Comment:Tom Petty stood up for authentic rock and he never backed down Published on: 4 October 2017 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Adam Behr pays tribute to Tom Petty, an 'archetype of staunchly and self-consciously 鈥渁uthentic鈥� rock'. Shutterstock , The most watched video on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame鈥檚 YouTube Channel 鈥� at over 46m views 鈥� is a of the Beatles鈥� While My Guitar Gently Weeps. The performance features an all-star cast and a famous guitar solo by Prince. Channelling George Harrison鈥檚 voice and lyrics, the glue holding the whole thing together is Tom Petty 鈥� simultaneously and effortlessly occupying the roles of front man, 鈥渟ideman鈥� and tribute act in the ultimate pub band. But championing a moment of rock industry celebration without collapsing into parody or contradiction is a tightrope act which 鈥� as with much of what Petty achieved 鈥� is harder than it looks. Petty, who has died at the age of 66, was the scrawny, kid next door (even as an adult) with an unadorned style and lack of movie-star looks. But he was also an archetype of staunchly and self-consciously 鈥渁uthentic鈥� rock. For Petty 鈥� a romantic rather than an experimenter 鈥� live performance, a core rock sound and tradition were what counted the most. Into the Great Wide Open An with Elvis in 1961, when Petty was ten (his uncle was working on the set of Presley鈥檚 film Follow That Dream, appropriately enough) set him on his path. But his childhood in Florida was beset by an abusive alcoholic father and quarrels about his preference for music over schoolwork. He a teacher trying to steer him away from his rock ambitions, arguing: Look at Elvis Presely 鈥� if [he] hadn鈥檛 the talent and a good manager, he wouldn鈥檛 have had a job to fall back on. Petty said later: 鈥淚 always thought Elvis was kind of a poor example to prove her point.鈥� Petty鈥檚 subsequent career was a textbook example of the rock and roll narrative. He went straight from school to playing in bands, earning money by mowing lawns and digging graves, before moving to Los Angeles. Breaking through in the 1970s, he was in the second wave of the classic rock era, following on from the stars of the previous decade. But that doesn鈥檛 mean his work wasn鈥檛 original or distinctive. With his band the Heartbreakers he managed to distil a particular strand of rock writing and performance. He brought cinematic lyrics and a 鈥渞ough around the edges鈥� image of free falling and the great wide open. His was a clear yet mythical America that connected the Elvis of the 1950s to the chiming counter-culture of the Byrds in the 1960s. It mixed a Californian coastal languidness with a harder edged sense of deep south tradition 鈥� all rooted in rock and roll. So it was entirely fitting that he performed with his heroes of the previous generation 鈥� George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan 鈥� in the supergroup . The drama of his songs鈥� protagonists wasn鈥檛 absent from his own occasionally hard-bitten career either, which included periods of and business disputes. Despite his aura as an underdog, he was steadfast in his dealings with the music industry, in 1979 rather than concede in a dispute when his record label changed ownership. He to let his fourth album, Hard Promises, serve as an industry trial for a $1 price increase in CDs. Staunchly protective of his creative capital, he once sued a tyre company for its use of material resembling his own . In 2000, he issued George W Bush with a for using I Won鈥檛 Back Down as a campaign song 鈥� Bush did back down 鈥� before pushing the point home by playing a private concert for Democratic opponent Al Gore. We got lucky More outspoken politically as he got older, Petty at his use of a Confederate flag as a stage decoration for concerts promoting his album . 鈥淚t was a downright stupid thing to do,鈥� he commented. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like how a swastika looks to a Jewish person. It just shouldn鈥檛 be on flagpoles.鈥�
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