Artist.......: Tom Petty
Album........: Highway Companion
Label........: American Recordings
Genre........: Rock
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Jul-13-2006
str.date.....: Jul-21-2006
quality......: VBR/44,1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: http://www.tompetty.com/
track title time
01. Saving Grace 03:48
02. Square One 03:26
03. Flirting With Time 03:16
04. Down South 03:27
05. Jack 02:29
06. Turn This Car Around 03:59
07. Big Weekend 03:16
08. Night Driver 04:28
09. Damaged By Love 03:23
10. This Old Town 04:17
11. Ankle Deep 03:24
12. The Golden Rose 04:43
Runtime 43:56 min
Size 64,5 MB
Release Notes:
Tom Petty, known in his early years as "Tommy", was
born in Gainesville, Florida and grew up in
northeast Gainesville. As a teen-aged, amateur
musician he often practiced at home with friends
and sometimes even in the family owned fall-out
shelter located in his back yard. Petty graduated
from Gainesville High School in 1968. Petty did not
have any musical aspirations until Elvis Presley
came to Ocala, Florida, 25 miles south of Petty's
hometown, to work on a film, "Follow That Dream".
Petty went down to watch him and was inspired.
After working with his early bands The Sundowners,
The Epics, and Mudcrutch with ace drummer Randall
Marsh, (which also included future Heartbreakers
members Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench) he began
his recording career with Tom Petty & the
Heartbreakers when the band broke onto the national
music scene with their 1976 self-titled debut
album. Still, it took America a full year to catch
up to the album. "Breakdown" was re-released to
radio and became a Top 40 hit in 1977 after word
filtered back the band was creating a firestorm in
England.
Their 1978 second album You're Gonna Get It! proved
the debut album's intensity was no fluke. Marking
the band's first gold album, it features the
singles "Listen To Her Heart" and "I Need To Know".
Shortly after its release the band was dragged into
a legal dispute when ABC Records was sold to MCA
Records. Petty refused to simply be transferred to
another record label without his consent. He held
fast to his principles for nine long months, which
eventually led to him filing for bankruptcy.
After the dispute was settled, Tom Petty & the
Heartbreakers released their third album Damn the
Torpedoes (1979) that rapidly became
triple-platinum. It includes "Refugee", their U.S.
breakthrough single.
Petty was appealling to an wide range of musical
tastes as new wave. Punk and rocker fans alike were
taking notice.
Though he was already extremely successful, Petty
ran into record company trouble again when he and
the Heartbreakers prepared to release Hard Promises
(1981), the follow-up to Damn the Torpedoes. MCA
wanted to release the record at the list price of
$9.98, which was a high price at the time. Petty
refused to comply to their wishes, threatening to
change the album title to "The 8.98 Album" &
actually withhold the album from the label. He
organized a fan protest that forced the company to
release the record at 8.98. Hard Promises became a
Top Ten hit, going platinum and spawning the hit
single "The Waiting."
On their fifth album Long After Dark (1982) bass
player Ron Blair was replaced by Howie Epstein,
giving The Heartbreakers their line up until 1994.
However, Petty had problems coping with the stress
and success and decided to slow things down.
On their comeback album Southern Accents (1985) Tom
Petty & The Heartbreakers picked up where they had
left off. The recording was not without problems ù
Petty became frustrated during the mixing process
and broke his left hand after punching through a
wall. The album includes the hit single "Don't Come
Around Here No More" which was produced by Dave
Stewart. The video for the single, featuring Tom
dressed as the Mad Hatter mocking and chasing Alice
from the book Alice in Wonderland, then cutting and
eating her as if she were a cake, caused some
controversy after it was criticized by feminist
groups.
A successful concert tour led to the live album
Pack Up The Plantation-Live! (1985). The band's
live capabilities were put to the test when Bob
Dylan invited Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to join
him on his True Confessions tour through the U.S.,
Australia, Japan (1986) and Europe (1987).
Also in 1987, the group released Let Me Up (I've
Had Enough), a studio album made to sound like a
live recording using a technique they borrowed from
Bob Dylan. It includes "Jammin' Me", which Petty
wrote with Dylan.
