{"id":50,"date":"2016-03-18T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2016-03-18T00:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/departmentoftangents.wordpress.com\/?p=50"},"modified":"2016-11-09T05:56:29","modified_gmt":"2016-11-09T10:56:29","slug":"perfect-albums-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-damn-the-torpedoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nickzaino.com\/departmentoftangents\/2016\/03\/18\/perfect-albums-tom-petty-and-the-heartbreakers-damn-the-torpedoes\/","title":{"rendered":"PERFECT ALBUMS: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Damn the Torpedoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Tom Petty<\/a> never recorded another note, never wrote another song, never picked up a guitar or sang again after he released Damn the Torpedoes<\/em> in 1979, his place as one of rock and roll\u2019s best writers and performers would still be secure. It\u2019s not just that the album is full of hits and radio staples \u2013 it kicks off with \u201cRefugee\u201d and includes the classic \u201cDon\u2019t Do Me Like That\u201d and one of the most transcendent love songs in the rock, \u201cHere Comes My Girl.\u201d There\u2019s also no fat on the record. Not a song wasted.<\/p>\n

Warren Zanes writes about how this is a tendency in his thoughtful new biography, Petty<\/em>. Tom Petty\u2019s songwriting has made him rich and famous on a level that\u2019s tough to even fantasize about. \u201cAnd he\u2019d honored what he\u2019d been given by doing what he could to make the best possible records, one after another,\u201d writes Zane. \u201cHe held himself to that. Every song had to count.\u201d That\u2019s evident in the first two Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers albums, the eponymous debut and its follow-up You\u2019re Gonna Get It!<\/em> But if you were going to try to harvest the DNA that exemplifies that credo, you\u2019d start with Damn the Torpedoes<\/em>.<\/p>\n