then Petty and Campbell shout across the stage, “Ben, play something!”
Tench, the best keyboardist in American rock, breaks into a pastiche of boogie-woogie, a homage to pianist Pete Johnson. The group chimes in, not quite in sync, until Petty switches to Chuck Berry’s “Carol.” The Heartbreakers fall in line, sounding like the best bar band you don’t want to tell your friends about.
They encore with “American Girl.” The bandmates take a bow, wiping sweat and rain off their faces. Everyone exits, but Petty seems reluctant to leave. He takes a few steps toward the front of the stage and gives a last wave.
One word Petty and the band never mention: retirement. Petty still goes into his Malibu home office to write songs right across from his home studio. He’s mostly a homebody, rarely even venturing the 45 minutes into Los Angeles unless it’s to see his two daughters and his young granddaughter. There was a Mudcrutch tour last year and a turn producing a record for former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman. The Heartbreakers will record again and play live in some capacity. After 40 years, it would be surprising if there weren’t a few regrets. “Howie should’ve gotten some lead on a record,” Tench says of Epstein. “He should’ve produced a record for the Heartbreakers. I would’ve loved that.” Then he shrugs. “But I’m not in charge.”
There’s been a valedictory feel to the Heartbreakers‘ 40th-anniversary tour, which Petty says is the band’s final country-spanning run – the “last big one.” Everyone else is a bit skeptical. “I’ve been hearing that for 15 years,” says guitarist and original Heartbreaker Mike Campbell. “We’ll see.”
The crowds are still there, something Petty is clearly proud of when we sit down in a hotel room on an off day. To be honest, he looks more jittery offstage than on. This may be because he is chain-smoking, alternating between Marlboros and vaping, perhaps as a concession to the Denver Ritz-Carlton’s smoking policy.
Petty says sleep is now his friend. “I need a new Netflix show, does anyone have any suggestions?” he asks just before his assistant ducks out of the room. Someone suggests Bloodline, a noirish series set in his native Florida.
Petty is defiant about the hyper pace of the tour, which hits 30 cities this spring and summer. “Unless you’ve done it, you can’t understand what it is,” says Petty, brushing his scarecrow hair out of his face. “And if you’re not really experienced, you will fall.”
What keeps the Heartbreakers together is simple: The band has been their life since 1976. BenjaminMontmorency Tench III, was a prep-school kid and piano prodigy. Tench wears suits and went to Exeter, but he’s the fiery one. In the Peter Bogdanovich documentary on the Heartbreakers, 2007’s Runnin’ Down a Dream, Tench can be heard screaming at his bandmates to take things seriously. His nickname is Mad Dog. When Tench used to go on one of his tirades, a roadie would slide a dog bowl of water under his piano.
Petty, Campbell and Tench formed the nucleus of the band Mudcrutch, which morphed into the Heartbreakers in 1976, after adding San Diego native Blair on bass and Stan Lynch on drums. Blair fried out and bailed in 1982. He opened a bikini shop in the Valley and was replaced by Howie Epstein, but the band loomed in his subconscious. “I’d dream I’d be walking to the stage, and be like, ‘I don’t know “Mary Jane’s LastDance,”‘ recalls Blair. “I had half a dozen of those nightmares, so I started learning those songs so I could get a night’s sleep.”
This proved fortuitous when Epstein died of heroin-related complications in 2003. “I don’t think the band continues without Ron,” Tench tells me. “Bringing in someone new wouldn’t have worked.”
“About 20 years ago, we stopped doing soundchecks,” says Petty. “It eats up the whole day and we’d argue, and then you’d come back and the sound would be completely different with a crowd.”
The other game-changer was Dylan. By 1986, the band had toured relentlessly for a decade. Off the road, everyone was a mess – some members dealing with substance issues, some just dealing with real life. “The road and the studio are the only places I’ve ever felt completely OK,” says Petty, lighting another Marlboro. “In any other life situation I’m terribly retarded.” Petty got a call from Dylan asking if the band would back him on a tour. Petty raced out a “hell, yes.” Watching footage, you can see him smiling his head off, ecstatic to not be leading the show. The experience taught him how to be inthe Heartbreakers, not just lead them. “That’s when we learned how to really be a band,” says Petty.
One word Petty and the band never mention: retirement. Petty still goes into his Malibu home office to write songs right across from his home studio. He’s mostly a homebody, rarely even venturing the 45 minutes into Los Angeles unless it’s to see his two daughters and his young granddaughter. There was a Mudcrutch tour last year and a turn producing a record for former Byrds bassist Chris Hillman. The Heartbreakers will record again and play live in some capacity. After 40 years, it would be surprising if there weren’t a few regrets. “Howie should’ve gotten some lead on a record,” Tench says of Epstein. “He should’ve produced a record for the Heartbreakers. I would’ve loved that.” Then he shrugs. “But I’m not in charge.”
