Postby sloopjohnc » 04 Oct 2017, 16:58
I was thinking of Bowie's death last year and how it compared to Petty's recent death.
Petty was my Bowie in many ways, and I think he probably was to lots of American folks my age. Bowie was the more trendsetting and adventurous artist, but too foreign and all over the place for lots of Americans. "Bowie is a fag," would be the response you'd get in lots of American high school parking lots with Van Halen blaring from muscle cars and a cloud of pot smoke hovering overhead in 1976.
Petty helped bring back radio rock 'n' roll, meaning songs topping off at 3 minutes or so and no extended jams. I don't think punk helped make that acceptable to FM radio, because most FM radio was still clinging to Sammy Hagar, Fleetwood Mac, and Zeppelin as the standard. That groups like Blondie, the Cars, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty broke through to the American FM format and reminded people what great rock 'n' roll radio songs sounded like was testament to creating a new aesthetic, a new acceptable aesthetic, that opened the door to newer, fresher radio, rather than listening to the same old BOC and Robin Trower songs that were played on FM.
There wouldn't be a My Sharona if it wasn't for a guy like Petty getting airplay. That might sound like it's a bad thing, but My Sharona is the record that really blew the top off the hoary FM radio format, in my opinion. There were other songs that helped chisel the way, like Pettys', but that's the one that said it wasn't going away.
Don't fake the funk on a nasty dunk!