A Tribute to Tom Petty

I can't remember specifically the first time I heard Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.  If I had to make an educated guess, it was the early '80s and the song was "Change of Heart"  I noticed a lot of older boys were into the music.  In my single digit-age mindset, I thought to myself, "I'm not supposed to listen to this music."  Looking back on it, it was a profound way of telling me that I have unlimited access to a band whose music will have more of an effect on me than I could imagine at that time.

Flash forward to summer of 1984.

I bought my first ever vinyl record:  Wild Heart, Stevie Nicks' second solo album.  I had listened repeatedly to such hits as "Stand Back" and "If Anyone Falls."  When I bought it and listened to it right away, I noticed there was a duet Stevie had with Tom Petty, "I Will Run to You."  This became just another favorite of mine from this album.  To this day, I am enraptured in Nicks' and Petty's complementary harmonies, the crystal-clear musical chemistry, and the simplicity of the vocals and lyrics.  In fact, this was the first song I cued up when I first heard of Petty's sudden death.

I was to continue to discover all of that and more about Tom Petty's music as the late '80s unfolded. Next came "Don't Come Around Here No More" in 1985.  It was that stinging, piercing pitch and not-hard-to-notice simple guitar riff that only lured me in a little bit more into their music.

It finally manifested itself in 1989.  For you veteran rock music listeners, I don't need to tell you about the heavy rotation radio stations around the country played of "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Falling."  At the time, I didn't realize the purpose of this, the positive effect it would have on anyone growing up around that time.  To this day, no matter where I go, whether to or from the grocery store or across the country, I can't tune into a rock or pop station without either song playing.  And every time I do, for those three or four minutes' worth of song, it takes me back to 1989, where life was altogether simpler. 

I can't overlook "Mary Jane's Last Dance" as part of the soundtrack as I was trying to discover my purpose in life. Aside from the obvious subject of the song, I lesson I learned every time I heard it was:  Don't get so caught up in the busyness of life that you forget to lay back and listen to some music.

That I uphold even more so now.  What would I cue up at random times?  "American Girl." "Running Down a Dream," "The Waiting," or even that additional timeless duet with Ms. Nicks, "Stop Dragging My Heart Around."

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power music should have on you, a great lesson I have put into practice after thirty-five years of listening to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

So, it's no wonder I shed a few tears when I learned of the passing of Tom Petty.  But I have dried them and lifted my hung head again, determined to go out "Into the Great Wide Open" and start "Learning to Fly."