I think Refugee was the first Tom Petty song I heard. At least the first one I distinctly remember hearing. I was around 15 years old, going to high school in Hawaii. Up until around 13 or so I was mostly an AM radio "top 40" kid. My freshman year however I started getting turned on to what today is considered Classic Rock. But back in the late 70's, even music from the 60's was fairly recent. Sure, I missed Jimi Hendrix and the Beatles and the Doors, but I was discovering Led Zeppelin as well, while they were still a band. The Rolling Stones. And Pink Floyd. Even The Grateful Dead, to a lesser degree, (though by the late 80's I would be a fully immersed Deadhead).
So it's maybe a year or so into my "discovery" of 60's rock, when out from my radio comes something strangely familiar, yet with an angst and an urgency that immediately resonated with me.
It Don't Make no difference to me
Everybody got to fight to be free
No You Don't Have to Live like a Refugee!
Over the years I would dig deeper into the Petty catalog and enjoyed many Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concerts in some some of the Bay Areas most iconic venues - including 9 of the Fillmore shows of the historic 20-show run there in 1997. I saw 3 more there in 1999, including 1 that was later released on DVD. Also pairs of shows at the Greek in Berkeley, both in 2005 and again 2006. I believe that last time I saw them was at Outside Lands in 2008.
I'll miss you, Tom. Rest in Peace.
--Bill
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
At Your Door (1984) - Origins
There's an interesting story behind the recording of my original demo for At Your Door. In fact, the song dates back to my freshman year in college, and as far as I know, is the first original song that I wrote. Maybe there was something else that came before it, but if so, it wasn't recorded and has long since been forgotten!
But, back to At Your Door. This 'demo' is just me and my acoustic guitar, in my dorm room at college. I had a cassette boom box with external microphone inputs, so I setup a couple of cheap-o mics and set out to record my new song.
Well after just a few seconds on the first attempt, the phone rings and ruins the take! Oh well, try again.
So I stop the tape, and get ready to record the song again. This time my dorm room phone is unplugged! Now, here's where the story gets pretty interesting. Bear with me. So, the 2nd verse goes like this:
I see the train coming down the tracks
I turn around but it don't come back
Well, as I sing that first line, a diesel train horn can be faintly heard in the background, as if on queue. The interesting thing about that, other than the fact that it happened at all (!!) is that it would not have happened that way if my first attempt to record the song hadn't been interrupted by the phone! Now the diesel horn is pretty faint in the background, but it's definitely there.
Check it out:
https://thirdbowl.bandcamp.com/track/at-your-door-1984
But, back to At Your Door. This 'demo' is just me and my acoustic guitar, in my dorm room at college. I had a cassette boom box with external microphone inputs, so I setup a couple of cheap-o mics and set out to record my new song.
Well after just a few seconds on the first attempt, the phone rings and ruins the take! Oh well, try again.
So I stop the tape, and get ready to record the song again. This time my dorm room phone is unplugged! Now, here's where the story gets pretty interesting. Bear with me. So, the 2nd verse goes like this:
I see the train coming down the tracks
I turn around but it don't come back
Well, as I sing that first line, a diesel train horn can be faintly heard in the background, as if on queue. The interesting thing about that, other than the fact that it happened at all (!!) is that it would not have happened that way if my first attempt to record the song hadn't been interrupted by the phone! Now the diesel horn is pretty faint in the background, but it's definitely there.
Check it out:
https://thirdbowl.bandcamp.com/track/at-your-door-1984
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