Hangin' With Petty

I dialed up some new Sirius stations recently.

I gotta shake things up every now and again - I am so easily bored.

Grabbed me another Jazz station because the one I listen to now does not often play what I like. 

Got me Jimmy Buffet. Radio Margaritaville, of course. Shit, man, that is such a fun station. Lots of party songs, a general party atmosphere. But there is much sensitivity too - Jimmy singing about the lure of the ocean, about getting older, about love and pain and hurt. Friendship. Riches won and riches lost. Beautiful. Fucking Margaritaville, man. Every time I hear that song I want to trash my life, live on the beach and drink tequila. Excessively.

I found a kind of soft rock station. Plays The Eagles and stuff like that. A tasty diversion.

I struck gold with Tom Petty, though. Tom Petty Radio. I have listened to it non-stop for a week, and I ain't done yet.

I love Tom Petty, but I am like you - I know only the hits. A good band goes much deeper than their hits; if they have been around a while they have a catalogue that covers the entire range of human emotion and experience. They have depth.

I found that out when I leaned on U2 to get me through radiation treatments. I fell in love with so many songs I had never heard before. Cathartic.

I am enjoying the same experience with Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. Beautiful stuff.

The fan connection always blows me away. Found it with U2, finding it with Tom Petty. It is intense, but there is a universality to it.

So many fans talk about how the music sets them free and allows them to be themselves. Because we are not allowed to be ourselves in "real" life. You gotta fake it to make it. Tell them what they want to hear; be a good boy, a good girl and lock your essence deep inside under cover of bullet-proof camouflage.

But fans will tell you that "their" band got them through a tough time, or perfectly expressed what they were feeling inside. That this one song got them past a family death, or that one song gave them the courage to.....................

I hear this so often - U2, Tom Petty - take your pick - that I accept it as religion. And I recognize it as a powerful force, a life force, a soul-nourishing force - that saves people, inspires them, gives them a weapon to fight back against life.

I love being exposed to Tom Petty's true nature. Obviously, a lot was recorded before he died - he did some DJ'ing on his station. I get his sense of humor, his perspective on a lot of stuff, his outlook on life and music.

Plus............I get exposed to some of his band members. Like Benmont Tench, who DJ's a show on the station. He also played in a band called Mudcrutch, that at one time featured Tom Petty, Tench, and Mike Campbell - a precursor to Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. I was not aware of that, but now I get to hear Mudcrutch's music as well.

Anyway.............shit, I do go on, don't I?

I found Tom Petty. I'm digging deep.

My life just got better.