Since Tom Petty’s sudden passing last week, I’ve been obsessing about him, the Heartbreakers, and rock and roll in general.
And somewhere in the middle of that obsessing, it occurred to me that Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have had remarkably similar career arcs. It’s perhaps harder to find two artists whose careers are more similar than TP and the Boss.
And lucky you (you got lucky?), I’m going to share those thoughts!
Leader + Band
Before either of them put an album out, these singer/songwriter/guitarists had to come up with a name for their band.
As I wrote elsewhere, the Leader + Band naming device is a peculiarly American thing. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band. Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Prince & The Revolution. Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble. The only comparable British act is Elvis Costello & The Attractions.
And of course: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
But the Heartbreakers and the E Street Band are not like those other bands. They are true collaborators. They are stars in their own right. And even though people often refer to these artists as “Petty” and “Bruce” (as in, “I saw Bruce last night – he played 19 hours straight!”), the fans love those bands.
Great. They have names. It’s time to start making records.
First 2 Albums: The Apprentice Years
Bruce:
Greetings from Asbury Park
The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
Petty:
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
You're Gonna Get It
Neither of these efforts are going to land on anybody's "Greatest Albums of All Time" lists. They are solid efforts by artists learning their way. I'd say both debut albums have a strong imitative quality - Bruce trying to be Dylan and Petty trying to be The Byrds (or perhaps, trying not to sound like them, and failing). They haven't yet found their own voice.
But damn, there are some songs on these albums. Rosalita and American Girl, both widely ignored by the listening public, would each become classics over time. Bruce wouldn't have a Top 10 hit for a few more years, but Manfred Mann took his Blinded by the Light to the top of the charts. Petty broke into the Top 40 with Breakdown.
These guys haven't arrived yet, but there are hints of the greatness to come
3rd Album: The Breakthrough Masterpiece
Bruce:
Born to Run
Petty:
Damn the Torpedoes
I don't know how the young'uns check out each other's music collection today. Grab each other's phone and scroll through Spotify playlists I guess.
But in olden times, when you entered someone's high school bedroom or college dorm room, and spied that milk crate in the corner filled with albums, you immediately started riffling through them. And if the person was cool, there was a good chance you'd see the bright red cover of Damn the Torpedoes and a guitar-slung Bruce leaning on Clarence's back. Our boys had arrived.
Thunder Road, Refugee, Jungleland, Here Comes My Girl, Backstreets, Even the Losers, Born to Run, Don't Do Me Like That. An explosion of great songs on nearly perfect albums - albums that reached artistic heights that arguably neither of them (I'd say one of them) would ever reach again.
This piece isn't "Bruce vs. Petty"; it's "Bruce & Petty". But it's worth noting here that the receptions of the albums here are a bit different. Damn the Torpedoes got good reviews. Rolling Stone said DtT is the "album we've all been waiting for – that is, if we were all Tom Petty fans, which we would be if there were any justice in the world." But Born to Run got rapturous reviews - including the famous week where Bruce landed on the cover of Time and Newsweek at the same time.
Torpedoes, though, was a bigger hit. Born to Run would eventually make it to #3 on the albums chart but its biggest hit, the title track, topped out at #23 on the Billboard Charts. Torpedoes made it to #2 - where it spent 7 weeks blocked by a brick wall - quite literally Pink Floyd's gazillion-selling The Wall. Petty also scored his first Top 10 hit with Don't Do Me Like That (something Bruce wouldn't do till his 5th album) and hit #15 with Refugee.
4th Album: Impressive follow-up, with a side order of legal trouble
These guys haven't arrived yet, but there are hints of the greatness to come
3rd Album: The Breakthrough Masterpiece
Bruce:
Born to Run
Petty:
Damn the Torpedoes
I don't know how the young'uns check out each other's music collection today. Grab each other's phone and scroll through Spotify playlists I guess.
But in olden times, when you entered someone's high school bedroom or college dorm room, and spied that milk crate in the corner filled with albums, you immediately started riffling through them. And if the person was cool, there was a good chance you'd see the bright red cover of Damn the Torpedoes and a guitar-slung Bruce leaning on Clarence's back. Our boys had arrived.
Thunder Road, Refugee, Jungleland, Here Comes My Girl, Backstreets, Even the Losers, Born to Run, Don't Do Me Like That. An explosion of great songs on nearly perfect albums - albums that reached artistic heights that arguably neither of them (I'd say one of them) would ever reach again.
