Tom Petty: Songs That Wreck Me

Tom Petty’s passing blind-sided me. Hit me in a deeper place than Prince or Leonard Cohen, who I think of myself as liking more. But when Tom dropped it made me realize I’d always kinda taken him for granted. Tom & The Heartbreakers were never in my Pantheon of Favorite Bands, but with the sole exception of “Refugee,” which can get on my nerves, I will always crank up a Tom song when it comes on the radio. And there are a bunch of Tom songs I’m totally in love with, something I fully realized when Tom died so unexpectedly last October, and I binged on his songs for weeks after.

Maybe the best way to deepen your appreciation for a song you already love is by trying to figure out how to play it: committing its tiny details and quirks to muscle memory. So when I heard Covers For A Cause was putting on a Tom Petty tribute night, I was all over that. I’ve participated in a bunch of Covers For A Cause shows so far: The Magnetic Fields, Nirvana, The Pixies, Daniel Johnston, Leonard Cohen, Black Sabbath, Nilsson… I’m forgetting someone. In fact, I think the only one I wasn’t a part of was the last one: The Cranberries. I’d love to have sung “Dreams” if I could actually do that with my voice.

Of course once I began trying to sing my favorite Tom songs, I also realized that his voice was another thing I’d taken for granted. Even though many of his songs are right in my comfort zone, Tom could also get way up there, past where my falsetto, on a good day, can reach. The songs you most want to sing and the ones you CAN sing aren’t always the same thing. What my voice can’t do immediately ruled out two of my all-time favorites: the Byrdsy jingle jangle masterpieces: “The Waiting” and that perfect new-wavey-with-a-touch-of-twang rave up: “Here Comes My Girl.” I’m pretty sure both songs will be covered by other bands, so I’m thoroughly pumped to hear them rocked by someone else.

Originally we snagged “Even The Losers (Get Lucky Sometimes),” possibly the only loser-song greater than Beck’s. But “Losers” really needs keyboards to fly, especially during that groovy “two cars parked…” bridge. Benmont Tench’s organ is transcendent, and Mike Campbell’s rockabilly leads rip it up and burns it to the ground.

What we ended up with, though, are four brilliantly-constructed pop songs which contain some of the best lyrics Tom wrote …but Heaves don’t believe in spoilers, so come to the show tomorrow night and hear them, along with all the other great Tom Petty songs you may have, like me, taken for granted—until you realized we wouldn’t be getting any more of them.