TOM PETTY: The agony and the ecstasy of an obsessive rock artist
By Bud Scoppa
Red Bank Register - Sunday, August 18, 1985
For Tom Petty, obsessive rock artist, the construction of the "Southern Accents" album was an experience that spun wildly between agony and ecstacy.
Granted, a record album isn't the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but "Southern Accents" wasn't just any ol' record to Petty. It was The Biggie, the album that would bring together all he had learned over 10 years as a recording artist and all the deep-rooted experiential stuff that had been gathering force inside him. He was going for the whole ball of wax this time or be damned.
Petty: fame can hurt
St. Petersburg Times - August 26, 1985
"I'm a person that never wanted a lot of attention," Gainesville-born rock star Tom Petty insists in a discussion of fame with the San Diego Union. "It's a double-edged sword. You are pampered on one hand. But the other side of the blade is just as sharp ... there are huge negative sides to fame. You can't live in society like everyone else. And anytime when you give up the way you live, when you realize that now you have to adapt to a different existence, that's enough to shake up your psyche fopr a long time." Petty currently resides in Encino, Calif., an area of Los Angeles that is home to Michael Jackson, Pat Benatar and members of Chicago and REO Speedwagon. Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, who collaborated with Petty on the Southern Accents album and is his new best friend, just moved in down the street. "Dave has this theory of arranging that he calls 'freedom thinking,'" Petty explains. "He thinks you should try any idea you have, because you can always erase it and try something else."
Video Scene: For an encore
By Barton Weiss
Newburgh Evening News - September 29, 1985
"Don't Come Around Here No More" established Tom Petty as a great video performer, and like all great video performers he has felt the need to prove that he can "do it live."
The good news is that he really can. His new clip, "Rebels," is powerful and exciting.
City Honors Heartbreakers
Gainesville Sun - October 3, 1985
It was recognition from a former musician to a present musician on Wednesday night when Gainesville Mayor-Commissioner Gary Gordon declared October as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers month.
Gordon, who played in several local bands before turning his attention to politics, presented a proclamation to drummer Stan Lynch, the only one of the Heartbreakers still living in the Gainesville area.
The recognition came for the band's contributions to Live Aid and Farm Aid, two benefit concerts.
The Kid And His Music
By Glenn Whitney
The Gettysburgian - October 11, 1985
Tom Petty, "Rebels" -- Live 12" version (MCA)
Tom's record company has resorted to the new trick on radio programmers by releasing a live version of a dying AOR hit. Petty has had record contract troubles in the past and this new marketing ploy might not meet with his approval either. Very little energy or excitement is generated on this in-concert track which deviates only slightly from the album version. However, somehow he has added nearly one minute to the original song (which is a recent one, by the way) but it's mainly crowd noises and an over-extended ending. ★★
Rock's mamas and papas: Tuning in to what their kids like
By Gary Graff
The Montreal Gazette - Saturday, October 12, 1985
LOS ANGELES -- Not too long ago, in rock 'n' roll's early days, the battle cry of parents around the world was some variation of, "Turn that noise down!"
Of course, the noise-players of 20 years ago are the parents of today, so thee's more appreciation for rock 'n' roll at home. And quite a few of the noise-makers -- the rock 'n' roll musicians -- are parents themselves. And for them to discourage rock at home would be like a butcher raising vegetarians.
During the past year, we've asked some major pop stars what their children listen to. Here's the interesting -- and often surprising -- batch of answers.
Tom Petty: Petty, 33, said his 3-year-old daughter doesn't listen to much, but her older sister, 9, "listens to everything. She kind of grew up in the back of an amplifier, so she understands all sorts of music, even if it's not very fashionable. But she likes her Duran Duran and all that too."
Off the record: Of Petty, McGuinn, and packing it in
By Jon Marlowe
The Miami News - November 21, 1985
It's gonna go down like this: Sunday afternoon at 3 at Peacock Park, a multi-talented singer-songwriter sporting severely cropped hair will take to a makeshift stage with just a battered acoustic guitar. The reason: He can't afford amplifier or backing band. Although 20 years ago he once resided at the Top of the Pops, this man no longer has a six-figure recording contract and/or flashy video in MTV heavy rotation. Some people will recognize him and genuflect. Most will just walk on by, laughing and chalking him up as one more poor, pitiful, aging folkie.
A few months ago, Tom Petty stood on the University of South Florida's Sundome stage and introduced this same gentleman as "one of the main influences on my career, and without him I might not be here tonight." He then brought on Roger (nee Jim) McGuinn -- former leader and guiding light of The Byrds. Together he and Petty roared through McGunn's classic "So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star." It was almost enough to make you break down and cry to see how good old fickle fate can step right in and really get downright nasty and dirty and do a really heavy number on someone when it wants to.
Come Monday, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' latest MCA LP "Pack up the Plantation -- Live!" will arrive in your friendly neighborhood record stores. This riveting in-concert double LP opens with "So You Want Be a Rock and Roll Star," although the song was recorded at LA's Wiltern Theater and doesn't feature the McGuinn duet.
Petty comes alive with 'Pack Up the Plantation'
By Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - November 22, 1985
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers enter the realm of the big arena boys -- the likes of Journey, REO Speedwagon and Aerosmith -- with the release next week of "Pack Up the Plantation," their first-ever live album. It's a deluxe, double-disc package, de riguer for stadium rockers during the Christmas season, but any and all comparisons to the Journeys of the world end there. Although it's by no means the definitive Heartbreakers album, "Pack Up the Plantation" is not gratuitous, nor is it boring. If anything, it's a tease.
The bulk of the album was recorded this past August at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles, and is the ostensible soundtrack for the soon-to-be-released "Pack Up the Plantation" concert film. The Wiltern material -- complete with the horn section and female backing singers that worked the entire "Southern Accents" tour -- is solid and shows the band to be in top form and the audience getting pretty steamed up. However, much of Petty's onstage vivacity is purely visual and, in the case of "Breakdown" on this album, the listener wonders what's going on, what's the crowd getting so worked up over? Petty is one of this country's most animated live performers (un a reasonable fashion, leaving out the rock histrionic of David Lee Roth and people of that ilk) and the "Breakdown" segment of his concerts has long been legend. He literally has one on stage (it's an emotional song) and pulls some of his greatest faces. Needless to say, on "Pack Up the Plantation" it has to work as an audio piece, and it doesn't. The audience actually sings most of the song for him. It must be one of those "wait for the movie" situations.
Bob, Tom and the Heartbreakers team up for a Montreal gig
By Thomas Schnurmacher
The Montreal Gazette - November 30, 1985
Did you enjoy Bob Dylan when he performed with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the September FarmAid concert at the University of Illinois?
If you did, you will be able to enjoy Bob, Tom, and the Heartbreakers in Montreal, which has been fortunate enough to have been included on Dylan's coming North American tour.
Forty-four-year-old Dylan has long had a soft spot in his heart for Montreal. When he first performed here at the old Potpourri club on Stanley St. in June 1962, he was still using his real name of Robert Zimmerman.