This piece isn't "Bruce vs. Petty"; it's "Bruce & Petty". But it's worth noting here that the receptions of the albums here are a bit different. Damn the Torpedoes got good reviews. Rolling Stone said DtT is the "album we've all been waiting for – that is, if we were all Tom Petty fans, which we would be if there were any justice in the world." But Born to Run got rapturous reviews - including the famous week where Bruce landed on the cover of Time and Newsweek at the same time.
Torpedoes, though, was a bigger hit. Born to Run would eventually make it to #3 on the albums chart but its biggest hit, the title track, topped out at #23 on the Billboard Charts. Torpedoes made it to #2 - where it spent 7 weeks blocked by a brick wall - quite literally Pink Floyd's gazillion-selling The Wall. Petty also scored his first Top 10 hit with Don't Do Me Like That (something Bruce wouldn't do till his 5th album) and hit #15 with Refugee.
4th Album: Impressive follow-up, with a side order of legal trouble
Bruce:
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Petty:
Hard Promises
Congratulations, you just made a best-selling, critically-acclaimed masterpiece: now, do it again!
Most fans would rank our boys' 4th albums below their 3rd, but still, a pair of impressive 1-2 punches.
I think Hard Promises is actually a more consistent album than Damn the Torpedoes - there's not a bad song on it. (And I sense a little Bruce influence on Something Big.) The Waiting and A Woman in Love become FM staples. Beautiful songs like Insider don't chart, but become fan favorites.
Bruce dials it down a bit on Darkness - in a good way. Bruce's core characteristic - which his fans love and his critics criticize - is to elevate everyday activities to grand operatic moments. Going to work can tear your heart out. Getting in the car and driving out of town town is a crusade. Sometimes I want to take him aside and say, Settle down dude.
On Darkness he settles down. It's a literary album, and even though hearts are ripped out here and there, it's a more relaxed, thoughtful album than Born to Run.
Both albums were delayed due to music industry issues. TP held Promises back, protesting MCA's decision to raise prices on what they considered premium albums. Darkness was delayed for 3 years due to legal issues with Bruce's former manager.
Interlude: Songs for Women
Around this time, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called Because the Night. He gave it to Patti Smith, a great songwriter and artist in her own right, and it became her biggest hit.
Around this time, Tom Petty wrote a song called Stop Draggin' My Heart Around. He gave it to Stevie Nicks, a great songwriter and artist in her own right, and it became her biggest hit.
The Next 3 Albums: Curiosities Before the Mega-Smash
Bruce:
The River (2-record set)
Nebraska
Petty:
Long After Dark
Southern Accents
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
Okay, I'm cheating here a little bit. Technically, Bruce only released 2 more "albums" before his mega-smash, but The River was a 2-record set, so...
Boy, there's some curious stuff in this run of records.
The River always reminded me of U2's Rattle & Hum. A great artist, at the peak of his powers, releases a mediocre double-album that would have been a great single-album with a bit of pruning. (by mediocre, I mean, by the ridiculously high standards of U2 and Bruce).
Then he goes full Woody Guthrie on Nebraska, to the delight of the critics and the bafflement of his fans.
Long After Dark is a step back for Petty, though he does score big with You Got Lucky.
He also releases a sort-of southern rock album, but the biggest hit on it is a psychedelic tune with synthesizers and sitars. Seriously: is any song more out of place on an album than Don't Come Around Here No More is on Southern Accents?
He follows that with his worst record to date, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough).
In this period the divergence of the artists as Critical Darling and Hit Machine come into greater focus. Bruce does finally score his first Top 10 Hit with Hungry Heart*, but Nebraska didn't even release a single in the US. He seems to be declining in relevance among average rock and roll fans.
* It's always amazed me that Hungry Heart - maybe the 31st best song Bruce had written up to that point, finally broke the Top 10. Maybe he wasn't as big outside of the NY area where I grew up.
Petty, meanwhile, discovers MTV. The videos for You Got Lucky and Don't Come Around Here No More help make Tom Petty a huge star.
The "7th" Album: MegaSmash
Bruce:
Born in the USA
Petty:
Full Moon Fever*
How big was Born in the USA? From 1973 to 1983 Bruce had one top 10 hit on 5 albums. USA had seven Top 10 hits! His previous albums sold a combined 19 million records; USA sold 15 million on its own, and he followed up with a live triple album that sold 13 million copies (all U.S. figures.)
And he discovered music videos, as his awkward dancing with future Friend Courtney Cox got heavy MTV rotation.
