The “genius” songwriter Tom Petty said nobody could match
Tom Petty knew a thing or two about songwriting. Go through your current favourite playlist, and there is a strong chance that a large proportion of the artists you listen to regularly have been influenced by the Americana-soaked rock jams that Petty provided across his extensive career. It means when he picked out a true genius in music, his words deserved to be listened to.
Petty’s position as a true great cannot be argued against. Over the course of his illustrious career – both with The Heartbreakers and as a solo artist – he cemented himself as one of the all-time greats, reeling off hits as instantly recognisable as ‘American Girl’, ‘I Won’t Back Down’ and ‘Free Fallin’.
In 1982, Petty sat down for an interview with Playboy during which he was asked to settle a debate that had been going on since the 1960s. Who was the greatest songwriter of the era? It’s the same kind of question that you hear ringing around the concert halls, dive bars and warm pubs across the globe as friends discuss the best moments of the decade. Petty was faced with the same question that has been posed to millions.
Rather than having free reign to select the best, the musician was given two albums to choose from: The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Released within a year of each other, both albums came to symbolise artists working at the very height of their powers and are still regarded as two of the finest albums ever made.
For Petty, the decision was simple. In his eyes, Pet Sounds trumped Sgt. Pepper’s every time. Why? Well, Brian Wilson of course. That’s not to say Petty didn’t weigh up his opinions. “I like both,” he initially replied, before adding: “But these days, I’d probably play Pet Sounds. I can hear Sgt. Pepper’s without playing it. But frankly, I don’t think it wears that well into the ’80s.”
Petty went on to argue that the songwriting in Pet Sounds has a timeless quality that the supposed concept album Sgt. Pepper’s lacks. “Pet Sounds still sounds great to me,” he continued. “Hell, I once heard a radio interview with Paul McCartney in which he said that after hearing Pet Sounds, he had to do something like Sgt. Pepper’s. He was right. Brian Wilson is the greatest. The root of his personal problem was that he did genius work and never got recognition for it from the man in the street. So he took a real artistic risk. It’s a brilliant album.”
Looking back, Brian Wilson’s talent as a songwriter seems entirely distinct from his contemporaries. While Dylan may have captured the mood of the 1960s, Wilson’s understanding of structure, form, tonality and texture allowed him to define the sonic landscape of the era, laying the foundations for countless other artists. “I think I would put him up there with any composer, especially Pet Sounds,” Petty once said of Wilson.
Picking out a single songwriter nobody could match, one might have assumed Petty to land on the life-changing impact The Beatles had on him, but it was Wilson who changed his view on songwriting and, therefore, confirmed himself as the ultimate musician. “I don’t think there’s anything better than that, necessarily. I don’t think you’d be out of line comparing him to Beethoven, to any composer. The word genius is used a lot with Brian. I don’t know if he’s a genius or not. But I know his music is probably as good as any music you can make.”
