On Tom Petty, and mortality

The news, like so much of it these days, came as a jolt – a sudden flash of disbelief. Tom Petty. Cardiac arrest. Dead at 66. How can this be? To paraphrase the old Jethro Tull song/album: He was not too old to rock ‘n roll, but he was too young to die. He just completed another successful tour -- last week! He was aging, but still relevant, still putting out great music. Tom Petty came of age at a time when rock ‘n roll was being infiltrated by “disco” in the 1970s. He hit the scene just as I was getting into music, and just as the airwaves were cluttered with the hard-thumping disco sounds that guys like us simply despised. For that reason, Tom Petty was a very important force in music. His music has been the soundtrack of our generation for, well, a generation. He also came of age in the MTV era, and his music videos were unique to say the least. His songs – so, so many hits – play on every type of radio station. What road race DJ does NOT play “Runnin’ Down a Dream” – before, during, after the races?

Tom Petty was a masterful songwriter. Most of his songs, hits and otherwise, fit tidily in a 3-4 minute box – perfect for radio. His songwriting style reminds me of that wiseass uncle that everyone has – kind of a drawl, sarcastic with a biting humor, a bit eccentric, but someone you never forget. His lyrics were simple and sardonic and funny, all at once. “My sister got lucky/married a yuppie/took him for all he was worth. Now she’s a swinger/dating a singer/I can’t decide which is worse.” Classic! You know so many of his songs, and there are so many you don’t know, like this toe-tapping tune called “Big Weekend” from a relatively unknown (but excellent) album called “Highway Companion.” He was part of perhaps the best “super group” of all time, the Traveling Wilburys, whose first album is on most music lover’s short list of greatest albums ever recorded.

For those of us in our 50s and 60, Tom Petty’s music has been the background music, in our car radios, for our entire adult lives. Tom Petty’s passing reminds us – our generation, who grew up listening to him, who always expected him and his music to be around – that we are getting old and that our mortality, like his, might be closer than we’d like to think about or admit.