Petty also appeared in several episodes of It's
Garry Shandling's Show (1987 - 1990), playing
himself as one of Garry Shandling's neighbors. This
show appeared on the then-fledgling Fox network.
In 1989, Petty released Full Moon Fever. Though
nominally a solo project, other Heartbreakers and
well-known musicians participated in the album's
production. Mike Campbell co-produced the album
with Petty and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light
Orchestra. It was in the Billboard Top Ten chart
for over 34 weeks and earned triple-platinum
status, along the way spawning such hits as "I
Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down
A Dream".
Prior to Full Moon Fever, Lynne and Petty worked
together in the all-stars band Traveling Wilburys,
which also counted Bob Dylan, George Harrison and
Roy Orbison as members. Traveling Wilburys started
as a joke in order to record a B-side for a George
Harrison single, but the song "Handle With Care"
was such a success that the group decided to record
a full album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988). Roy
Orbison's sudden death cast a shadow on the success
and shortly afterwards Del Shannon, whom the
remaining Wilburys had in mind as a replacement,
committed suicide. A second Wilburys album,
mysteriously called Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3
(1990), followed but couldn't quite live up to
expectations.
Petty rejoined with the Heartbreakers for his next
album, Into the Great Wide Open in 1991. It was
again produced by Jeff Lynne and includes the hit
singles "Learning To Fly" and "Into The Great Wide
Open", the latter featuring Johnny Depp, Gabrielle
Anwar and Faye Dunaway in the video.
In 1994, Petty released his second solo album,
Wildflowers, which included hit singles "You Don't
Know How It Feels", "You Wreck Me", "It's Good to
Be King", "A Higher Place" and "Honey Bee". A year
later, a six CD Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
box-set was released, entitled Playback.
Approximately half of the tracks were previously
available on albums, while the rest were B-sides,
demos and live tracks. Two notable tracks are a
version of Tom's famous duet with Stevie Nicks of
Fleetwood Mac, "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around",
which Tom sings alone, and the song "Waiting For
Tonight," which features vocals from The Bangles.
The latter song also appeared on the two CD
anthology released in 2000.
1996 saw the release of Tom's solo soundtrack to
the movie She's the One, starring Cameron Diaz and
Jennifer Aniston. Three singles were released from
this album, "Walls (Circus)" (featuring Lindsey
Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac), "Climb that Hill" and
"Change the Locks". The album also included a cover
of a song by Beck, "Asshole".
Three years after the release of She's the One, Tom
recorded the album Echo, with the Heartbreakers.
Two songs were released as singles in the U.S.,
"Room at the Top" and "Free Girl Now". The album
reached number 10 in the U.S. album charts. A Tom
Petty Anthology was released in 2000, compiled by
film director Cameron Crowe.
Tom's most recent album was The Last DJ, released
in 2002. Many of the tracks are stinging attacks on
the music industry, criticising the greediness
inherent within it, as well as the tendency of
record companies to water down popular rock acts
and release throwaway pop music made by
scantily-clad young girls. The album reached number
9 in the U.S. charts.
Petty has been honored with 16 Grammy Award
nominations since 1981. In that year he received
his first nomination for "Stop Draggin' My Heart
Around" in the category of Best Rock Performance By
A Duo or Group With Vocal. Petty earned a Grammy
Award in 1989 for Best Rock Performance By A Duo or
Group With Vocal for his work with the Traveling
Wilburys. In 1994 he received another two Grammy
Awards: Best Male Rock Vocal Performance (for "You
Don't Know How It Feels") and Best Engineered Album
(Non-Classical). Wildflowers also garnered a Grammy
nomination for Best Rock Album.
Other Wildflowers achievements included Best Male
Video Award for "You Don't Know How It Feels" at
the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. Tom Petty & The
Heartbreakers won the same award in 1994 with the
video "Mary Jane's Last Dance". At the 1994
ceremony, Petty was also presented with the Video
Vanguard Award, citing his longtime contributions
to the field. In accepting the award though, while
expressing his appreciation to MTV for the award,
Petty denied his work was any more important than
anyone else's, saying that all artistic expression
was equally valid and implicitly validating the
work of up-and-coming and aspiring musicians.
