Sunday, March 22, 2009
Petty by Bogdanovich
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Running Down A Dream is a four hour documentary that lives somewhere between Scorcese's Bob Dylan: No Direction Home, The 1995 Beatles Anthology mini-series and VH1 Behind the Music. It is directed by Peter Bogdanovich who tells the story of the Gainesville, FL 58 year old who one can't imagine doing anything but Rock 'n Roll. Bogdanovich takes a chronological approach with a time and tempo deserved for a solid 30 year career of Petty and his band, who you get to know pretty well by the time we have circled back to the real time anchor of a thirtieth anniversary concert in Gainesville.
A lot of how one appreciates this film is going to be determined by their relationship with Petty's music. I was 19-20 when the first couple albums came out. There was a zest and an urgency to the Byrds jangle of his early music, just as there was seven or eight years later when REM appeared. And then, with Damn the Torpedoes, he and his band became something bigger--an almost instant iconic omnipresence on adult rock and classic rock stations. I think Refugee was always on the radio in 1979.
I always found the band impressive. I had this tape from an old King Biscuit Flower Hour from one of their early tours with hot versions of I Need to Know and American Girl on it, but Tom and the HB's reading of It's My Life as an encore, was especially impressive. This was a rock and roll band with all the stops pulled.
With the exception of the Dylan 1986 tour, I never saw Petty in concert. And I prety much cringed the mad hatter hat era and squeaky clean tinny sound of his production with Jeff Lynne with Full Moon Fever and The Traveling Wilburys. The Wilbury's were cool to look at, but in too damn slick a package for the talent that was present. If you lived in Portland in the mid to late eighties, one either had to put up with constant Tom Petty-Stevie Nicks duets, Lynne's squeaky clean Wilbury productions, Stevie Winwood's comeback records or find another station. Quick.
Sometime in the mid nineties, I heard the Wildflowers album, produced by Rick Rubin and was somehow aware that the band was kicking it in the background of Rubin's first Johnny Cash album, but I confess, until I sat down to watch the Bogdanovich film, I hadn't ever really revisited Petty since the days of Breakdown and that long lost concert cassette. When I heard he was going to be the headliner for the second Vegoose festival, I kind of saw that as a reason not to go.
Although I can't always go where Tom went on record (especially when that musical autoclave operator Jeff Lynne is concerned) I love the live sound of the Heartbreakers. Mike Campbell and Benmont Trench, the two players who have stuck it out with TP since the beginning are phenomenal musicians. I listened to a little bit of the Dylan tour after watching the show and concluded that this band was as substantial a back up to Dylan as the Band or the Bloomfield/Kooper mafia were. Benmont out-Kooper's Al Kooper with the take of Like A Rolling Stone I heard.
Another thing that makes Petty stand out is that the man truly has balls. In his first decade in the business he stared down MCA twice (once in regard to his publishing and recording contract and once when they were going to jack up the price of his fourth album) and reigned victorious. Bogdanovich tells these tales as well as gives us large servings of concert footage, some pieces of the music video and television appearances. By longevity, consistency, and artistic vision, Petty is a rare American music figure. Running Down the Dream will be the authoritative record on his life and music for years to come.
posted by well-executed buffet at 11:48 PM
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