Rock: Petty's 'Caravan'
By Jon Pareles
The New York Times - July 11, 1987
"Rock-and-Roll Caravan," a touring triple bill headlined by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, pulled into Madison Square Garden on Wednesday. It was a distinctly old-fashioned concert, circa mid-1970's, with casual staging and guitar-driven, noncomputerized songs that looked back to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones.
The Heartbreakers toured with Mr. Dylan last year, and from him Mr. Petty has learned how to turn a typical rock set into a casual, meandering group of songs. On Wednesday, the set mixed Heartbreakers hits, songs from the band's current album "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)," and songs by the Clash, the Byrds, Chuck Berry and Buffalo Springfield, along with rambling comments between songs by Mr. Petty. His lyrics alternate between reassurance (as in "Refugee"), sullen individualism ("Jammin' Me," "Think About Me") or a combination ("It'll All Work Out"), but he delivers them all deadpan.
After playing together for more than a decade, the Heartbreakers mesh with an easygoing professionalism, sounding informal but never missing a note. While the set had some fine moments, however, Mr. Petty's odd pacing kept it from taking off; at times, the music seemed to be elapsing in slow motion.
Today's Television Choice
The Straits Times - July 12, 1987
Rock star Tom Petty speaks up.
ENTERTAINMENT THIS WEEK. Spotlights Dragnet -- The Movie and great dances through the ages. There are also interviews with rock star Tom Petty and the group Expose, plus tributes to the late stars Jackie Gleason and Fred Astaire. Ch 5, 5.15 pm.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have another big-time rock album
Utica Observer-Dispatch - Saturday, July 15, 1987
"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough" Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (MCA)
If you ever have to pick one band to explain rock 'n' roll to aliens from outer space, pick Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.
"Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" is their eighth album -- their first since the 1986 tour with Bob Dylan -- and these dedicated rockers are stronger than ever.
"Let Me Up" is an exercise in cool basics. Put it in the front of the stack, ahead of all those LPs that have only one or two good songs.
First, there's an anthem for sensible cynics, "Jammin' Me" (co-written by Dylan). It's followed by the lovely, lyrical pondering of the upbeat "Runaway Trains."
"It'll All Work Out" is a folksy departure to the accompaniment of ringing mandolins; "Still I think of her when the song goes down. It never goes away, but it all works out."
And it's back to hard rock with "Think About Me," a pulsing tune reminiscent of Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away," which was a hit for the Rolling Stones.
"Let Me Up" is an ornery record without a weak track. If you like big-time rock 'n' roll, you won't ever cry for mercy.
Tom Petty Doesn't Forget Southern Roots
By David Hinckley
Ocala Star-Banner - Sunday, July 19, 1987
His new album, "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)," doesn't have the overtly Southern theme of his last one, "Southern Accents," or even such a graphic Southern image as his last tour, "Pack Up the Plantation." Still, Tom Petty isn't surprised to be asked whether his Heartbreakers, who are touring the country, play Southern rock.
I always kind of wondered what 'Southern rock' is," he says. "I mean, I guess what, maybe 90 percent of the rock 'n' roll in the '50s came from the South. Then there was the '60s soul sound, Stax and Memphis, and the Allman Brothers. In a more general sense, blues and jazz came out of the South.
"But for specific bands today, I don't think you can define it all that closely. To me, the Georgia Satellites sound more Southern than .38 Special, who I think are closer to the Cars. I guess my band's Southern because we got all these roots pounded into us in Southern bars, the kind of places where you still get requests for 'Memphis.'
"There's definitely that gunslinger vibe down South, where you don't pull out your guitar unless you can play it. You gotta be good just to survive there. When we finally went to L.A., we said hell, we coulda gotten ourselves some hair spray and made a fortune here 10 years ago.
"See, there's a lotta places to play in the South, but not too many to get signed in."
TP, Heartbreakers bring it on home with Florida tour
By Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - Friday, July 24, 1987
When Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' 'Rock 'n' Roll Caravan' ambles into Florida this week (including shows tonight in Jacksonville and Sunday in Tampa) it will mark another chapter in a story of sweet homecoming success.
(A Gainesville concert had been tentatively set, but tour promoters worried about the low summer population in the college town, so Jacksonville, a more stable market for concerts, was substituted.)
It's been 13 years since Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch left Gainesville without much more than ambition to sustain them. They had very little money, like all the other young musicians who'd desperately split North Florida and set sail for California gold, but they had something ultimately more important: real talent. It was raw, and unchanneled, but it was their talent nonetheless that navigated them past the rocky places where so many Floridan musical refugees had been broken and sent home.
Check 'em Out
By Robert Hilburn
The Los Angeles Times - July 26, 1987
APRIL
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" (MCA)--"Jammin' Me," a slap at media overkill co-written by Bob Dylan, has been getting most of the air play, but it's tunes like the melancholy "Runaway Trains" and the probing "My Life/Your World" that reaffirm Petty's position as one of rock's most prized singer-songwriters. CD available.
Petty, Heartbreakers in top form
By Philip Booth
Lakeland Ledger - Tuesday, July 28, 1987
Tampa -- His bony arms crossed in front of his face, strands of stringy blonde hair half-shrouding an earring, Gainesville-bred rocker Tom Petty leaned into the microphone as guitarist Mike Campbell cranked out the lean, familiar lead lines on "Breakdown."
Petty, pale-skinned and clad in worn blue jeans, a T-shirt and a black leather vest, played the role of a rock and roll gypsy Sunday.
It was an awe-inspiring performance on the second-to-last date of Petty's deservedly celebrated three-month-long Rock 'n' Roll Caravan.
"If I've never met you before, my name is Tom Petty, and these are the Heartbreakers," the singer said in his patented slur-drawl after a blistering work-out on "Think About Me."
Petty, Idol top long weekend of rock
By Scott Bernarde
The Palm Beach Post -- July 28, 1987
South Florida experienced a rock 'n' roll explosion this weekend -- more concerts than a fan could attend or afford.
It was a weekend of rebel rockers and $22 T-shirts, of 13-year-olds dressed in black mesh stockings, black lace, black minis and ruby lipstick.
In some cases it was rock 'n' roll at its best: pensive and provocative, raucous and unbridled; a couple hours of escape from whatever mind and body wanted to flee.
Petty's 'Caravan' tour revives the '60s spirit
By Bill DeYoung
Gainesville Sun - July 30, 1987
TAMPA -- When Tom Petty conceived the "Rock 'n' Roll Caravan" tour, he saw it as the modern-day equivalent of a 1960s roadshow -- three strong acts on one bill, barnstorming the country with electric guitars wailing, leaving no Anywhere, U.S.A. audience unsatisfied. With the Georgia Satellites and the Del Fuegos, Petty and his Heartbreakers hit the road in early June.