The concert Tom Petty considered a high point of his career: “That was a great night”
No career in the music industry can be considered steady. Although some artists reach the greatest heights anyone has ever seen, they are usually only one bad record away from people trying to tear them down and turning their back on them for life. Everyone loves the underdog spirit, and while Tom Petty had rock and roll in his veins before he even reached the big time, he knew he’d arrived when playing a tribute to Bob Dylan.
Because as far as any songwriter is concerned, Dylan could rightfully be considered a god. He may shrug off every single accolade that he has ever gotten, but the back catalogue that he has given to the world is still some of the most literature dissections of the human experience ever to be found in a pop song.
Even though it took a while for him to jump into rock and roll, ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ is still 90 times better than most artists could dream of being on their best day. Compared to the young folkie who was strumming light songs on his guitar, this was a man who had grown into his electric guitar and was going to show every shallow rock and roller how it was done.
While Petty’s style has always veered towards acts like The Beatles and The Byrds, it’s not hard to see the influence on the way he crafts a lot of his melodies. There are always those clever turns of phrase that Petty loved to employ on his classic records, and even when he wasn’t going for the most serious song in the world, he still left you with lines that left you thinking on tracks like ‘Girl on LSD’.
And let’s not forget the man’s voice. That twangy style that Petty usually sings with does have a few Dylan-isms, but at the risk of sounding like every other Dylan critic in the past 60 years, it sounds like a version of Dylan who can actually sing in tune when he wants to.
Once Petty got the chance to perform with artists like Bruce Springsteen and Johnny Cash for the 30th anniversary of Dylan’s music, he knew something magical was going on, telling Paul Zollo, “That was a great, great night. It was really a high point for me. I really admired everyone on the show. It was so much fun hanging out with all those friends. And people I’d admired for years like Booker T and the MGs.”
Then again, at that point, Petty had already spent time working with Dylan. From working with him as his backing band on tour to co-writing a handful of tunes together to playing in The Traveling Wilburys, Petty was proud to call Dylan more of a friend than an inspiration.
Still, it’s probably hard to argue with Dylan’s legendary status, even if you were his friend. Regardless of how much he’s looking forward in his career, nothing can take away from the vast amount of classics that he’s amassed that have shaped the way we think about life and each other. Petty may have a handful of songs with Dylan’s fingerprints all over them, but it’s not through anything he’s done. It’s just that Dylan’s style is now baked into modern culture too much for fans to notice.
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