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Question of the day
Monday, Oct 2, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller * One day, I suddenly understood these Tom Petty lyrics…
The song came on the car radio and I sang the lyrics to a friend of mine who just couldn’t get his act together. I didn’t do it to taunt him or to be mean, but to try and help him understand what he was doing to himself because all of his friends were worried about him. I was in college at the time, but a couple of years later, I realized I was doing the very same thing. I’d been bouncing around with no direction, no plan, no ideas for a plan. Reveling in my abandon. And the clock was ticking… * CBS…
* The Question: Your favorite Tom Petty song?
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- 360 Degree TurnAround - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:25 pm:
My first concert was Petty, with Lenny Kravitz opening. Free Fallin’ will be my favorite.
- twist - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:29 pm:
Learning to Fly. It’s a simple one, and more commercial, but the words really hit me once and they’ve stuck with me. He wrote it with politics in the background, so it’s kind of fitting for this site.
Well some say life will beat you down
Break your heart, steal your crown
So I’ve started out for God knows where
I guess I’ll know when I get there
I’m learning to fly, around the clouds
But what goes up must come down
- Boone's is Back - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:30 pm:
Wow, so incredibly sad. Will always regret passing my chance to see him in concert this last summer.
“You Wreck Me.”
- roy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:30 pm:
“last night” traveling w’s
- Count Floyd - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:32 pm:
“Runnin’ Down A Dream.” One of the top open road songs of all time.
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
What twist said
- yinn - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:33 pm:
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance” but on another day I might say “Refugee” or “Free Fallin’”
- We'll See - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:34 pm:
“American Girl” for both me and my daughter.
- Reaganing - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:34 pm:
This really bummed me out. Such a great song writer, so many great ones it is hard to choose. Probably “Don’t come around here no more.” Honorable mention to “Yet so Bad” and “Southern Accents.”
- Because I said so.... - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:34 pm:
I have come to appreciate Tom Petty more in the last few years. So sorry I never got a chance to see him in concert.
Today has gone from really bad to worse.
- Emily Miller - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:34 pm:
Wildflowers. You belong somewhere you feel free.
- Stooges - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:37 pm:
So many great songs, so distinct. Favorites are “Rebels”, “Even the Losers” and “Runaway Trains”.
- WhoKnew - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:39 pm:
“Don’t come around here no more.”
When I hear it - I’m 18 again (I wish)!
- Farm boy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:40 pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
I won’t back down.
- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:41 pm:
Don’t Come Around Here No More …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m576G3UWUCU
- FormerParatrooper - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:41 pm:
Don’t come around here no more and I won’t back down are two of my favorites. He had talent, he will be missed.
So many deaths of those I grew up listening to, watching and a few I have met that influenced me. Makes me realize my own mortality.
- On the other hand - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:43 pm:
This news is just crushing. A legend lost. Yer So Bad, I Won’t Back Down, or just about all of Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.
- Steve Rogers - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:43 pm:
Saw him in concert around 1990 in Carbondale. Great show. Always liked American Girl. I also liked his Traveling Wilburys music too–what a great collection of artists.
- SweetLou86 - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
Breakdown. That song always gets me. Who would’ve thought Bob Dylan would outlive 3 of the 5 Wilbury’s?
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
The Waiting…especially the live version
- lake county democrat - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:45 pm:
“Shadow of a Doubt” - usually rock & roll guys have the exact opposite reaction to smart, independent women (and it’s tuneful as heck).
- My New Handle - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
Runnin’ Down a Dream
- blue dog dem - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
It wasn’t my favorite, but today its tragically fitting and sad, ‘A Face in the Crowd’.
- The Way I See It - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:47 pm:
American Girl
Free Falling a close second
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
I’m answering the best I can, as I have freely admitted I lack in musical aptitude and know enough to look really foolish discussing it.
The movie “She’s the One” by Edward Burns had as its soundtrack songs by Tom Petty allowing the film to have a consistent musical feel throughout.
It’s not a film I consider all that great or special, or even Edward Burns’ best work as a writer, director or actor, individually or as a collective, but the music Tom Petty had for what Burns cobbled together in his film was really great and made the film so much better.
To that “Walls (Circus)” would be the song I’d choose, which may or may not make much sense to others, but like I said, music isn’t my wheel house, but Petty’s work with Edward Burns and “She’s the One” really stuck with me, along with the Petty catalog that my appreciation to is limited to my lacking in music awareness.
- northsider (the original) - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:48 pm:
Here Comes My Girl
(especially the “watch her walk” aside)
- Sheeesh - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
Wow, this day can’t get any worse. ‘Last Dance’ and ‘Yer so Bad’ top my favorites.
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:52 pm:
Woman in Love
Insider
- Michelle Flaherty - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
Part of the first Farm Aid back in 1985 in Champaign …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xSPnHUbRNk&list=PLNVdgfOEXnVprNK5MN-R27IuM4m76B_AH
- Rich Miller - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:54 pm:
===especially the “watch her walk” aside===
Yeah, man.
