Tom Petty has died | Hacker News Reader

Tom Petty has died

rollingstone.com

155 pointsleothekim53 comments

This is subjective...

On my list if all-time greatest albums is a slot reserved for Tom Petty. It holds what I feel is his greatest album: Into the Great Wide Blue

It is one of the last good albums to be made as the dying art which was the whole album telling a story, or of a concept, in its entirety. Today, the goal is a couple of singles and some filler, and is a small market behind other delivery methods.

The album talks about him, what he has been, and what he had hoped to be. He talked about ideas such as being a rebel without a clue to taking control of his life and not living up to the expectation of others. He spoke about having some fun and just being able to make some noise.

It was a very riveting and passioned album, full of tracks just far ahead of average to be good - but telling a whole story that is great. Is there any one single phenomenal song? Not really... There are no bad songs, either. It's just above average, which is a feat to do across a whole body of work.

It was typical Tom Petty and, I think, the best of his work and thus belonging in my list of favorites. He will be missed.

To be fair, the idea of the concept album only goes back a few decades. Before that, most albums were made to pad and sell singles. Nothing has changed today in that respect. There are plenty of modern artists that produce concept albums. It's all a matter of where you look. If you're looking at the Top 40, well yeah, that has always been single-driven music since the dawn of radio.

There are still a few out there, but it is not nearly as popular as it once was. Even Zofo sold a story. I recall them being more popular, leading to rocumentaries and rock operas, things like that.

They do still exist, just not as frequent and not as popular, at least not from what I see.

Unfortunately, they also didn't last very long. I'd say they went fairly strong for about 2.5 decades. Their peek sort of correlated with arena rock in the 70s and 80s. There is still some arena rock, but that seems to be tapering off.

If you like concept albums, you should listen to the last Marillion album F.E.A.R

> It is one of the last good albums to be made as the dying art which was the whole album telling a story, or of a concept, in its entirety.

I was just thinking about that the other day, listening to "Wish You Were Here." I miss that. Maybe it's still out there, and I just haven't found it recently.

I have heard some claims that they still exist and I can't argue they don't, only that they are rare and that I don't really enjoy the music from any of the examples I've been shown.

I understand that it is one of the reasons people are enjoying some of the new material on vinyl. As before, the album art ties in with the story/concept.

My struggle is finding some that I an appreciate. I love music from all sorts of genres and music that spans the ages. I have difficulties finding more modern examples to appreciate, unfortunately.

There's a whole bunch of new music. The ability to create and distribute music has never been higher. Discoverability has been difficult, in my case. I struggle to find anything that I can really appreciate.

Note: I am intentionally being careful to not say that the music is not good. I am not in a position to decide what is good. I can only authoritatively state what I enjoy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_concept_albums

https://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/lists/2010/11/the-18-bes...

I am a fan of

Janelle Monae – Metropolis, Suite I: The Chase (2007), The ArchAndroid (Suites II and III) (2010)

what about Deltron 3030, even though its almost 20 years old?

I recommend "The Most Lamentable Tragedy" by Titus Andronicus (2015).

What a tragic 24 hours, with the terrorist in Las Vegas last night.

I finally got to see him live this summer with my wife, it was such a highlight of the season. He came across as just a genuine, unpretentious rock and roll star. He was just doing his thing, singing, enjoying the time. His show went on for such a long time I was wondering how he could take doing that night after night on his tour - I was exhausted the next day, after standing for hours, second hand pot smoke everywhere.

First concert I ever saw was Tom Petty on his "Hard Promises" tour. In the middle of the set, Stevie Nicks pulled up in a limo and a did her duets with Tom Petty. When you have never been to a rock concert, probably anything would be amazing. But I think back now about how lucky I was to see that.

If you haven't seen the 2006 Gainesville, FL DVD, I think you should. Obviously can't pull a limo into an arena, but I experienced a similar moment and couldn't figure out how right before an introduction they snuck a microphone with scarfs onto the stage without me seeing it.

Out of the 10 or so TP concerts I have been to, the 2006 Gainesville was my favorite. There was just so much energy in the arena.

End of the Line - The Traveling Wilburys

https://youtube.com/watch?v=UMVjToYOjbM

So young. I'm disappointed I missed him this tour :/ Really hope this doesn't turn out to be drug related.

Out of curiosity, how old are you? I'm 45 and I don't consider 67 to be young ;-)

I'm in my early 30s, and I consider that to be pretty young. Part of it maybe that my great-grandpa & grandpa lived into their 80s. My grandpa was also physically active till the end, and he only passed away when he did because his body couldn't sustain the surgery.

