I was introduced to Tom Petty’s music in college. His Greatest Hits CD had just come out in 1993 and by 1994 a few of my friends had his CD. I borrowed it one time and noticed there were alot of good songs on there. So I got one for myself. Then came Wildflowers which had a huge number of big hits on there. Those songs grew on me.
When Tom Petty was getting really popular he was called this new Bob Dylan. But then again they called Springsteen the next Dylan too. So I don’t know who is the next Dylan. Petty sands on his own and doesn’t need to be compared to anyone else.
Some favorite Petty songs:

• Learning to Fly – There’s a line in the song which says “Well some say life will beat you down, and break your heart, steal your crown.”
  Life is tough. There are some people out there who will dislike you. They will beat you down. One could intrepret the stealing crown lyric Biblically. Revelation 2:10:

  “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

  Maybe I’m grasping at straws thinking Petty had a Biblical view when he wrote those words. But it is how I intrepret those lyrics.
  We are all learning to fly in some shape, form, or another. We will be shaken, beaten, or criticized sometime. We should let that affect us. We should let anyone steal our crown.

• Southern Accents – It’s a salute to the Southern living. The Yankees call it dumb. But we’ve got our own way of talking, working, praying, and living
• Echo

– This is a relatively lesser known song in Petty’s discography. It’s about the ending of a relationship possibly due to drug abuse. But to me it’s much more. This song came out in 1999. I equate it with Summer camp 1999. During that particular week of camp we lost 2 individuals elsewhere away from camp, yet close relationships. One was a older preacher who died of health complications. The other was a kid who got hit by a car while playing in the street. That song speaks of that same sad echo around here.

• Free Fallin – What a great storytelling song. The girl is the perfect person. Loves Jesus, horses, Elvis, and America too. Vampires walking through Ventura Blvd? While the bad boys in the shadows look on? Who else could think of these lyrics?

Those people at the concert last night – were they really truly fans of the Heartbreakers music or were they just there because it was the concert of the evening? I began to question this myself when I sang along with Petty’s latest #1 hit: “The Last DJ,” while the rest of the crowd had the deer-in-the-headlights look to them.