- alas - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:56 pm:
Free fallin’
Runnin’ down a dream
Won’t back down
- VanillaMan - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:57 pm:
Refugee
Petty was amazing
- Flynn's mom - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:58 pm:
American Girl, Here Comes My Girl, Listen to Her Heart
- Anoniphone - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 3:58 pm:
Swingin’
- Loop Lady - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:00 pm:
Mary Janes Last Dance…Godspeed
- City Zen - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:00 pm:
As a MTV kid, “You Got Lucky” and its post-apocalyptic video will always be up there.
- The Doc - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:02 pm:
Breakdown. Simple, straightforward rock.
Go ahead, give it to me.
- Anon - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:02 pm:
Walls. And them maybe Zombie Zoo.
:-(
Sad day.
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:06 pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SFNW5F8K9Y
- Responsa - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:09 pm:
Breakdown. And close behind with a totally different feel and sound, Wildflowers.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:09 pm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNxfPAF1frM
- SAP - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:12 pm:
Refugee
Don’t Come Around Here No More
You’re Jammin’ Me
- JS Mill - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:12 pm:
I only like one of his songs, yet it is one of my favorite songs of all time…American Girl.
- Joe M - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:12 pm:
I also go with Runnin Down a Dream
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv4-m-cIZf4
- frisbee - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:16 pm:
yer so bad
Summerfest in Milwaukee will never be the same
- SAP - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:17 pm:
I have Full Moon Fever on vinyl and didn’t hear the CD version until years later. Halfway through the CD, he explains that they will pause because people who have the album on vinyl would be getting up to flip it over about now. It is an absurd little anachronism that still makes me chuckle.
- TRH - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:18 pm:
Impossible for me to pick just. Best I can do is narrow down to three. You Tell Me, Even The Losers and Runnin’ Down A Dream.
RIP, Mr. Petty.
- 47th Ward - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
I’ll be the boy in the corduroy pants
You be the girl at the high school dance
Run with me wherever I go
And just play dumb, whatever you know
Oh, yeah, you wreck me, baby
You break me in two
But you move me, honey
Yes you do
- X - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:20 pm:
A Face in the Crowd
Yer So Bad
What a great talent. So glad I was able to enjoy him live.
- Cheryl44 - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:22 pm:
I live close enough to Wrigley and the wind was just right this summer I could open my windows and hear most of the concert.
I think I might have liked him best as Lucky on King of the Hill.
- Ken_in_Aurora - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:24 pm:
Mary Jane’s Last Dance, a favorite to play. So long, Tom…
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:24 pm:
Here comes my girl
- proudstatetrooper - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:29 pm:
Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
- swILL - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:30 pm:
Here Comes My Girl
- pawn - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
Oh no! Just learned the news by clicking on Cap Fax…. this is really sad. So many great songs… a true artist. I love Breakdown, but my anthem has to be Won’t Back Down. Listened to it many times over the past two years.
- Red Ranger - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:34 pm:
Free Fallin’
I was 12 or 13 when the video came out and I truly believed that what life was like in southern California. What an amazing music video.
- A State Employee Guy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:37 pm:
He did an acoustic version of Won’t Back Down on TV after 9-11. I remember being confused, scared, and unsure of anything that day, but as soon as I heard him sing that, I felt comfort.
This one stings.
- Flippy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:37 pm:
I thought I had a favorite, but then I see one posted above and I’m like, “oh yeah, that one!” and “oh yeah, that one!”
Too many great ones.
- friendofthedevil - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:40 pm:
It’s Good to be King (if just for a while)
Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around w/ Stevie Nicks
- Amalia - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:41 pm:
well, i never get titles right, but Great Wide Open? Free Fallin? Runnin down a dream? I can’t pick. love them all I”m sad I never saw him in concert, love that my husband did. also love the Traveling Wilburys. this is a super sad day for music lovers. Somebody hold Steve Nicks very close because no doubt she is super, super sad right now.
- Shamrockery - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:41 pm:
“Runnin’ Down a Dream,” loved it for years, finally have a car worthy of the tune. RIP, Tom.
- Flippy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:45 pm:
“Won’t back down” is a good one, and reportedly Tom Petty admitted once that he liked Johnny Cash’s cover more than his original version.
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:46 pm:
I was at Memorial Stadium for this one. Like kids playing in the garage; Bob, Willie, Tom and the Heartbreakers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je9MZYOywho
- anonlurker - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:47 pm:
So many great ones.
You Wreck Me
Don’t Fade on Me
- wordslinger - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 4:59 pm:
It appears CBS jumped the gun.
Lesson for you young journalists out there; best to get it right, instead of “first.”
