Favorite Tom Petty/TP&HBs song

Boy, one of the toughest to cut down to 10 tunes. Couldn't decide between "Don't Do Me Like That" (first break out hit) and "Jammin' Me" (which nobody but me remembers), so I gave you the ever-popular Other option instead. Have fun!

I dig that song. Though I did love their cover of "Feel A Whole Lot Better."

American Girl gets my vote.

Thunderbirds? Great LP, btw....."Feel a Whole Lot Better" was a Byrds cover, too....

McGuinn and Petty should have played more together, I think.

McGuinn recorded "American Girl" and released it as a single in 1977! Part of the Thunderbyrd sessions. Sorry.

I read an interview with McGuinn where he said the first time he heard it, he wondered when he and the Byrds had recorded it!

Came out during what for me was the best period of all for top-40 radio (early 80's) and it's one of those songs that brings back a lot of good early teen memories.

I loved the video too.

I hate "Free Falling" with a passion just because it was played to death back then. You could not turn on the radio without hearing it. I love the band and I've seen them many times, but I just couldn't take hearing that song one more time.

R.I.P. Howie Epstein

"Oh, I'm lost in a one story town
Where everything's close to the ground
Yeah the same shit goes down
Nothing turns around
It's a one story town"

Grew up in one. Left it when I was nineteen years old. Never lived in it again. I'm sure it was a metaphor for something other than growing up with a microscope shoved up your ass, but my one-layer interpretation is enough to make me love the song.

walks around dogfaced and hurt


that's a great song

That was one of two songs that actually got me listening to current music again. Music sucked in the mid to late seventies, with disco all over the place, so I just continued listening to sixties/early seventies rock. Then I heard "Breakdown" and the Cars' "Just What I Needed." I loved those tunes; they were the first new songs I had liked in years and that moved me to start checking out new music again.

Seen him 4 times now....

Love it! Free Fallin' a close second.

one of my favorite songs by anyone!

Agreed!

so lets get, to the point, lets roll, another joint....

A couple of others come to mind as well -

"Don't come around here no more" (groovy video for that one, we used to joke that everybody got a piece of Alice - I know...)

and "I won't back down"

And I remember Jammin Me, good song as well.

Damn, its hard to choose one, Petty rocks, lots of good stuff...

I's in love with a girl on marijuana
She said if i'm not stoned I don't wanna
But she got so paranoid
Her place I would avoid
I's in love with a girl on marijuana

I's in love with a girl on cocaine
She had everything going but her brain
We'd talk endlessy for hours
But by morning I'd go sour
I's in love with a girl on cocaine

Through extacy, crystal meth and glue
Found no drug compares to you
With all these pills And all this weed
I don't know just what I need

I's in love with a girl on l.s.d.
She'd see things i'd never see
She broadened her perspective
Then I got more selective
I's in love with a girl on l.s.d.

Through extacy, crystal meth and glue
Found no drug compares to you
With all these pills
And all this weed
I don't know what I need

I's in love with a girl who drank beer
Till bad breath and all she disappeared
She was blowing up real bad
But when she left I was still sad
I's in love with a girl who drank beer

I's in love with a girl on china white
We were married for a year one night
Her memory still lingers
Cause I burned all my fingers
I's in love with a girl on china white

I's in love with a girl who drank coffee
There was times when I couldn't keep her off me
That caffine got her going
But her ugly side was showing
I's in love with a girl who drank coffee

I's in love with a girl who was a dealer
I's afraid some body'd come and steal her
We never used to fight
But the phone rang day and night
I's in love with a girl who was a dealer

Sure as hell She got popped by the big guys

Darn :-)

Didn't he get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year? I know he was nominated, but I can't recall if he was among the crop of 2003 inductees.

http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=1773
My connection hung, so I never got the entire page loaded. I seem to recall it saying his first record was '76, so he could have been inducted any time after '01. I forgot to check what year he in fact got in.

Great song, and Southern Accents was a great album...quite underrated. I'm also a huge fan of the live version of Breakdown from Pack up the Plantation. AWESOME. Basically, I'm a huge fan of everything TPHB has ever done.

although I wound up voting for "Straight Into Darkness," possibly the most underrated song by anybody (popular)

Century City was good too.

