TP had some sparks of brilliance here and there... Damn the torpedoes is flawless. His one and only great album
Bob Seger Possibly Ted Nugent and Steve Miller All three are right on the line of 30, journey man types from the 60s with varying degrees of mid level success
I like both (though both are currently considered "4th tier" artists for me--that's in my top 1000, which might not sound good, but I currently have over 10,000 artists ranked into 9 tiers, which might sound ridiculous, but it's for rotation level purposes re how I organize my listening). I probably would rank Petty slightly higher overall, but I'd typically go for a Huey Lewis greatest hits comp over a Tom Petty greatest hits comp, too. Basically Huey Lewis' highs tend to be higher for me--so he's fodder for fantastic hits compilations, but I see Petty as more consistent overall if we're going through the entire studio discography of each.
"The heart of rock and roll"? "Power of love"? "Do you believe in love"? Those titles can't be more generic
I love Tom Petty but this thread needs this video. Pretty hilarious... Artists have to take themselves seriously to make great music, I get it. I'm sure Tom would've laughed at his comment in retrospect.
TP was just jealous that he didn't get to play a bit part in Back To The Future [It's Huey with the megaphone]
"Couple Days Off" captures the bittersweet pathos of the blue collar worker. Don't misunderstand him - he's not getting soft. All he needs is a couple days off!
Seems pretty straightforward. I think Huey would agree. They were a pop band in the 80s by design. Funnily Tom and Huey share similarities to me as well as differences. It’s funny with the net things people say in conversation get such scrutiny years later. Each of us have similar opinions on music. Taking comments at the time and then creating controversy seems so common now. I wonder many times if it’s kinda meaningless in a pop culture People Mag setting. If you have context it’s interesting but not really damning. This and so and so stole this song are kinda common and dumb to me. Just an easy headline with little meaning if it’s meant to just be controversial.
Phil Collins also had his biggest success in his 30s, during the 1980s, where he was quite popular with teens, when he looked like this: Part of it I suppose was that in the new wave era and for at least a portion of synth pop, it was hip to look kind of geeky/nerdy. Also remember that being "preppy" was a big trend in the US during the 80s:
FWIW, TP's 1993 "Greatest Hits" was a massive seller - certified 12X platinum in the US! "Full Moon Fever" = 5X platinum, and "Damn" and "Wildflowers" = 3X platinum. 1 other 2X plat, 3 other 1X plat, and some golds. Admit I was surprised to see 1987's "Let Me Up" sold better than 1982's "Long After Dark". Always remembered "Up" as a bit of a flop! Anyway, TP's hits package is a monster. Huey didn't do a hits package in the US until 1996, and it didn't sell at all. A 2006 package went gold, but that's small potatoes. "Sports" is the only Huey album that really sold: 7X plat. "Fore!" went 3X plat, "Small World" 1X plat, and 2 others hit gold. What does this tell us? That Petty's music aged better for the masses than Huey's did. HL&TN seem more "stuck in the 80s" than TP&TH. I'm borderline shocked the Huey hits set sold so poorly - I guess anyone who liked him bought "Sports" and maybe "Fore!" and they were done? Petty remained consistently popular after the 80s, whereas Huey faded badly. I still would've thought a 1996 hits set from Huey would've gone at least platinum. I guess he'd fallen out of fashion badly at that point!
Springsteen and Bowie had success in their 20s, but both had their biggest success in their 30s, and both were big with young people! I know you said "first made it big", but I think the fact Bruce and Bowie scored major hits with teens when both were mid-30s counts for something!
Exactly. It’s not like Tom called a press conference to diss Huey Lewis . Judging by the the background noise and his general demeanor, he’s just jack jawing off the record with somebody and years later it ends up on YouTube. Of course, Tom shared a curmudgeonly attitude with his buddy George Harrison, who was caught on tape dissing Neil Young’s guitar playing , once again unsuspecting that his comments would be immortalized on YouTube.
I don't mind them but never feel the need to listen to them. Anyway...when the ' Sports ' album was big I was crushing on this girl in Calgary and she thought this was the greatest album\music of all time. She played it constantly. Every day , several times a day: " I want a new drug , one that won't make me sick...the heart of rock and roll is still beatin'...hot lovin' every night...if this is it..." And it was on the radio a lot too and I tired of it in a hurry. But I put up with it because..well, you know.
But that was too soon - that's the same year as "Fore!", and it's not like they were gonna put out a GH that draws from an album that just hit the shelves. Best time for a Huey GH probably would've been 1990 or so, when there was still decent interest in HL&TN but time had passed from the 2 big albums in his discography. Huey had 12 top 10 US hits before 1990 and zero after, though "Couple Days Off" got to #11. His last top 10 was in 1988, so 1990 gave the singles some time to "settle". A nice 12-song GH in 1990 would've probably sold well, especially because it would've been a way for fans to get "Power of Love", which had only appeared on the "BTTF" soundtrack. But the problem with a Huey GH is that it's dominated by 2 albums. It's harder to convince people to buy a GH when they can get most of those songs on two albums. Though insanely, "Eagles Greatest Hits V2" sold 11 million US even though 8 of its 10 tracks are from only two albums - and those 2 albums sold 26 million and 8 million, respectively. Who needed "GHV2"???
Huey took a massive dip real fast after the 80's. He and the group appeared locally after a AAA baseball game in 1991.
Performing or cleaning up the stands? I assume that was Pilot Field in Buffalo? That's a weird one. I looked up the 1991 HL&TN tour, and it played decent-sized venues. So they weren't true "state fair fodder" just yet, which is what makes the baseball game performance an oddity. And "Couple Days Off" was a genuine hit in 1991, so it's not like they were in the "where are they now?" file. Still, after the heady days of "Sports", they did less and less well, so the writing was on the wall by 1991!
I own every Tom Petty album. I also own every Huey Lewis album. I think they're both great. To me, Tom stepped out of line here. While music is a subjective medium he went beyond criticizing Huey's music. He questioned Huey's sincerity. That's an a-hole move. Just because something is accessible doesn't mean that it's insincere.
Correct. The ballpark was still only 3 years old, and state-of-the-art for minor leagues at the time (supposedly trying to attract the Montréal Expos). Not sure if there was necessarily any shame in Huey playing there then, but it wouldn't exactly have been considered that respectable either. Point of reference, pretty sure that the Mike Love Beach Boys used to make appearances there occasionally.
Huey was apparently a good baseball player in his yoot, and he attended college in upstate NY - though not right near Buffalo - so maybe those factors convinced him to play that venue? There has to be some "other story" here. As noted, HL&TN were on the downward slope in 1991, but not so downward that they needed to play gigs after AAA ballgames!
The problem is that we really don't have context for the comment. It's a small snippet of a longer conversation, so we're left with just a tidbit. The link says it was a radio interview from 1986 but that's it - and we don't even know if that's correct. It doesn't sound like a radio interview. The interviewer's voice is off in the distance, and a photographer works during the chat. Seems more likely to be a print interview. But anyway, we still don't know the context. Was this even on the record? Did Tom talk about other then-popular artists? No idea.
Couldn't really hazard a guess. Sellouts were guaranteed for most games back then, as the ownership was dangling the carrot of potential MLB relocation or expansion. As for Huey's motivation for agreeing to appear there, it may have been those combination of factors that you mentioned, plus the fact that the place was still new. In retrospect, it had to have given an indication that the career was in sharp decline. (Yeah, somebody will come along and say that grunge swept everything in its wake. )