My dad is in his early 60s, and doesn't plan on retiring/chilling before 70. I'm hoping he enjoys his 70s & 80s playing with his future grandchildren.

I just visited my grandmother who is 95 and is still going strong - absolutely no problems on a physical, mental, etc. level at all. Her father (who I knew) lived to be 105. I appear to have the good genes and have almost never been sick in my life so I will also probably live into my 90s at least. I still consider 67 to be old ;-)

67 isn't young, but it isn't an age where you should expect to die either. According to the Social Security tables [1], he should have lived another 17 years. At 45 you should expect 34 more.

[1] https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/table4c6.html

Not be too persnickety, but your math doesn't add up.

67+17 = 84

45+34 = 79

Life expectancy does not go down by 1 year for each year that you age. One way to see this is to look at the fact that, in the US, male life expectancy is 34 years when one is 45 (total of 79 years); yet, the average 80-year-old male is clearly going to live to be more than 79 years old, as they have already survived all of the things that were going to kill them by the age of 79.

Useful data: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_08.pdf

The numbers came directly from the site I linked. No math on my part.

OP here. I actually expect to live at least another 50 years (all of my family on both sides are very long lived and I seem to have inherited the good genes). Hopefully I do end up beating the statistics ;-)

And for every one who beats the statistics, another must fall victim before their time. RIP Tom Petty.

He is one of the greats, RIP.

@Today - Just go away already..

Tom Petty was truly an amazing musician, songwriter and guitarist.

It's said that when he played live he used a different guitar for every song to get the exact perfect sound for each song.

Sort of like how a sommelier can tell the difference between wines that most folks think taste the same, he was like that with guitars and their sound.

No offense but a sommelier is a closer comparison to an employee at a record store than a musician. I think you are confusing them with winemakers?

Well I know what's right I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin' me around But I'll stand my ground And I won't back down (I won't back down) Hey, baby, there ain't no easy way out (I won't back down) Hey, I will stand my ground And I won't back down

The news of his demise has been greatly exaggerated.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lapd-clarifies-cannot-confirm-t...

Why is the LAPD speculating about his medical condition? Does the LAPD run a hospital now and have doctors and nurses on their staff?

The waiting is the hardest part.

My first arena concert at age 14. My friends and I thought we had 'mature taste' compared to the others our age and drove 3.5 hrs to it. Going by the age of the crowd, were were correct. This was 1999.

Lots of great memories with his music as a soundtrack, he was nothing less than a legend.

I loved Tom Petty. He made great music by himself, with the Heartbreakers, and with The Traveling Wilburys.

I will miss him.

What a horrible day D:

Just watched his documentary (on Netflix) over the weekend and highly recommend it. This guy is a legend and truly hustled to make it to where he did.

I watched it over the weekend too, three hours long but a great documentary. In the documentary there was a scene about Roy Orbison's death. Tom's wife told him about it and mere minutes later there was a phone call from George Harrison. George said "Aren't you glad it wasn't you?" and Tom replied "Yep.".

There is a great footage of him being interviewed in the recent hbo documentary The defiant ones.

Was it atherosclerosis? Anyone know?

Isn't that something that comes out of an autopsy? If so, it's a little early to hear about that.

Tom Petty's heart broke :(

I remember taking my dad to see him at Tinley Park in Chicago in 2005, very memorable.

He may still be alive, albeit barely. https://twitter.com/tmz/status/914953557614268416

"EMTs were able to find a pulse when they found him, but TMZ reported that the hospital found no brain activity when he arrived. A decision was made to pull life support. CBS confirmed Petty's death. He was 66."

EDIT: Thanks to @erickhill and @protomyth for letting me know that he hasn't passed yet.

the 1:35 PT TMZ update:

1:35 PM PT -- Sources tell us at 10:30 Monday morning a chaplain was called to Tom's hospital room. We're told the family has a do not resuscitate order on Tom. The singer is not expected to live throughout the day, but he's still clinging to life. A report that the LAPD confirmed the singer's death is inaccurate -- the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. handled the emergency.

https://twitter.com/LAPDHQ/status/914956939443920897

"(1/2)The LAPD has no information about the passing of singer Tom Petty. Initial information was inadvertantly provided to some media sources"

"(2/2) However, the LAPD has no investigative role in this matter. We apologize for any inconvenience in this reporting."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com