Well I started out down a dirty road
Started out all alone
And the sun went down as I crossed the hill
And the town lit up, the world got still

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

Well the good ol' days may not return
And the rocks might melt and the sea may burn

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

Well some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I've started out, for God knows where
I guess I'll know when I get there

I'm learning to fly, around the clouds,
But what goes up must come down

I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing

I think partly because it came out at a time in my life where those words had some REAL meaning to me. Hearing that song takes me back there, and I realize how far I have come in that time.

But, I really am a big fan of TP&the HB's. Oh, and RIP Howie Epstein. :-(

'You Wreck Me'(Baby).

Great Tune, As Is Two Gunslingers -

Full Moon Fever And Great Wide Open Are His Two Best IMO

Yeah - Tom's The Bomb

. . .man there's a few that weren't on your list so i almost went with other.

American Girl, Learning to Fly, & Runnin' Down A Dream pop quickly to mind.
The Professor

Edited because my fingers went differently than my brain. Lots of typos.

in parentheses.

How dare you make me choose between songs that feel as intimate as long-time lovers?

Into the Great Wide Open - terrific tune. Plus my dear Johnny is in the video! :*

Learning to Fly - Like GOP this song meant a great deal to me during a difficult time. I took courage from it.

Last Dance with Mary Jane - Wow. What can I say. "One more time to kill the pain..." While I've never done drugs except alcohol, I can certainly understand the impulse. This song says it well.

Refugee - I loved it right away. But especially loved it after working with a real refugee who took it as his personal anthem. Very inspiring story.

Breakdown - OMG! This song makes me melt! :shiver: If I ever found a guy that would say that to me... well..... :*

Good love is hard to find!

I really like this song. I think he does great singing this tune.

Christina

Second choice: "Even The Losers".

Something In The Air.

When he sang "Won't Back Down" at the televised Concert for America, my hope and courage returned.

Thanks Tom!

With the great Johnny Cash gone, you are the #1 musical storyteller.

I love that song.

I got to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the old Astor Park in Seattle back in the early 80s. It was a nightclub that held about 400 people, and I was dancing about two feet from the band. It was phenomenal, the best concert I've ever been to.

Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen saved rock & roll, in my opinion, by playing simple, straightforward music during the dark days of disco. Both are still making the same kind of no-pretenses, basic, fantastic music. I truly love that Florida cracker and that Jersey tough.

Perfect theme song for Democrats right now. CRANK IT UP!

Damn, this is a great song.

You know sometimes, I don't know why,
But this old town seems so hopeless.
Yeah, I ain't really sure, but it seems I remember the good times
Were just a little bit more in focus.

But when she puts her arms around me
I can somehow rise above it.
Yeah, man when I got that little girl standin' right by my side,
You know, I can tell the whole wide world to shove it, hey!

Here comes my girl. Here comes my girl.
Yeah, and she looks so right, she is all I need tonight.

Every now and then I down to the end of the day
And I have to stop and ask myself why I've done it.
It just seems so useless to have to work so hard
And nothin' ever really seems to come from it.

But then she looks me in the eye and says,
"We're gonna last forever. "
And man, you know I can't begin to doubt it.
No, . cause it just feels so good and so free and so right.
I know we ain't never goin' to change our minds about it - hey!

Here comes my girl. Here comes my girl.
Yeah, and she looks so right, she is all I need tonight. (Watch her walk. )

Every time it seems like there ain't nothin' left no more,
I find myself having to reach out and grab hold of something.
Yeah, I just catch myself waiting, wondering, worrying
About some silly little things that don't add up to nothin'.

But then she looks me in the eye and says,
"We're gonna last forever. "
And man, you know I can't begin to doubt it.
No, . cause it just feels so good and so free and so right.
I know we ain't never gonna' to change our minds about it - hey!

Here comes my girl. Here comes my girl.
Yeah, and she looks so right, she is all I need tonight.

Don't Google. Florida band - no shit, huh?

Or was there one before that?

Very little resemblance to his later work, but still sounds like him.

That was an awesome tune.

woot!