Customer Reviews

Peace in L.A.

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Peace In L.A. is a great Petty song recorded during the L.A. riots that preceded the Rodney King verdict in the early 90's. This single includes the original (now rare) version as well as the "Peace Mix" version, which is also on the box set. This song got limited airplay for about a month, then disappeared into a kind of obscurity. I could never understand why this didn't make "Greatest Hits" because its classic Petty!

This CD came out to urge the halting of the 1992 LA Riots. To me, it was ingenious of Tom Petty and his band to come out with this song to calm down the anger of the initial Rodney King verdict. Even for those who didn't know the premise that caused Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to record this song, it would still be revered because of its sound and message.

A bit of poorly thunk out political grandstanding by a man who, up until that point, had made few missteps. The beginning of Petty's slide into a period in his career (not unlike Aerosmith) who tried everything but good music to "get over with the kids." The only attractive thing about "peace" is that it is rare. The most amazing thing about is the chutzpah it took Petty to believe that his breezy, southern tunes would calm an inner city riot. He never sounded more out of touch than on this single.