5 Songs Guitar Players Should Hear by Tom Petty (2023)

This October marks the fifth anniversary of Tom Petty's untimely death. The American icon went into cardiac arrest and died on October 2, 2017, having contributed far more than his fair share to the American songbook over a career spanning over 40 years.

Celebrated as a songwriter but often overlooked as a guitarist in his own right, Petty was a master of his craft with a natural talent for how to time-tempo a song for maximum emotion and relaxation - often with just a handful of four chords. or less to do. then. In addition to your longtime accompliceMike Campell, he pioneered a succinct, understated, and distinctly American brand of guitar-led rock 'n' roll that positioned him as a working-class hero or "guitarist of the people."

Whether with The Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys or on his own as a solo artist, Petty belonged to a relatively exclusive club of guitarists who could never be accused of playing too hard, but he had an instantly recognizable sonic fingerprint and style.

It has become synonymous with the rhythmic, squeaky sound of Rickenbacker guitars, influenced by bands likeOs Beatlesand The Byrds, and learned the lessons he internalized from listening to their songs over and over as a youth to create richly textured songs with layer upon layer of six-string, twelve-string, acoustic andelectric guitars.

With so many standout songs to choose from, it's no easy task to narrow them down to a list of five essential songs. Petty's biggest hit Free Fallin' is packed with beautiful floating chords and layered guitar tracks. Songs like "American Girl" and "I Won't Back Down" are masterclasses of upbeat rock, while the electric sitar "Out There" and the '80s production of "Don't Come Around Here." shining example of Petty's ability to move with musical trends while maintaining his unique musical identity.

But by the time you get to this list, chances are you're familiar with all the hits. Here, we've selected five lesser-travelled greats from the Tom Petty canon to celebrate an artist, bandleader and guitarist we sorely miss the world over...

1. Zusammenbruch – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers (1976)

"Breakdown" was recorded at Shelter's Hollywood studio in 1976 for the self-titled debut of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. With the support of producer Denny Cordell, the album would become the band's first big hit, but to Petty's disappointment, it did not attract much attention on American soil.

However, when the band toured the UK the following year, they were welcomed by both new wave and punk fans, thanks to their incisive songwriting and bold dual-guitar sound. In an interview in Peter Bogdanovich's excellent documentary about the band, Runnin' Down A Dream, Petty reflects on how he and The Heartbreakers "started out as sort of an alternative band. It was around the time when rock music itself got really big and bloated and the songs became seven-minute exercises in, you know, bullshit.

At just two minutes and forty-four seconds, 'Breakdown' was the complete opposite of that, becoming one of the band's first UK hit songs. It would eventually break the top 40 in the US as well.

In lead guitar terms, the standout element of the song is the slinky, bluesy descending minor pentatonic chorus played by Mike Campbell over the backing of Petty, who repeats the Am and G chords.

The story goes that Campbell originally only intended to play the now-classic and highly singable line at the end of the song, but was encouraged to do a hook when Dwight Twilley (who had been brought into the studio to play on some backing-supply vocal songs) voiced the how much he loved it. Petty agreed and the track was re-recorded with the lick now front and center.

A prominent early performance of the song occurs on a 1978 episode of The Old Gray Whistle Test, in which Campbell uses his Gold Top Les Paul Standard with capless P-90 pickups and Petty uses a Gibson Flying V - the guitar that inspired the song. The Heartbreakers album. classic "pierced heart" logo.

Interestingly, although Petty is pictured with this guitar during the UK tour (perhaps because of its superior and brand-appropriate appearance), he cut his guitar parts on the album with a 1964Fender StratocasterCampbell owned because he did not own an electric guitar at the time of recording.

Here Comes My Girl - Damn Torpedoes (1979)

Released as the third single from TPATH's commercially successful album, Here Comes My Girl was written by Mike Campbell with Tom Petty and recorded at Sound City Studios with new producer Jimmy Iovine at the helm.

Iovine was brought in to impart some of that New York grit that the band loved so much about their work.Bruce Springsteene Patti Smith.

The track starts off with some simple but not-so-conventional chord choices that repeat from the intro to the end of the first verse. The first is a swamp standard A major, but the second is a slightly spicy and flashy B/A.

By simply moving the A major chord up two frets but letting the open A string sound lower, Petty achieves a thrilling loop as he jumps between the two chords and delivers his thoughtful verses over the top/sings

Tension builds through an entire verse before dissipating in glorious, energetic heart-rock style as the first beat of the chorus's big E major chord arrives. It's a masterclass in how to accomplish a lot without having to do it. Get that "expensive" chord book that gathers dust on many guitarists' shelves.

The album on which "Here Comes My Girl" appears is also famous for its cover photo, which shows Petty holding a 1967 Rickenbacker 660/12 12-string guitar with a Fireglo finish. This is what first made Tom Petty synonymous with Rickenbacker guitars and, as an unintended side effect, association with the band has helped to strengthen the Rickenbacker brand image to no end. They paid off Petty in 1991 with a subscription model - the Rickenbacker 660/12TP.

Interestingly, the guitar on the album cover actually belonged to Mike Campbell, and he was the one who used it on Here Comes My Girl for all the tasty licks, embellishments, and alternate chord voices that elevate the song and add color to the lead chords played by Petti. .

