Tom Petty passed this evening.
I saw Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers for the first time @ Red Rocks in 1980, Damn the Torpedoes tour. I saw him a few more times, including 2014 @ Red Rocks. I also had the good fortune of seeing Tom with Mudcrutch, in 016.
I loved what Tom stood for. The more I read about him the more I admired him.
Thanks for your music, Tom. Your music meant a lot to me then, it means a lot now, and forever.
The Last DJ
Here’s my Tom Petty playlist
Never got to see Tom Petty. Just revisited his genius catalog a couple months back, after watching “The Defiant Ones.” Jimmy Iovine had some good stories & a few amends to make… Been rocking the “Live” anthology all morning. So, so good.
I remember back in middle school thinking of him as a TOTAL LOSER, when I 1st encountered him because a) my parents liked him and b) because the “Free Fallin'” music video had the lamest skateboarding segment of all time (even though the female protagonist was a total babe).
Thank God I grew up, and smart people told me to keep listening. He was one of the greats.
The last DJ
– Tom Petty
Well you can’t turn him into a company man
You can’t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don’t understand anymore
Well the top brass don’t like him talking so much,
And he won’t play what they say to play
And he don’t want to change what don’t need to change
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they’re gonna hang him so high
‘Cause you just can’t do what he did
There are some things you just can’t put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ
Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it’ll kind of come in
And I’ll bust a move and remember how it was back then
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say, hey hey hey?
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice.
And there goes the last DJ
I was at the 2014 Red Rox Show, too. American Girl always reminded me of the Silence of The Lambs. I wasn’t his biggest fan, but his music was a part of the fabric of our lives…