But let me get to the point, let’s roll another joint
And turn the radio loud, I’m too alone to be proud
You don’t know how it feels
You don’t know how it feels to be me

Let’s hear it for Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers.

Tom Petty has been a constant soundtrack in my life since… maybe since I was in utero. I’ve known his face and his voice for as long as I can remember. I’m pretty sure he’s the reason I have a weird thing thing for smart, skinny looking awkward guys with skeleton, emotion-less faces. I know his voice because he was always on the radio. He was on my parent’s mix tapes. He was in the CDs that I’d steal from my oldest brother, Shayne. And I remember his face because the music videos he made stuck with me.

I was about 5 or 6 when we first got cable, and the gloriousness of MTV. I remember watching the video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and it scaring the bujeezuz out of me.

 

 

My friends and I used to choreograph dances to “Free Fallin”. Even now, how can you listen to that bridge and not want to turn the volume all the way up and just jam?

Later, my friends and I watched the Mary Jane’s Last Dance with morbid confusion. There were a lot of questions about necrophilia in my house that week.

And “Have Love, Will Travel” still chokes me up. It’s such a beautiful love song.

I love the blend of rock n roll with lyrics of love, sadness, heartbreak, failure, and struggle, and how it always comes out a in a beautiful melody. I love his unique voice that I can’t ever match pitches with. And I love that I never hate having his songs stuck in my head.

Thanks, Tom.