As a songwriter, Tom Petty was acknowledged in May
1996 with the prestigious Golden Note Award from
ASCAP. In April 1996, Petty received UCLA's George
And Ira Gershwin Award For Lifetime Musical
Achievement. In 2002 the group was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Petty appeared in the 1997 movie, The Postman,
directed by and starring Kevin Costner. This was
his second appearance on the silver screen, having
had a small part in the 1987 movie Made in Heaven.
In 1999 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers received a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7018
Hollywood Blvd., an honor that acknowledges both
their musical achievements and their humanitarian
involvement with such organizations as Greenpeace,
the National Veteran's Foundation, USA Harvest,
Rock And Wrap It Up, AmFAR (the American Foundation
for AIDS Research), and his anti-nuclear activism.
In 2002 he appeared on The Simpsons in the episode
"How I Spent My Strummer Vacation". He has also
voiced the character Lucky in King of the Hill.
In 2005, Tom Petty began hosting his own show
"Buried Treasure" on XM Radio. On the show, Tom
shares selections from his personal record
collection. On December 6, 2005, he received the
Billboard Century Award for his lifetime
achievements. Later in the month, Tom agreed to
sign on with XM Radio for a second season of his
show "Buried Treasure."
In February 2006 Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
agreed to be the headline act at the fifth annual
Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. In addition to
Bonnaroo, Petty will be on tour throughout the
summer in 2006. The tour is projected to start in
Charlotte, North Carolina on June 9 and end in
Randalls Island, NY on August 19. Stops include
major cities such as New York, St.Louis,
Indianapolis and Denver. Supporting acts during the
tour will include Pearl Jam, The Allman Brothers
Band & Trey Anastasio. Additionally, Stevie Nicks
will join Tom Petty onstage during the first eight
concerts of the tour to perform various songs from
the Heartbreakers vast catalog. It was just
announced that for the Highway Companion Tour they
will offer a Highway Companion's Club which would
allow fans to recevie priority seating, discounts
at the Tom Petty Store, a complimentary CD of
Highway Companion and a personalized email address.
Some have claimed that the Red Hot Chili Peppers
single Dani California, released in May 2006, is
very similar to Petty's Mary Jane's Last Dance
single. [1]. While the songs do sound alike, it is
unknown whether Dani California was an intentional
copy. The two songs are compared here [1]. Petty
himself might be guilty of the same crime though.
In 1992 The Jayhawks released a song called Waiting
For The Sun. A year later Petty released "Mary
Jane's Last Dance" which sounds very simular to The
Jayhawks song. Similarly, Roger McGuinn of The
Byrds has said in an interview that the first time
he heard American Girl he thought it was one of his
own songs, and tried to remember when he wrote it.
Petty tells PageSix.com, "I seriously doubt that
there is any negative intent there. And a lot of
rock 'n' roll songs sound alike. Ask CHUCK BERRY.
THE STROKES took AMERICAN GIRL (for their song LAST
NITE), and I saw an interview with them where they
actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud.
I was like, 'OK, good for you'.
"If someone took my song note for note and stole it
maliciously, then maybe (I'd sue). But I don't
believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough
frivolous law suits in this country without people
fighting over pop songs."
On July 25, 2006 Petty will release a new solo
album titled Highway Companion. Also that year, the
ABC U.S. television network hired Petty to do the
music for its NBA Playoffs coverage.
From July 2006 until 2007 The Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in Cleveland, OH will feature and exhibit of
Tom Petty items. Much of the content was donated by
Petty himself from a visit to his home by some of
the Rock Hall curatatorial staff.
In July of 2006, Tom made a bold political
statement in Esquire magazine. He said: "The war in
Iraq is shameful. Whether you're pro or con Bush,
you've got to admit it: the guy lied, and he
continues to do so. I can't understand why he's not
just run out on a rail. To send somebody's kids off
and have them killed for no good reason-he's going
to have his day in hell for that. I wouldn't want
that karma." Making such a statement was
uncharicteristic of Petty, who isn't known to be a
political activist.