Long-lost Greatest Rock and Roll Record of all Time
Back in 1979, around then, I remember reading a review of the Velvet Underground's "1969" live album in the NME. The reviewer described it as "give or take Trout Mask Replica the long-lost greatest rock 'n' roll album of all time." It was a turn of phrase I enjoyed, even if I didn't quite believe it, or know what it meant. Driving to work this morning, I put on Damn the Torpedoes by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which coincidentally also dates from 1979.
Now, this is something I can get behind as a Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Album of All Time. It's a huge claim to make of course, and something naturally prone to a massive amount of subjectivity, which is why I think it's a good choice. Because, frankly, I never really warmed to Petty's voice and found his appearance a tad creepy (in the Johnny Winter this-man-is-a-corpse manner). So I'm not approaching this as a die-hard fan of him and his band. I liked 'em, sure, but I preferred to listen (and look at) and number of other people who can lay claim to the title (Dylan, Band, Beatles, Stones, Bruce, etc.).
But, thinking about Damn the Torpedoes as a document, it stands up. There he is on the cover looking skinny, looking like he has too many teeth, and holding his Rickenbacker with casual affection. And here came the album, in 1979, with an impact that was entirely unexpected. Give or take "American Girl", Petty and his band had at the time released nothing to even hint that they had a Torpedoes in them.
And it was an album, a proper album, with a Side 1 and a Side 2. Side 1 was just incredible, an unbelievable onslaught of power and crackingly good songs. Starting with "Refugee," you get a laid-back swagger, like a band setting up to jam and then just nailing it, getting tighter and tighter as they go along. With barely a pause for breath, "Here Comes My Girl" is a classic hybrid of rock and pop, moving from an almost-spoken intro, hitting a higher and more strident gear, building the tension, and then breaking into a beautifully-pitched chorus that sounds like a mid-60s, 12-string guitar folk-rock classic. Which you'd think would be the high point of Side 1, but then you get the anthemic "Even the Losers" followed by the high-energy sarcasm of "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)" and then the LA New Wave-style "Century City."
At which point, drained of energy after possibly the most exciting side of music you've ever heard, you can't possibly not put on Side 2, which starts with the utterly sublime guitar/piano/hammond intro of the completely brilliant "Don't Do Me Like That." The album then accelerates towards the end, with "You Tell Me" and "What Are You Doing in My Life?" and, when you are entirely spent, it hitches an arm around your shoulder and leads you into the bar for "Louisiana Rain", which is a country-rock charmer straight out of the Exile on Main St school. And I love that the record has 9, not 10, not 8 or 11, but 9 tracks.
Like many Petty albums, Torpedoes is full of between-tracks madness, tape ends, funny sounds, off-stage comments ("It's just the normal noises in here.").
It's as if they'd been holding back for their first two albums, and then they just let rip. It sounds fantastic, the band are road-hardened and tight, and every single one of the songs is worth playing.
Now, this is something I can get behind as a Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Album of All Time. It's a huge claim to make of course, and something naturally prone to a massive amount of subjectivity, which is why I think it's a good choice. Because, frankly, I never really warmed to Petty's voice and found his appearance a tad creepy (in the Johnny Winter this-man-is-a-corpse manner). So I'm not approaching this as a die-hard fan of him and his band. I liked 'em, sure, but I preferred to listen (and look at) and number of other people who can lay claim to the title (Dylan, Band, Beatles, Stones, Bruce, etc.).
But, thinking about Damn the Torpedoes as a document, it stands up. There he is on the cover looking skinny, looking like he has too many teeth, and holding his Rickenbacker with casual affection. And here came the album, in 1979, with an impact that was entirely unexpected. Give or take "American Girl", Petty and his band had at the time released nothing to even hint that they had a Torpedoes in them.
And it was an album, a proper album, with a Side 1 and a Side 2. Side 1 was just incredible, an unbelievable onslaught of power and crackingly good songs. Starting with "Refugee," you get a laid-back swagger, like a band setting up to jam and then just nailing it, getting tighter and tighter as they go along. With barely a pause for breath, "Here Comes My Girl" is a classic hybrid of rock and pop, moving from an almost-spoken intro, hitting a higher and more strident gear, building the tension, and then breaking into a beautifully-pitched chorus that sounds like a mid-60s, 12-string guitar folk-rock classic. Which you'd think would be the high point of Side 1, but then you get the anthemic "Even the Losers" followed by the high-energy sarcasm of "Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)" and then the LA New Wave-style "Century City."
At which point, drained of energy after possibly the most exciting side of music you've ever heard, you can't possibly not put on Side 2, which starts with the utterly sublime guitar/piano/hammond intro of the completely brilliant "Don't Do Me Like That." The album then accelerates towards the end, with "You Tell Me" and "What Are You Doing in My Life?" and, when you are entirely spent, it hitches an arm around your shoulder and leads you into the bar for "Louisiana Rain", which is a country-rock charmer straight out of the Exile on Main St school. And I love that the record has 9, not 10, not 8 or 11, but 9 tracks.
Like many Petty albums, Torpedoes is full of between-tracks madness, tape ends, funny sounds, off-stage comments ("It's just the normal noises in here.").
It's as if they'd been holding back for their first two albums, and then they just let rip. It sounds fantastic, the band are road-hardened and tight, and every single one of the songs is worth playing.
posted by Anonymous at
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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