Petty’s ability to keep love grounded without taking away its impact is perhaps why his music has been so universal over the years. Yes, love can be epic, but it’s very rarely out of this world. You look at an act like Coldplay, who turns every bruise and brush with love into a Disney movie, and on a long enough timeline, you start to realize it’s all horseshit. What’s perhaps most fascinating about Petty’s music is the way his stories never feel too embellished. Growing up, the music only got better, namely because I was finally living it in person. That’s the stuff you want to relive again and again. Again, the stuff you don’t even think about until you’re sitting there in those very spots hours, days, months, or years later. Not just the first time you drove, but the first time you felt the thrill of driving with someone that gave you that thrill.
Not just the first time you said “I love you,” but where you were when you knew you could say it and mean it. Not just your first kiss, but the stroll leading to that first kiss. It wasn’t just the hooks and riffs that captivated me, it was the way he could capture those moments you cherish immediately after they happen. “American Girl”, “Refugee”, “Learning to Fly”, and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” were all FM staples in my family, starting with my father’s car stereo, moving into my bedroom, and later with my own wheels. Having grown up in South Florida, I’ve always been fascinated by Petty. He didn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, he passed it around for everyone to see, like a communal game of show and tell, and that’s what made his music so damn approachable. With that crooked smile and those faded jackets of his, Petty came into rock ‘n’ roll as an enviable slacker, the cool kid down the hall who was much more interested in talking about relationships than pulling pranks down by the lake. Ever since his Heartbreakers dropped “Breakdown” in 1977, he’s been the Southern hunk for everyone in a funk, a shoulder not to lean on, but to follow. It’s the sound of late-night adolescence, of expected lovers coming together during unexpected times, of infinite midnight drives through moonlit American roads, of heartbroken truths simmering over love-torn pastorals, and the Polaroids keep coming.
This editorial originally ran on October 2, 2017.Įverything you ever need to know about love is in Tom Petty’s music.
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