The Tom Petty song that mentions David Bowie
Tom Petty and David Bowie are two artists you wouldn’t necessarily mention in the same breath. One represented a very American form of rock ‘n’ roll, and the other a very British sort, with both’s native lands informing much of how they approached lyricism, music and aesthetic.
One of the most influential musicians of his era, with Mudcrutch, The Heartbreakers, and the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys, Tom Petty etched himself into pop culture lore. Cited by everyone from Dave Grohl to The Strokes as a hero, he crafted a rousing form of Americana that appealed to both his routes in Florida and the South, as well as a generally rebellious attitude pitted against the powers that be.
Releasing classic songs such as ‘Don’t Do Me Like That’ and ‘Free Fallin”, the Gainesville native was one of the ultimate American rock legends and partook in many famous exploits. Hailed for sticking it to his label, MCA, in the late 1970s, Petty was one of the first artists to stand up to the man in the music industry, opening up the gates for many more to do so. Not just a musician, his legacy lives on in many different ways.
As for David Bowie, he was the ultimate musical chameleon. He had various guises before he broke through with the 1969 hit ‘Space Oddity’, and after this taste of success, he embarked on another creative adventure before confirming himself as one of the essential boundary-pushers of the age with his 1972 glam-rock masterpiece, Ziggy Stardust.
A loose concept album and rock opera based on the titular alien rockstar, it challenged established musical, sexual and gender mores. It set Bowie up for a career that would see him reinvent himself numerous times, demonstrating the power of an artist constantly pushing to improve themselves.
There is no discernible connection between Petty and Bowie. Still, it’s not outrageous to posit that they would have known each other, given Bowie’s friend and collaborator, Lou Reed, was once photographed alongside the Heartbreakers man with Bob Dylan and Randy Newman also in the frame. Following this, although we don’t know what either Petty or Bowie made of each other or their music, it’s also not absurd to suggest that Bowie might not have been the biggest fan of his American counterpart, given his open hatred of country music. Petty heavily drew from this genre at points.
Bowie said on NPR that he’d always hated the genre: “I think the only music I didn’t listen to was country and western, and that holds to this day. It’s much easier for me to say that the kind of music I didn’t listen to was pretty much that. I mean everything, from jazz to classical to popular. And Tibetan horns were a great part of it in 1966, ’67.” There’s no wonder, then, that we never heard any country twists across Bowie’s extensive oeuvre.
Regardless, it appears Bowie did make some impact on Tom Petty. In ‘The Same Old You’ from 1982’s Long After Dark, Petty references Bowie at his peak in 1972 when addressing what appears to be an ex-lover. He sings during the opening verse: “Hey, I remember you back in ’72 / With your David Bowie hair and your platform shoes / Your part-time job selling fast food / But out on the street, you was nobody’s fool”.
