Tom Petty was really churning out albums in the late 70s and early 80s. His next album came out just a year after Hard Promises.
1982’s Long After Dark is the fifth straight Petty album to tread the same ground — short, muscular songs in what had become the Heartbreakers’ signature sound (I’ll borrow AllMusic.com’s The Byrds-meet-The Stones description again).
Tom Petty followed up his breakthrough, Damn the Torpedoes, two years later with 1981’s Hard Promises.
This album is best known for its role in a feud Petty waged against the recording industry. MCA Records wanted to charge $9.98 for the record, a dollar more than the usual price thanks to Petty’s star status. Petty fought the increase and delayed the album’s release. Eventually the studio relented and skipped the price hike.
1979’s Damn the Torpedoes was Tom Petty’s first bona fide classic (but not his last).
Its nine songs show Petty at the top of his game — from the spoken-word verses of the pleading, Byrds-like ‘Here Comes My Girl’ to the Eagles-esque (but better!) balladry of ‘Lousiana Rain.’ The album doesn’t contain a weak moment and it’s hard to pick a favorite.
I love the blistering kiss-off ‘What Are You Doing In My Life?’ as much as the anthemic ‘Even the Losers,’ the jaunty ‘Don’t Do Me Like the That’ as much as the rave-up ‘Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid).’ This is a greatest hits record masquerading as a studio album.
Day Two in the Tom Petty retrospective brings us to the 1978 album You’re Gonna Get It.
By all accounts, this album was a continuation of the band’s debut, adding little to the mix but effectively carrying the torch of harmonic garage rock that Petty and the Heartbreakers had introduced a couple of years earlier.
I’m not a big enough fan of Tom Petty. I own seven of his solo and Heartbreakers albums, plus two he recorded with other bands, but somehow that doesn’t feel like enough.
He has released eight albums that I don’t own. I’m familiar with his early work mostly through the hits, and no doubt those records contain lots of material just as worthy as the radio staples I love.
I wouldn’t dream of owning a handful of Elvis Costello albums and just the “hits” from the rest (in whatever sense Costello has actually had hits). I’m not equating Tom Petty with Elvis Costello, but they aren’t so far apart that the analogy is baseless.
Meet Me In Montauk 