I posted
this video because Tom Petty relays beautifully how he took chances, acted on
opportunities that turned out successful, which turned into subsequent
successes. He was a very ambitious but very ethical businessman. I
think that's why his fans and his bandmates were so loyal to him. I don't
know whether he and others in his circles understood the southern influence of
rock at the time, but the years 1969-1977 were considered the years of southern
rock revival in the United States at the time. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers formed in
1976; his first band formed in Gainsville, Florida, 1974, was called
Mudcrutch. Maybe, Petty knew an opportunity when he saw it.
The southern rock era was essentially
between the years of 1969, when The Allman Brothers Band released their first
album, until 1977 when a tragic airplane crash took the lives of members of
Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant.
But it
wasn't just his southern origins of Gainsville, Florida that brought about his
success. It was the fact that his voice sounded like Bob Dylan, that
whiny, rebellious, defiant tone of a defiant poet. But if you listen to
some of Petty's lyrics, the last thing that he is doing is lamenting. In
songs like "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985) and "No, I
Won't Back Down," (1989), "Here Comes My Girl," (1979), and
"Refugee" (1980). Or maybe it was a case that he knew his own talent and
knew how coordinate the time and value of others in the achievement of a
recording contract or an album or a big-time concert opening for a big name or
pulling in a large crowd. He achieved all of it. He ended up
playing with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and other greats.
But the thing that set Petty apart was his music writing talents. He could put together a bar, a phrase , and a lyric in short order and it would be a hit. He did this over and ivee again, and it built great loyalty frim his bandmates who were the beneficiaries of his talents.
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