Four songs into his set Tuesday night at Bridgestone Arena, Tom Petty announced that the band’s next song had not been played live in more than a decade. And with that, Petty and the Heartbreakers kicked into “You Got Lucky,” an ominous masterpiece of a song that elicited a chorus of “hell yeah”s when the minor chords of BenmontTench’s synthesizer blasted through the speakers.
It was a testament to Petty’s seemingly bottomless repertoire of songs that he could dust off a song like that willy-nilly and still have it be an anthemic arena sing-a-long.
With the exception of the opening number, “Rockin’ Around (With You)” the first song on the first Heartbreakers record — and a few other cuts, Tuesday night’s show was heavy on the hits, despite the tour being billed as a celebration of that album’s 40th anniversary.
It was also one of the more raucous and engaged crowds this writer has ever seen at Bridgestone. When Petty played Bonnaroo back in 2013, his set was borderline lethargic, and perhaps that was intentional,given the stoner vibe of the festival. But Tuesday night’s show stood in defiant counterpoint to that. And the crowd, which spanned several generations, responded in kind.
Around the front of the stage, in the not-so-cheap seats, one could find a who’s who of Nashville-based musicians, including Robyn Hitchcock and Wilco’s Pat Sansone. Petty even remarked at one point that if you’re not a guitar player in Nashville, you’re a songwriter. But for the most part, the 66-year-old kept the stage banter to a relative minimum. Indeed, it seemed at times that the sold-out crowd knew every word to every song. And it was remarkable to consider just how well these songs have aged through the years. So many of these classic Petty cuts seem to exist in the ether, and the very idea of a world without his music is hard to fathom.
Tom Petty’s voice is raspier than it was in his heyday, but it still gets the job done. And the Heartbreakers, led by guitarist Mike Campbell, who these days resembles a dread-locked Captain Jack Sparrow, never break stride. It’s easy to see why Rick Rubin has long called them the best rock and roll band in the world.
When Petty and the Heartbreakers released their debut back in ’76, some critics dismissed them as a “nostalgic” act. How wrong they were. The final track of that debut album, and the final song of the night, “American Girl,” still crackles with thunder, sounding as fresh and vital as the day it was released.
Most Tom Petty fans thought they would never see one Mudcrutch album, let alone two. Tom Petty has reconvened his early band Mudcrutch – Petty, Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell, Tom Leadon and RandallMarsh – for a second set of rootsy country-rockers. The album includes seven originals written by TomPetty, with his bandmates each composing one track.
To catch everyone up on Heartbreakers’ trivia, the backstory goes that in 1974, a scraggly Florida outfit with the unwieldy name of Mudcrutch —bassist/singer/songwriter Petty along with keyboardist Benmont Tench, TomLeadon and Mike Campbell on guitars and drummer Randall Marsh — headed to L.A. to find fame and fortune. They recorded a few tunes and soon disbanded. But since Petty was signed to the Shelter label, he kept Tench and Campbell added new members and the Heartbreakers was born.
In 2008, Petty unexpectedly revived the name, brought back Leadon and Marsh from obscurity and released what became Mudcrutch’s belated debut. That disc’s loose-limbed yet winning mix of covers and originals was a little looser and more rootsy than Petty’s typical fare and even though he was clearly the frontman, Tench and Leaden took a few lead vocals.
Eight years and two Heartbreakers albums later, Petty gives the venture another go-round, now booking a tour to support it. This one ups the energy a few notches, especially on the pounding garage pulsing “Hope” which, with its cheesy Farfisa organ sounds like a pretty good Standells B-side. Tench takes another vocal turn on the dryly humorous boogie-woogie “Welcome to Hell” and guitarist Campbell gets a rare chance to sing on his lone writing contribution, the chugging “Victim of Circumstance,” finding ground somewhere between Petty and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Even drummer Marsh takes a frontman status on his perfectly acceptable “Beautiful World,” proving himself both a respectable singer and capable of churning out at least one solid pop-rocker.
Not surprisingly Petty contributes the bulk of the material — this disc is all originals — with seven new tunes (out of 11), all of them up to the high standards he has set for himself throughout his stellar 40-and-counting year career. Even Tom Petty experts would have trouble telling the first three tracks aren’t new Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers tunes since they ride that well established sweet spot between chiming Byrds-influenced rocking and impossible to resist choruses. That’s particularly true of “Dreams of Flying,” a mid-tempo nugget every bit as good as his best work.
The closing six minute “Hungry No More” is this album’s epic answer to the debut’s sprawling 9 minute “CrystalRiver,” giving Campbell and Leadon room to weave their guitars around a strummy, emotionally laced Petty ballad that incorporates a bit of a psychedelic vibe, not something you’d likely hear in a set from his full time ensemble.
