Two of the more compelling Round One Montauk Madness matchups pitted pop (and pop culture) sensations Beyoncé and Taylor Swift against Tom Petty and David Byrne, respectively.
Petty won his battle in one of the closest Round One contests, picking up 56% of the vote. Swift had an easier time dispatching Byrne, netting 88%. Now they face off against each other.
Somewhere Tom Petty is slamming his fist against a table and crying out, “Why did I have to draw Beyoncé in the first round?!”
Mrs. Carter rules pop culture right now, musically, socially and politically, while Petty is a deeply respected classic rock dinosaur. Is it even a fair fight?
Yesterday I posted my 3,000th Song of the Day. At least I think I did.
Awhile ago I was browsing earlier posts on the blog and I happened upon a series of entries in the early 2,000’s that overlapped. Specifically, ten numbers — 2,117 through 2,126 — were used back to back. I have two 2,117s, two 2,118s and so on.
That means my 3,000th blog post was really my 3,011th. At least that’s what it means if I found the only such mistake in my 8 years of blogging.
If rock-and-roll is essentially dead, replaced by the dominance of pop, hip-hop and alternative, nobody told Tom Petty.
On Hypnotic Eye, his best album since Wildflowers (and that’s paying full respect to such great records as Highway Companion and Mojo), he unleashes monster guitar riffs and sticky melodies just like in the good old days.
Given all of the sampling of 80s music done by modern rap artists, it’s refreshing to listen to an 80s song that was actually inspired by a rap hit.
Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the writers and performers who made up Pet Shop Boys, have said that their 1985 hit ‘West End Girls’ drew inspiration from ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash.
If you listen to it with that in mind, it totally makes sense.
The second Tom Petty album on this countdown, Full Moon Fever, is a collection of pop hits that’s as much fun as you can have wearing headphones. I can’t even think about this album without smiling.
Full Moon Fever is packed with wonderful surprises, from the “little freak with the lunch pail purse” who populates ‘Zombie Zoo’ through the sweet lullaby of ‘Alright For Now’ to Petty’s acknowledgement that he’s been to Micanopy and his middle name is Earl in ‘A Mind With a Heart of its Own.’
By 2006, Tom Petty was in need of a comeback. It had been 12 years since his last great album, Wildflowers, with the three releases during that span all underwhelming for one reason or another.
In 2006, Petty decided to team up once again with Jeff Lynne, producer of Full Moon Fever, to record his third solo album. The record was Highway Companion and, while it never reaches the heights of previous solo efforts Full Moon Fever or Wildflowers, it did signal a return to form.