- Dead Head - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 5:11 pm:
I saw him numerous times with Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead. I’d have to credit Stevie Nicks, but their duet of, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” gets my pick.
- Jerry 101 - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 5:16 pm:
I feel dead inside at the moment. I know it won’t last, but this hits hard.
As to the qotd, I don’t think I could answer this with one song, or even a dozen. Between his solo work, the Heartbreakers, the Traveling Wilburys, and Mudcrutch, he must have dozens of songs that qualify as my favorite.
But my first favorite, the song that made me a Tom Petty fan from the first moment I heard it, is Mary Jane’s Last Dance.
But I love it all.
My heart is aching. I’ll miss you, Tom.
- Decaturland - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 5:20 pm:
Time To Move On
- Glass half full - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 5:27 pm:
Shadow of a doubt/ here comes my girl….
There goes my baby, there goes my only one.
I think she loves me, but she don’t want to let on.
Yeah, she likes to keep me guessin’,
She’s got me on the fence with that little bit of mystery,
She’s a complex kid and she’s always been so hard to figure out.
Yeah, she always likes to leave me with a shadow of a doubt.
Classic
- Six Degrees of Separation - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 5:41 pm:
I can’t pick one, but thoroughly enjoyed reading the CapFax readers favorites and their eloquent explanations of why. And my son, who is a new but huge Petty fan, just discovered the Traveling Wilburys.
- G'Kar - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 6:00 pm:
Runnin’ down a dream–he is singing with Del now.
Free Falling
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 6:07 pm:
No Christmas was complete without “Christmas All Over Again”. Man, I loved that, and 95% of everything else he did. RIP Tom
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 6:11 pm:
Wildflowers, was our father/daughter dance song at her wedding.
- Chris G - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 6:17 pm:
“Won’t Back Down” — especially the Johnny Cash version. I am pretty much heartbroken about Petty’s death. He wrote and sang for the rest of us.
- filmmaker prof - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 6:56 pm:
Straight Into Darkness
- Vote Quimby - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 7:54 pm:
Refuge. The first 45 I ever wore out. Sang karaoke to it in San Francisco two years ago as the meaning of the song came into focus for me. I substitute the f-word for “really” in the line “it don’t really matter to me babe/everybody’s had to fight to be free.”
Saw him at Riverport 8 or 10 years ago from the sixth row (single ticket from the box office day of show) when Stevie Nicks made a guest appearance.
- The_Equalizer - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:14 pm:
Runnin’ Down a Dream. One of the few songs where I know exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard it.
- Roy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:15 pm:
Kudos anon. On swinging, great video too.
- Mr B - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:18 pm:
Last Dance with Mary Jane
- Saluki - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:34 pm:
The news coverage on this is super confusing. Is he actually dead?
- Freezeup - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:36 pm:
Even The Losers
Appeals to me so many ways.
- Annonin' - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:48 pm:
Every Petty song is best
But American Girl stands out.
66 too young
RIP Tom
- Ron Burgundy - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:52 pm:
Even the Losers and The Waiting.
- siriusly - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 8:55 pm:
Full Moon Fever - the whole album
Probably one of the best albums ever, definitely the best album of that year (sorry Bonnie Rait, no).
- thatsoutrageous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 9:12 pm:
Tom may still be with us. looks like initial report were wrong. I’m so confused right now.
- SAP - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 9:24 pm:
Don’t Do Me Lie That
- Anonymous - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 9:25 pm:
Like
- Tito - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 10:48 pm:
To Find a Friend
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C-O5UlBuSHY
- TinyDancer(FKASue) - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 11:20 pm:
I Won’t Back Down
- Amalia - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 11:37 pm:
NBC has confirmed that Tom has left the building. He was so young and I’m surprised by that as he’s been around forever. Welcome to the big band in the sky, Tom.
- OurMagician - Monday, Oct 2, 17 @ 11:57 pm:
I Need To Know
- BigDoggie - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 12:16 am:
“Louisiana Rain” and “Down South” are two of my favorites - but there are many.
- Jon Zahm - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 12:36 am:
Won’t Back Down
He was great in concert.
What a talent
- Lynn S. - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 3:05 am:
So many memories of singing Tommy Petty and the Heartbreakers songs with family and friends.
To really show my age–I remember when they were advertising a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show in Chicago on WLS. I begged my mom to let me go, and she refused. Never got a chance to see him live.
- Aldyth - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 7:05 am:
I won’t back down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvlTJrNJ5lA
- Gruntled University Employee - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 7:08 am:
Swingin’
- pool boy - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 8:12 am:
Not sure what mine is but the Gov likes Jammin me,”take back your pension plan.”
- @MisterJayEm - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 8:20 am:
– MrJM
- jacksonbrownefan - Tuesday, Oct 3, 17 @ 9:08 am:
proudstatetrooper @ 4:29pm
You’re thinking of Jackson Browne. “The Pretender.” Released 1976