Tom Petty: Runnin' Down a Dream
After watching the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers documentary/biography, Running Down a Dream, I found myself digging through a lot of his material…on YouTube.
It’s like rediscovering an artist you didn’t pay that much attention to when you were a younger. I always knew the guy was a great songwriter, but never really appreciated anything besides Free Fallin’, until this documentary.
One line in the song “Runnin’ Down a Dream” struck me as something worth writing about here at The New Rockstar Philosophy.
Here’s the line :
“Runnin’ down a dream, that would never come to me.”
It’s a simple line, but there’s a lot of truth there. You gotta go make stuff happen for yourself. No one’s going to come hand you your dream on a silver platter.
It’s more than just writing, recording, and hoping for the best.
Take Control of Your Music,
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Category: Music Business Commentary, Music Career, Music Industry News, Songwriting, Uncategorized
Dude, I am so with you on the Petty discovery. For me it was a little different- I grew up as a young kid with Petty on the radio every time I turned it on and I basically ignored it as cheesy pop. But then I got the ‘Wildflowers’ record. That stopped me in my tracks. That’s a freakin masterpiece my friend – you should get it, put it on with some headphones and dig in (skip ‘You don’t know how it feels’ if you’d like though). There’s a reason Rick rubin won a grammy for the engineering on it.
Then, even though I liked that record, a friend had to drag me to a show. Wow, was I impressed -WAAAAY better than I expected. Great show.
Then, I got his greatest hit’s record and started listening to his songs from a songwriting/production perspective. Incredible. Unbelievably great songwriting, riffs, the B3 -they were really, really a great band. I haven’t paid too much attention to them the last few years, (that’s why I say ‘were’) but when you dig in as a musician you’ll see they are packed with quality music that will leave you asking, “How did I miss this when it was a #1 hit !?!”
Thanks for the Wildflowers recommendation.
I’m gonna have to check out several of his albums.
Hoover