Tom Petty & Gord Downie

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS ~ "REFUGEE";


Tom Petty occupied an odd position in the 1980's. He could have been easily seen as a grizzled old vet like Bob Seger, both had been kicking around since the early seventies (earlier even, albeit not recorded) playing straight ahead three minute rock & roll songs in an era when such artists were being rudely pushed aside by the snarling hordes of Punk and the sneering artistes of New wave and Post-Punk. And yet Tom Petty became one of the few guys that everybody, even the most hardcore punk or pretentious Waver had to admit to a grudging liking for Tom Petty. It's partly his music which was stripped down enough to appeal to New Waver fans of the Pretenders, Police or Cars or punks like the Ramones, Jam or clash. His songs were exactly the sort of catchy, short and no-nonsense rock and roll songs that the original punks said they wanted when they tore into the dinosaurs of the 1970's; bloated Prog Rock, drippy sing-songwriters, drugged out Southern Rock, the wasted offspring of the sixties. Then there's the fact that while Petty was on a major label he Petty also had enough integrity to take on his own record company at considerable cost to himself. He also embraced other causes that some of his more red-necked fans might have objected to; the environment, peace, gun control. The Florida born Petty did use the Confederate flag during his "Southern Accents" album and tour but after seeing how this encouraged right-wing fans he had the integrity and guts to publicly back off which is more than you can say for Lynard Skynard or any number of Southern Rock, Rockabilly or Psychobilly bands.

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS ~ "YOU GOT LUCKY";


Also; unlike most of his no-frills rock Petty had just enough sense of visual style to toss off a few vaguely mod touches instead of the the beardo-trucker look of Bob Seger or Bryan Adams. Besides he was cool in a southern stoner way. Petty was cool enough to record with old fogies like Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Ringo Starr and Stevie Nicks.

THE TRAVELING WILBURYS ~ "HANDLE ME WITH CARE";


In retrospect he was the American equivalent to British Pub Rockers like Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Dr Feelgood, Ducks Deluxe and even Dire Straits in their early years. Except Petty turned out to be more successful than any of those worthies. The multi-platinum selling Dire Straits may have moved more product but in the end Petty's songs have had a longer life. Like Neil Young he would later be embraced by the next generation of Grunge and Alt-Country bands.

TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS ~ "CHANGE OF HEART";


TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS ~ "DON'T COME AROUND ME";


It's a little hard to explain to Americans (or Brits for that matter) the Tragically Hip. Musically they were sort of in the tradition of Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen of vaguely garagey straight ahead working class rawk & roll. But the Hip lacked the bombast of Springsteen and were more garagey then Petty. Also for all his old fashioned populist instincts Tom Petty saw himself as a polished songwriter, not a troubadour as Hip singer and songwriter Gord Downie clearly did. The Hip didn't start out that way. I saw them back in about 1988 and thought they were basically in the vein of what the Replacements, Soul Asylum and especially UIC were doing by that point. Downie even looked EXACTLY like UIC singer Dave Robinson with their plaid shirts and Darryl Sittler hair. (Later they would coincidentally both shave their heads, not sure who did it first).

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ~ "NEW ORLEANS IS SINKING";


I thought they were OK but I never predicted they would become they most beloved band in Canada. Then again neither did anybody else. It happened slowly as Downie warmed to his self-appointed role of Canada's rock and roll poet laureate, sort of a cross between Woody Guthrie, Dylan, Springsteen, Petty, John Cougar, Neil Young and Micheal Stipe. Both folksy and artsy in equal measure. His literate insertions of obscure Canadian locals and celebrities into numerous songs earned him a fanatical following that would never be able to translate to other countries. The Hip did have some American fans, tellingly mostly in border cities like Buffalo (where there is a giant mural in tribute) and a few astute critics. But while the rest of the Hip were sold enough everybody knew that without Downie they would have been the Georgia Satellites. A good party band with perhaps a few catchy hits but little more.

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ~ "MUSIC AT WORK";


Even as he cultivated an image as a sensitive, thoughtful man-of-the-people, Downie was not seen as an explicitly political figure (unlike Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett, another comparison) until fairly recently as he embraced environmentalism and indigenous people. It's a measure of how genuinely loved he had become with much of the country that while normally celebrities who take such stands, even popular Canadians like Neil Young, would immediately get viciously attacked by conservative politicians and media, nobody, literally nobody on the right, no matter how sleazy, dared to utter a peep in protest. The revelation that Downie had incurable brain cancer basically deified him and and their final tour became a national event which he deftly used to direct attention to his causes while still being seen as down-to-earth in ways that Bono, for example, never could. It should be said that the Hip's audiences where overwhelmingly white (and native), nobody ever called the Hip "funky". Still in the end Downie was seen as an avatar of how Canadians like to see themselves, friendly, decent, modest, down-to-earth, hard-working, smart without being snooty and proud of their country without resorting to the braggadocio and xenophobia they so dislike about Americans.

THE TRAGICALLY HIP ~ "COURAGE";