The 1960s band Tom Petty thought “changed the world”
Tom Petty was always indebted to the old school of rock and roll. Whereas most bands coming out around the late 1970s were interested in making songs influenced by punk and new wave, Petty had no such problem, playing songs in the vein of his heroes like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Although the British Invasion left an indelible mark on what Petty would do, he thought one American act stood right beside them.
Then again, Petty’s love of rock and roll went far beyond the Fab Four. When talking about his upbringing, the heartland rocker would say that his life was changed when he saw Elvis Presley for the first time. Looking like an alien from outer space, Petty was enamoured with meeting ‘The King’ when he was filming the movie Follow That Dream in his native Gainsville, quickly going out to the store to buy any record he could get his hands on.
Quickly adopting the same mannerisms as the rock and rollers around him, Petty would soon find a way forward when listening to The Beatles, remarking that he knew his vision for the future when seeing them play on television. On the other hand, Petty’s roots were also in traditional American music, which made his interest in The Byrds soar when they first arrived.
Adopting the same fashions as The Beatles, The Byrds had become one of the most successful answers to The British Invasion in their early years, interpreting different songs from Bob Dylan and turning them into hits like ‘Mr Tambourine Man’. Although the band would become successful in the US and even become friends with The Beatles, Petty always admired the influence of country they brought into their music.
Before he had even picked up an electric guitar, Roger McGuinn had earned his living as a bluegrass guitar player, making the band’s transition to roots music seamless on albums like Sweetheart of the Rodeo. While Petty was still figuring out how to play his first chords, he would say what the band experimented with changed the course of where rock music could go.
When talking about the band’s legacy, Petty would say that the group’s experiments drastically changed his life, telling Rolling Stone, “The original Byrds really changed the world in that short time they were together. They were LA’s whacked-out beatnik rock group. They’re part of what drew me to Los Angeles and made me want to be in a band”.
Although Petty drew from the same well as The Byrds did on his first handful of albums, his love of British rock led to him hitting on the Heartbreakers’ sound, later explaining, “In the beginning, the original blueprint for The Heartbreakers – we wanted to be a mix of The Byrds and The Stones. We figured, ‘What could be cooler than that?’”.
Outside of Petty’s music, The Byrds would also leave their imprint on the next generation of rockers from LA. Outside of the stellar solo careers of David Crosby and McGuinn, Gene Clark would also form various groups that planted seeds for the next generation, with Bernie Leadon taking the lessons of his time with the band into the Eagles. While The Byrds may be known as one of the many unsung acts of the 1960s, their penchant for massive hooks has left an impact much more significant than their hits would imply.
