Damn the Torpedoes

Tom Petty, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Mca
• ASIN: B000002PCP
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,944 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Refugee

2. Here Comes My Girl

3. Even the Losers

4. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)

5. Century City

6. Don't Do Me Like That

7. You Tell Me

8. What Are You Doin' in My Life?

9. Louisiana Rain

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of rock and roll's finest moments, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Damn the Torpedoes (Audio CD)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers third release, which has served as their commercial breakthrough, is also one of rock's most finely crafted albums. Damn the Torpedoes was recorded with the genius producer, Jimmy Iovine, in the midst one of Petty's most stressful ordeals - a heavy lawsuit with his new label MCA. Through the yearlong court battle, Petty did not only write some of rock's greatest tunes but recorded them with the utmost discipline to create his first, but not final, masterpiece. This is evident from the opener, "Refugee", which is now considered Petty and the Heartbreakers' ultimate classic. The fun does not stop there, however, as Petty and the Heartbreakers rip through the rest of Side 1 with such energy and rock and roll spirit that would put the Stones to shame. Side 2 starts off with Petty's first Top 10 and instant classic, "Don't Do Me Like That" as it gently flows into a more eclectic approach with hints of soul and rockabilly. The album ends with a little bit o' country in the form of another Petty classic, "Louisiana Rain", a perfect ending to one of rock's finest moments.

Other Petty classics: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1st album), Southern Accents, Full Moon Fever (Tom Petty solo), Wildflowers (Tom Petty solo), Echo.

-Nate Kirk

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tom Petty hits the big time, May 16, 2000

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Damn the Torpedoes (Audio CD)

"Damn the Torpedoes" was the album that pushed Tom Petty solidly into the mainstream and gave him a large audience. Deservedly so, for this is a fine album. The two best songs, "Refugee" and "Here Comes My Girl," kick things off in fine form and things roll along from there. Petty and the band are just getting the feel of being major rock stars. Their signature sound was perfected on this record. The album closes with "Louisiana Rain," another excellent cut. Except for the albums "Full Moon Fever," and "Southern Accents," this is Petty's best.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prime Petty, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Damn the Torpedoes (Audio CD)

Once upon a time, long before middle age and Traveling Wilburys and Full Moon Fever, decades before the annoying David Spade caricature, a youthful Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers rocked with breathtaking passion and talent. They came fully into their prime with this recording, bursting into the public eye in November of 1979 with a performance of "Refugee" on Saturday Night Live. Blown away, I was at the record store the next day to buy this amazing album.

This is the finest recording made by the band, and the obvious choice for anyone who wants to buy their first Tom Petty CD. Some may prefer a greatest-hits package, but these songs were meant to be heard together, to flow as an album. Some may prefer the older mellower acoustic-guitar-strumming Petty, and that Petty has continued to make excellent music. But to buy Full Moon Fever first would be a bit like buying Springsteen doing The Rising instead of Born to Run, or Dylan doing Love and Theft instead of Blonde on Blonde. There are graceful comebacks, and then there is youthful creativity with passion and sometimes genius - Damn the Torpedoes is the latter.

This album contains everything you need to know about the band at its best. The stripped-down sound (more polished than garage rock, but just as vital), Petty's voice going from whines to raspy growls to scathing Dylanesque bitterness, evocative lyrics that take the listener through every possible emotion in 3 minutes, that 12-string Rickenbacker on the cover photo with the singer as skinny as I was back then, Mike Campbell's Chuck Berry-esque guitar solos, a driving rhythm section. Tom Petty would never come back to rock like this again. He's done music that's arguably as good, but rarely as consistent, and never with such blazing energy and gutsiness.

It would be easy to praise song after song in detail, but the bottom line is that this is indeed the quintessential Tom Petty album, every song a gem, the singer and his band at their youthful peak.