As usual, Petty makes it seem easy. And with help from his fellow Mudcrutchers, the unassumingly titled 2 is proof that even Tom Petty’s modest side projects are better and more compelling than many acts at their best.
The charity event Merry Minstrel Musical Circus usually an event in December at the Troubadour. We’ll again be hosting in conjunction with our good friend Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers). 100% of proceeds will go to benefit music programs in the LA Unified Public Schools and Tazzy Animal Rescue Fund. Special guests will be announced over the coming weeks. On behalf of Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), everyone else involved, everyone who came out & supported these 2 great causes for this year’s Merry Minstrel Musical Circus. And a special thanks to theTroubadour & all our special guests – John Fogerty,Jackson Browne, Conor Oberst, Laura Marling,Benmont Tench, Scott Thurston, Steve Ferrone, Jim Keltner, Sara Watkins, Sean Watkins, The Haden Triplets, etc. It was another very special night. Last December Jonathan Wilson hosted the first annual “Merry Minstrel Musical Circus” at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, which featured an all-star cast of special guests that included Mike Campbell, Jackson Browne, Bob Weir and Jeff Lynne. Wilson will reprise the “Merry Minstrel Musical Circus,” which has the subtitle “A Holiday Gathering And Jamathon,” on December 20th at the Troubadour.
If you are a Tom Petty fan you will know that his 1994 album Wildflowers is among his greatest works. Spawning hits like “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck Me” and “It’s Good To Be King” . Wildflowersbegan Tom Petty’s fruitful relationship with producer Rick Rubin, who would also go on to helm the Heartbreakers’ soundtrack to “She’s the One” and their underrated 1999 album Echo.
In exciting news for fans of that particular era, Petty is readying the release of Wildflowers – All The Rest, a new collection of songs written between 1992-94 but left off the original album. TomPetty shared the first of those songs the gliding, gorgeous “Somewhere Under Heaven.”
The new song was co-written by Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell and it certainly hearkens back to the golden era of Petty’s sound. It speaks to his genius that a song as amazing as “Somewhere Under Heaven” could be abandoned and completely forgotten, but apparently that’s exactly what happened. Speaking to Rolling Stone last year, Petty said “I did not remember writing it, recording it, anything,” adding that when the song was rediscovered, he found it to be “really good – uptempo but very unusual, in some strange time signature.”
While there’s still no release date for Wildflowers – All The Rest (which Rolling Stone says will include 10 unreleased songs), “Somewhere Under Heaven” will appear over the closing credits of the new “Entourage” movie opening today.
Tom Petty and his early, pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch have a new album “Mudcrutch 2″ now available. The band — which features Petty on bass and is comprised of Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and BenmontTench, along with rhythm guitarist Tom Leadon and drummer Randall Marsh — released their self-titled debut in 2008 nearly 40 years after originally forming in Gainesville, Florida.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers define classic guitar rock better than just about any working band. The straw-haired singer obsessively revisits the same territory in album after album, with the same cast of backing musicians; guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench have been with him since the Heart-breakers’ debut, in 1976,
Echo the tenth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. First released in April 1999, the album reached number 10 on the Billboard 200 aided by the singles “Free Girl Now”, “Swingin'” and “Room at the Top”, The album was the band’s last collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, and was also the last to feature contributions from longtime bassist/vocalist Howie Epstein, who died of a heroin overdose in 2003. Echo was certified Gold only three months after it was released. Echo is the only Heartbreakers’ album to contain a lead vocal from another member of the band: Mike Campbell on “I Don’t Wanna Fight”. An outtake entitled “Sweet William” appeared as the B-side (or second song) on the “Room at the Top” CD single.
Only certain songs were played on the band’s tour that year. The record was largely written during a period when Petty was going through a painful divorce (influencing the lyrics of songs such as “Lonesome Sundown” and the title track), and Petty has cited that as the reason for his preference not to play any songs from the album in concert. However, “Room at the Top”, “Free Girl Now” and “I Don’t Wanna Fight” all appear in the concert film High Grass Dogs: Live at the Fillmore and a version of “Billy the Kid” appears on The Live Anthology.
“Swingin'” takes that won’t-back-down stance with its heavy descending chords and craggy guitar solo, its howling-wind harmonica and elegiac background harmonies. It’s Petty’s salute to a young woman who dared to get the hell out of town instead of sticking around to meekly meet her fate.
TOM PETTY has completed a new album due for mid summer entitled “Hypnotic Eye” it presently has 11 tracks with a more 60’s garage rock feel, striaght end to end rockin record, snake organ with clipped fuzz guitars produced by Tom and guitarist Mike Campbell. Also news that a live album is due to be issued from last years tour.
The Fat Angel Sings 