The artist Tom Petty said was “hopeless” to imitate
For any artist, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Even if there are a million copycats that are trying to hijack whatever sound that you created, it’s all done because of the fact that you were the one who managed to pull it off so well in the first place. And while Tom Petty liked to be a sponge of many different influences, some stick out as clear as day and others feel like a poor man’s version of what had come before.
When Petty first debuted, his music seemed like a love letter to the kind of songs that had become popular almost a decade prior to him blowing up. He was always in love with the idea of rock and roll, but whereas most people defined it as being the genre for punks and new wave artists in 1978, he was out there sporting the same bowl haircut that Brian Jones would have recognised and playing the Rickenbackers that The Beatles would have been proudly wearing circa 1965.
Once they heard him sing, it was practically the British invasion sound with a little more dirt under its boots. Outside of the blues influences in his sound on a handful of tracks, many of the biggest influences usually came from people like The Byrds or the lyrical journeys of Bob Dylan, except this time with a singer who was a bit more tuneful than what Mr Zimmerman was known for.
After spending a bit more time in the studio, though, Petty started to realise why bands like The Beatles gave up on the road. Touring can be fun and keeps people sharp when they play live, but hearing the playback of different guitars bouncing off each other is something that can never be fully reproduced with a handful of people in a live setting. And when talking about the best technicians, no one got better than The Beach Boys.
Outside of Brian Wilson being an absolute genius as a songwriter, the production behind something like Pet Sounds was unprecedented for its time. Even Mike Campbell tried to build his own sonic masterpieces behind Petty the same way Wilson did on tracks like ‘You Can Still Change Your Mind’, but when the heartland rocker opened his mouth, he knew that there was no sense in trying to match what they did vocally.
Petty did have a high harmony singer in both Stan Lynch and Howie Epstein, but he knew that what Carl Wilson did was miles away from him when working on tracks like ‘Room at The Top’, saying, “It was my hopeless attempt to sound like Carl. I’m just pleased that more voices keep showing up because if you’ve got to sing a whole album, it’s good to have different sounds on it.”
That might have to do with the fact that Petty wasn’t in the greatest of headspaces when working on that album, but there’s no real competition, either. Anyone can think of themselves as a decent singer, but when going against the same person who was as perfect as Carl was in ‘God Only Knows’, any competition is bound to lose every single time.
But that was an imitation, and when Petty actually needed a Beach Boy on his record like on ‘Hung Up and Overdue’, hearing Carl’s voice soar over the background was like it being touched by a musical god. Petty would eventually embody many things about California rock and roll, but even someone born and bred on the beaches of Santa Monica could never manage to eclipse the sunshine that came from any of the Wilson brothers singing together.
