In The Studio with Redbeard

Tag: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Don’t Bring Me Down- Boston 1978

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Don’t Bring Me Down- Boston 1978

    When Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers only had two albums of material from which to draw for their club sets (which often meant several sets a night), the band would reach down at just the right time and throw a change up cover song such as “Don’t Bring Me Down” that would shift the set into another gear. As their career evolved and Tom and Mike Campbell’s prolific songwriting made that option less and less of a necessity, it was gratifying to see Petty and the Heartbreakers continue to embrace the rich rock’n’roll canon passionately and perform these chestnuts without any hint of self-conscious  like many of their peers.

    This performance from The Paradise Club in Boston in 1978 serves as homage, not only to Eric Burden and the Animals who popularized it originally, but also to composers Carole King and the late Gerry Goffin. –Redbeard

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Gloria- San Francisco 2-6-97

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Gloria- San Francisco 2-6-97

    Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were among the best working bands on the planet even before they did twenty nights at San Francisco’s Fillmore early in 1997, and this not-to-be-missed performance of Van Morrison’s “Gloria” certainly doesn’t hurt the case for that contention. –Redbeard

  • Brandi Carlile- Broken Horses- SNL 10-21

    Brandi Carlile- Broken Horses- SNL 10-21

    By the time absolutely iridescent singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile first took the stage in October 2021, dressed in a gold lame’ suit backed by a crack rock’n’roll band, NBC’s Saturday Night Live had long since established its well-earned reputation for showcasing musical talent that deserved national  exposure. But I was not prepared for the impact of watching and hearing a star being born when Brandi Carlile stepped up to the microphone to sing her song, “Broken Horses”. This blew. Me. Away.

    Hands down this was the most memorable live TV performance I saw all that year, and ranks right up there with some of the best SNL performances in their fifty years, including Elvis Costello and the Attractions “Radio, Radio”, the Talking Heads “Take Me to the River”, the Rolling Stones’ season opener in Fall 1978, Prince, Sinead O’Connor ripping up a picture of The Pope, even U2 with Bono breaking the fourth wall barrier by leaving the tiny SNL stage to embrace the studio audience.
    On her “Broken Horses” first Saturday Night Live performance October 23, 2021 Brandi Carlile, framed by her hired gun identical twin bald-headed guitarists, elicited comparison to Bonnie Raitt backed by Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers. Carlile’s songcraft, stage presence, and impeccable vibrato, with that hot band kicking her backside, made me an instant convert. Be looking and listening for Brandi Carlile’s newest collaboration with her lifelong idol Elton John called “Who Believes in Angels”. –Redbeard

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Damn the Torpedoes

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- Damn the Torpedoes

    “We did over two hundred takes on ‘Refugee’. We never thought that we had ‘Refugee’ as well as it should be. I hope I never have to go through that again!” exclaimed the late Tom Petty to me in my classic rock interview documenting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ breakthrough third album in October 1979, Damn the Torpedoes. “The Heartbreakers were always arrogant enough to write albums in the studio. They never were a very cost-conscious bunch.”

    “Damn the Torpedoes was an important album for me in a lot of (songwriting) ways, because it opened up what I was doing,” Tom Petty revealed. “I’m very proud of the Heartbreakers. They haven’t gotten too honky over the years. They’re a real rock’n’roll group, and they don’t do beer ads. They just wanna play rock’n’roll music. We don’t have our eyes on The Movies or anything,” Tom laughs heartily. “We just want to make rock records and play rock’n’roll shows. It’s just such a simple thing. We’ve always been a simple unit. We’re not simple people, necessarily,” Petty cautioned. “Maybe simple-minded,” he chuckled, “but we’re just a band. We write songs and try to play ’em. It’s harder than it sounds.”

    The backstory behind Damn the Torpedoes is a modern day pulp fiction thriller complete with intrigue, heroes, villains, intimidation, brawling, and courtroom drama. The Gainsville Gator revealed the personal battles that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers had to fight just so that we could enjoy one of the most important rock albums of the last half century. -Redbeard

  • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- I Won’t Back Down- San Francisco 2-6-97

    Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers- I Won’t Back Down- San Francisco 2-6-97

    With the studio version originally on the Tom Petty solo album Full Moon Fever,  which we will honor here on its 35th anniversary next week, note how Florida natives the late Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers stood their ground with a six-string rather than a six-shooter. It’s a different take on “I Won’t Back Down” from San Francisco’s Fillmore during a nationwide radio broadcast in February 1997. After Tom passed away twenty years later, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench included this on the American Treasure  collection so you can now own it, too.- Redbeard 

    Tom-Petty-I-Wont-Back-Down-187607

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- She’s the One/Angel Dream 30th anniversary

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- She’s the One/Angel Dream 30th anniversary

    In August 1996 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers released She’s the One , original soundtrack music to director Ed Burns’ film, and I had the honor of co-hosting the world premiere radio broadcast of the album along with Tom thirty years ago.

    Until now the She’s the One  project had always been an outlier in the otherwise very consistent Tom Petty canon, a one-off coming at a very emotional point in his private life. On the thirtieth anniversary of the original comes Angel Dream , these same film soundtrack recordings remixed and remastered, which are integrated here into my original broadcast classic rock interview where the late Petty explains unequivocally his reasons for doing them. –Redbeard

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers-Mary Jane’s Last Dance- San Francisco 2-97

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers-Mary Jane’s Last Dance- San Francisco 2-97

    Here is a rare recorded concert performance of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers doing the one-off “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” which did not quite make the 1991 album Into the Great Wide Open  and instead was a surprise hit on their Greatest Hits package. Hyperbole warning: in my humble opinion, along with the E Street Band, this collective could be the best live working band on the planet on any given night, and was consistently over a forty year run. Exhibit “A” here is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ multi-night residency at the Fillmore in San Francisco in February, 1997. Turn this up as loud as your gear will go. – Redbeard

     

  • Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- You Wreck Me- San Francisco 2/6/97

    Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers- You Wreck Me- San Francisco 2/6/97

    Tom Petty tore a page from the Buddy Holly school of minimalism with three simple descending chords and a red hot live band, the Heartbreakers, during the impressive Fillmore residency in San Francisco the first week of February 1997.