Petty takes a middle position between rock's romantic visionaries and urban nihilists - his observations are as flat and down-to-earth as his heartland twang. "Louisiana Rain" is a convincing slice of American gothic. The familiar riffs are just there because they belong: old stuff too fine to waste. A Reader's Digest condensed version of the Sixties, right? Wrong. Also, night scenes from the highway and tales of the hitchhiker as poor wayfaring stranger, last of the unbiased observers. ![]() In "Louisiana Rain," there's a touch of Jesse Winchester in the verses, a slide guitar from the Rolling Stones' "No Expectations," some Bob Dylan in the rhyming ("refugee" with "beanery," say) and a hum-along chorus that would make a Nashville outlaw proud. I don't mean that Petty turns rock & roll into ancient history, something to re-create and ironically allude to. ![]() Petty & Company have mined solid veins: you can hear traces of Byrds (sweet silver flights of twelve-strings, but without the moonshine) and the Band (though citified and sexier). ![]() Songs like "I Need to Know" and "Listen to Her Heart" from 1978's You're Gonna Get It and "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl" and others from this year's model are bedrock - they will endure. Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers - Damn The TorpedoesÄamn The Torpedoes is the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album we've all been waiting for - that is, if we were all Tom Petty fans, which we would be if there were any justice in the world, live shows for all, free records everywhere and rockin' radio.
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