The Wait - Difficult Promises (1981)

Contrary to its name, "The Waiting" is a shining example of a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song, straight from the "don't bore us, go for the chorus" songwriting school. It was released as the first single of 1981hard promises,which was recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and produced by Jimmy Iovine.

The song's screeching opening chords are reminiscent of the style developed by Rickenbacker 12-string enthusiast and founding member Roger McGuinn, who heavily influenced Petty as a teenager by learning to play the guitar and write songs.

Petty prided himself on being a great drummer who served the music and didn't give a shit about showing off. In a 1986 issue of Guitar Player magazine, he was quoted as saying: "It's a dying art, I tell you. Rhythm guitar is a very important journey and a lot of people miss it. A lot of these kids today are just learning all that stuff with Ritchie Blackmore, but they don't know a chord that could save their lives. They can't write a song, but they can play a solo. I can use a tape. I can chug it along. That's an important thing. ”

The Waiting is an excellent example of Tom Petty's great functional chord skill. The simple chords in the G, G/F#, Asus4 and D progression in the intro have the common denominator that the third finger is firmly seated on the third fret of the B string to create a high D note that runs through the sounds.

The use of floating chords is also characteristic of Petty's playing. For example, when he played his megahit Free Fallin, he relied heavily on the Asus2 chord form, but raised it a semitone with a capo on the first fret. Floating chords help create that airy, not entirely dissolved feel that helps maintain the endless repeatability of many of Petty's progressions.

On The Waiting, he also adds flavor to his performance using a right-hand technique that falls somewhere between strumming and arpeggiating the individual chord notes. This creates a fluid, natural cadence that also invites cyclic repetition of the progression. The use of a twelve-string guitar gives the whole a shimmer, sparkle and that delightful, slightly lagged sound quality that is so characteristic of Tom Petty at this point in his career.

Runnin Down A Dream from Full Moon Fever (1989)

Driving rocker Runnin Down A Dream was released in 1989 as the second single from Tom Petty's debut solo album, Full Moon Fever. The album was produced by Jeff Lynne, who took the album in a brighter, more polished direction than previous, more down-to-earth records that Petty had done with the whole band.

The song's star is its descending riff played by Mike Campbell on the low E string. Notably, even in solo appearances, Petty was rarely seen without his longtime lieutenant, and the two Traveling Wilburys albums were just the only two significant studio projects he tackled without Campbell in their partnership spanning over 40 years.

One of Petty's calling cards was using various combinations of six strings, twelve strings, electric and acoustic guitars, and various chord voicings to get maximum texture from single chords. Below the main riff of "Runnin Down A Dream", a clean, contrasting guitar tone is used for the E major chord that Petty strums and resounds, and the studio version's chorus has additional, bright layers of acoustic guitar playing between the chorus. vocal. . Using a light, thin pick with some flexibility is a good way to reproduce that percussive strumming sound.

Rounding out this relentless anthem, Campbell brings the track to an epic, searing conclusion with a fast, hammer-filled, pentatonic-based solo that he allegedly recorded in one take—while Petty and Lynne watched in disbelief.

Wild Flowers - Wild Flowers (1994)

1994 Wild Flowers was the best-selling album of Petty's career, reaching triple platinum status just nine months after its release in 1994. It was his second "solo" album, although it featured all members of The Heartbreakers except Stanley Lynch, and was his first album he made with legendary producer Rick Rubin. Petty himself considered it his best work.

The album's title track is a singer-songwriter-style acoustic ditty reminiscent of the jingle-jangle of the 1960s California folk scene and the California landscape itself. Musically, Wildflowers is simple but superbly executed. It mainly consists of Petty singing and strumming the accompanying guitar part, while various other modest bass, harpsichord, piano, harmonium, and drum elements accentuate the chord changes at various points.

Building the instrumentation around a repetitive chord progression is a great tactic for keeping things interesting and elevating the simple three-chord folk song to something majestic and graceful enough to be played over and over again.

Played live, like the entire session, Wildflowers was cut without a computerized click trail, giving it a natural, human feel - something Rick Rubin was particularly keen on following the meticulously layered approach that Jeff Lynne had favored on the solo album. Petty's previous.

In Mary Wharton's documentary about the making of the albumTom Petty:Somewhere where you feel free,Rick Rubin explains the thinking behind this approach: “When you have six or twelve guitars playing the same thing, it stops sounding like a guy playing guitar and more like a guitar. What we're trying to do now is get away from the idea of ​​the guitar as a bed, and more as a standout instrument being played by one person, with string and finger noise and the personality of a guitarist, as opposed to just the sound of a guitar."

During the session, Petty used a Martin Dreadnought and a Gibson SJ-200 for most of his guitar parts. As a shortcut (albeit an expensive one) to the "Wildflowers" sound, Gibson has released a small batch of exclusive Tom Petty SJ-200 Wildflower guitars inspired by Petty's original and featuring the distinctive "Batwing" pickguard. Likewise, in the early 2000s, Martin made available a limited edition dreadnought signed by Tom Petty in the form of the HD-40 TP, which featured Italian alpine spruce tops, Sitka spruce reinforcement and Indian rosewood back and sides for the coveted warmth, tonal balance and, of course, great projection.

In the song, the guitar part sounds extra sweet when playing it on the neck with a capo on the fifth fret.

Mike Campbell for over 30 years with Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers