It's not like Huey Lewis and co. were trying to save the world with rock and roll. They were/are what they were/are, and never made any claims otherwise. I think Tom took HL more seriously than HL did/does.
Does come across as sour grapes. Tom was obviously a tad jealous of Huey's 7xPlatinum sales for Sports. I like both artists. Both hold a position in my music world. Both wrote some great rock n roll. Both were also capable of writing some utter s****.
Threads like this are always a bit much... A performer has an opinion of another performer. Some will agree, some will not. The problem is, no matter what one says, no minds will be changed. Which poster here is going to think, "Y'know, I was going to agree with Petty, but then poster 'BeatleFace492' stated that 'Free Fallin'' is a lame track, so I now think Huey Lewis & the News are great!" Sounds like Petty is just having a conversation during a photoshoot or some such... doesn't sound like an interview. I think it's cool just to hear artists' opinions on other artists whether I agree with them or not.
I think both Lewis & Petty qualify for that one. And, since I’m 60 years old and a fan of both, doesn’t it make it “Grand” Dad Rock?
Can't speak to Huey, but can a little bit about Billy. Full disclosure: wasn't a huge Billy Joel fan, apart from The Nylon Curtain and a few scattered songs. Returned later to his music through the MFSL SACD's and the Billy Joel Channel on SiriusXM. Sometimes he hosted his own show. Very interesting guy! He's very open about his influences. As you'd expect, these were keyboardists. He discussed Keith Emerson (The Nice), Steve Winwood (Spencer Davis Group and Traffic) and Oscar Peterson. Probably mentioned Elton John, either forgot or just didn't happen while listening. Anyway, there was nothing said either about any specific interest in doo woo. Have no doubt that this music came to his attention in NY during the late 50's/early 60's and if he liked it. He just didn't specify any reference of inspiration for "The Longest Time." (Again, that may have been covered during a program that was in at a different time.) As for connection with Huey, probably coincidental. However, both had periods of "bankability" for their respective labels. Executives may have expressed opinions on the types of music that they'd like to see recorded!
I like Tom Petty and Huey Lewis for completely different reasons. I've seen both in concert. Both put on great shows. It's not a binary choice. Much in the same way I like Blossom Dearie AND Aretha Franklin. The Bee gees AND The Clash.
Huey wasn’t cool, but he was very successful. But there was no arguing for a period in the 80s Huey and Phil Collins were rock/pop for many people. Sadly. Thus it wasn’t that hard for Huey to be on Tom’s /anyone ‘s radar for epitomizing a certain generic pop product.
Innocent Man was a very cool trip through pop music from the late 50s thru the early 70s. Billy hit on several different song styles along the way. The most direct influence on Longest Time was likely Dion's Teenager in Love. If you listen to the News' first album from 1980 (the one without hits but with the original studio version of Trouble in Paradise), the template was pretty much there already. Just needed some catchier material to go with it, which they got on Picture This, then Sports. Huey just seems to be a guy enjoying himself with the music. Go back and look at some of the old Clover videos from the 70s, he's there with the harmonica or tambourine just playing along, having a great time. Hoping his hearing issues have gotten under control, it must be terrible to have your life's purpose taken from you like that.
Ya wasn’t he in the band Cactus (edit: ah it was Clover) in the seventies? Slogging away in the hard rock genre. I’m a lyric guy a guess and I consider TP to have sort of mid-level lyrical depth. Same with Huey. I also find it odd that I’m actually enjoying this thread. Both sides have equal rights!
Anyone who was alive in 1986 and can remember hearing "Stuck With You" on the radio every twenty minutes can fully understand Tom Petty's point of view. The local rock stations where I lived mercifully stopped playing them after that so the only place you could listen to them from that point on was on pop radio. "Sports" is still a bulletproof album for me but from "Fore" on, they became the poster children for preppy jock rock, the sort of music that every smug privileged villain from late '80s teen movies would enjoy.
Indeed, months of rehearsals after Rusty Day was killed, Huey despite being very torn, left Cactus for the News. Someday those abortive sessions with their telltale harmonica/tambourine attack will be released.
Oh, I'm sure that's the case. My point is that Petty is not without serious musical flaws of his own, even if they are different flaws. For everyone who decides Huey isn't worth their time on account of him being a lightweight or not a "serious" artist, there's someone who will chuck Petty because he sounds like an overmedicated headcold sufferer.
I can see Petty's point a little bit because what was coming out of the Bay Area was Journey, Night Ranger and Pablo Cruise... but Huey did two things great: when their album finally hit big, Huey quietly donated $600,000. to SF General Hospital for the new AIDS Ward. That's a lot of money. And he put Stan Getz on a record.
Tom was hardly an underground icon either. He wasn't really in a position to offer that kind of criticism. He was very much a top 40 guy himself.
Aha, so you're to blame!! You know, in retrospect, it's kinda hard to either imagine and/or remember that Hugh Anthony Cregg III (his real name, btw) ever was the frontman for a band with lots of teen fans (though admitedly, not just teen fans). Yeah, they were kinda goofy, and definitely lightweights -- but thinking of him/them as the object of "teen fandom" now (in retrospect), just seems kinda weird. Lewis was 33 years old when their real breakout album Sports came out in 1983, and he never had a hit before he was in his 30's. Debbie Harry and Cindy Lauper were also both in their 30's when they first made it big, but Lewis seemed much more DECIDEDLY in his 30's (unlike Harry and Lauper). QUESTION: How many (any?) other male pop stars -- specifically frontmen -- FIRST made it big after the age of 30, and who were ALSO (relatively) popular with teens fans.
Just posting this because of the guy who asked earlier: I see this Huey Lewis Greatest Hits is available on streaming: Good track list for this one, too: "The Heart of Rock & Roll" (Johnny Colla, Huey Lewis) "I Want a New Drug" (Chris Hayes, Lewis) "The Power of Love" (from the motion picture soundtrack for Back to the Future) (Hayes, Lewis, Colla) "Jacob's Ladder" (Bruce Hornsby, John Hornsby) "Stuck with You" (Hayes, Lewis) "Doing It All for My Baby" (Mike Duke, Phil Cody) "If This Is It" (Colla, Lewis) "Do You Believe in Love" (Robert John "Mutt" Lange) "Heart and Soul" (Mike Chapman, Nicky Chinn) "Back in Time" (from the motion picture soundtrack for Back to the Future) (Colla, Hayes, Sean Hopper, Lewis) "Perfect World" (Alex Call) "I Know What I Like" (Hayes, Lewis) "Trouble in Paradise" (from the We Are the World album - live in San Francisco 2/21/85) (Colla, Bill Gibson, Hayes, Hopper, Lewis, Mario Cipollina) "It's Alright" (from the Curtis Mayfield tribute album People Get Ready) (Mayfield) "Cruisin'" (Huey Lewis duet with Gwyneth Paltrow, from the motion picture soundtrack Duets) (Smokey Robinson, Marv Tarplin) "Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do" (Duke) "Small World" (featuring Stan Getz) (Hayes, Lewis) "But It's Alright" (J.J. Jackson, Pierre Tubbs) "Hip to Be Square" (Gibson, Hopper, Lewis) "Couple Days Off" (Hayes, Lewis, Geoffrey Palmer) "Workin' for a Livin'" (Hayes, Lewis)
I think it was pretty common in the early days of rocik and roll, the late 1950s. Bill Haley for example was born in 1925, which would have put him in his early 30s when he had those songs like "Rock Aruund the Clock" and "See You Later Alligator". Some of those early rock stars who had the teens bopping looked old enough to be their Dads. From the late 1960s onward, maybe not so much.
Always wished they would've done a medley of But It's Alright/It's Alright, seems like a natural...and helps avoid confusion. You just need Bad Is Bad and Walking on a Thin Line and you'd be set.
