Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Prime Petty, November 11, 2003
By A Customer
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.
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21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The quintessential Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, May 17, 2003
Those who thought that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were punk or new wave when they started releasing albums in the late 1970s were missing the point. At a time when heavy metal and guitar rock was dominating the airwaves, this was a group that harkened back to the sounds of the British Invasion and embodied the spirit of the great American garage band. Petty wrote the songs that remind you of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and the Heartbreakers provided the backing. The group recorded a couple of early albums with Shelter records and started off as bigger hits in England than in the U.S. and then Shelter got gobbled up by MCA, which did not sit well with Petty. There were the first of many legal tangles between the two and "Damn the Torpedoes" was the result of a settlement. Released on an MCA subsidiary, Backstreet, the title was clearly a shot across the bow of MCA and their fight would be continued. Despite the legal wrangler and creative disputes, this 1979 album would be the definitive release for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, combining some old songs from his early days in L.A. playing with Mudcrutch with some new songs. It was certainly the group's breakthrough effort, both a critical and commercial success. The album made it to #2 on the Billboard charts on the basis of a trio of strong songs. The opening track, the Top 20 "Refugee," written by Petty and Mike Campell," shows the deft touch of producer Jimmy Iovine, who put Benmont Tench's organ playing up front with the vocals. The song contrasts nicely with another Petty-Campbell hit, the melancholy but melodic "Here Comes My Girl." Add to this the album's one Top 10 hit, "Don't Do Me Like That," another song of love and deception, with another great organ solo from Tench. The common denominator on these songs is their basic simplicity. A Tom Petty song is almost always based on just a few chords. Musically, these are very tight songs, which speaks to the heart of their appeal, and credit must be paid to Iovine's role as producer on this album. Lyrically the dominating theme is one of the pain of relationships and the tone is almost relentlessly melancholy, like on "Even the Losers." Even a ballad like "Louisiana Rain" wallows in the sadness of pain. The result is one of the best rock albums of the 1970s and although Tom Petty came close to this level again with "Hard Promises," "Full Moon Fever," and "Wildflowers," this remains the album you find on the top of the mountain.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Petty In Pink.....?, January 30, 2004
I was 13 years old when I first heard this album and I am nearly 39 now , hence for 2/3rds of my life, this album has been part of the essential soundtrack (along with of course 'Cheap Trick at Budokan'. It sounded phenominal in 1978; as relevant in its lyrics in 88; hadnt dated by 1998; and is gauranteed to still be in my CD player in 2008. Yes, sure there has been other albums, compilations of TP, his wanderings with Stevie Nicks, Travelling Wilburys, and Bob Dylan. Tom Petty however managed to do everything perfect on this album and all the songs are etched into my memory cells, every song passed the test of time, and every one a classic. This album is an ideal first album to buy of Tom Petty's given that all the songs are instantly likeable rock classics. Dont not be put off by the 'leather jacket and pink shirt look' on the cover, this was after all released in 1978. Perfect album for the youth to the youth at heart.
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by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers 