If there was a Championship Belt for rock artists, Bruce won it with this album, and would hold it till The Joshua Tree came out.
Full Moon Fever didn't make as big an impact, but it was his best-selling record, and returned him to the critical heights of Damn the Torpedoes. Free Fallin' and I Won't Back Down became arguably the two biggest sing-alongs in Petty concerts for years to come.
Which brings up another interesting divergence: Petty fans love Full Moon Fever. I just listened to Petty's 2006 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air and he said Won't Back Down is, by far, the song fans come up to him about. He only needs to strum the opening notes of Free Fallin' at a concert, and the crowd takes it from there.
But Bruce fans don't feel the same way about USA. In fact, I think they almost sort of resent it - it's the hit machine album that created millions of bandwagon fans and lacks the poetic power and street grandeur of Born to Run and Darkness.
Still: after these albums, our boys were on top of the world.
* I know, Full Moon Fever is a solo album. But, well, with Mike Campbell on guitar, and Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein both playing on the record, I never quite understood why...
Interlude: The Roy Orbison Connection
Bruce gives Roy one of the greatest shout-outs ever in Thunder Road ("Roy Orbison singing for the lonely"), but it's his induction speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that's credited for the beginning of The Big O's career revival.
A year later, The Traveling Wilburys release their first album. Tom Petty may not have been the biggest star in a band that featured Bob Dylan and a Beatle, but he was certainly the biggest star at the time, and the magical voice of Roy Orbison is introduced to a new generation of fans.
Roy Orbison, amazingly, was a star again. He released a hit album within a year, and died shortly after that.
The 8th Album: Growing Up
Bruce: Tunnel of Love
Petty: Into the Great Wide Open
Growing Up may have been a song on Bruce's first album, but it's on these albums that our artists release adult albums.
The creation of art is essentially a childish act. And rock and roll, the ultimate teen art form, more so than any other. John Mellencamp is still writing songs about high school.
All the earlier Petty and Bruce albums feature, I would argue, immature people. They are outsiders, losers, people struggling to figure out who they are. They are falling in and out of love. They care about cars and guitars and girls. They have shitty jobs. They are largely people with no accountability, who I would rather not date my daughter, even if it is my last chance to get her in a fine romance.
But this changes on these mature 8th albums. Two of my favorite Petty songs, All the Wrong Reasons and Dark Side of the Sun are about (to quote Petty in his Breakdown riff from Pack Up the Plantation) adult people in adult situations.
Bruce's voice on Tunnel of Love, a breakup album that's his Blood on the Tracks (yes, it's unfair to compare anything to that brilliant masterpiece), is a far cry from the guy who had a wife and kid in Baltimore Jack, who went out for a ride and never went back.
These are mature albums by mature people.
The Rest of the Albums
At this point they settle into the Elder Statesman Rock Star stage of their careers.
In the 90's, Bruce goes into a bit of a career downturn. He breaks up the E Street Band, does a couple of uninspired solo efforts, another Guthrie-esque album, and stops doing the epic concerts he's famous for.
But the Boss wasn't done. In 1999 he reunited the E Street Band and went on a major tour, selling out arenas for a year. In 2002, inspired by the 9/11 attacks, he released The Rising, arguably his last culturally significant album. (I wrote about his decline and rise here.) In 2017, at the age of 68, he is still capable of epic 3-hour shows you can hear in Staten Island.
As for Tom Petty - he had one last great album in him, Wildflowers, another solo effort that connects with audiences and critics, though not at Full Moon Fever level. He continues to write some great songs - like Walls on the "She's the One" soundtrack.
Amazingly, his 2013 album, Hypnotic Eye, is his first album to debut at #1. I suspect that's mostly because only old people who like Tom Petty still buy albums, but still (Yes, I'm one of those people. I own Mojo and Hypnotic Eye and the Mudcrutch record...)
And now, one of them is gone. Let's pray the similarities end there.
Darkness on the Edge of Town
Petty:
Hard Promises
Congratulations, you just made a best-selling, critically-acclaimed masterpiece: now, do it again!
Most fans would rank our boys' 4th albums below their 3rd, but still, a pair of impressive 1-2 punches.
I think Hard Promises is actually a more consistent album than Damn the Torpedoes - there's not a bad song on it. (And I sense a little Bruce influence on Something Big.) The Waiting and A Woman in Love become FM staples. Beautiful songs like Insider don't chart, but become fan favorites.
Bruce dials it down a bit on Darkness - in a good way. Bruce's core characteristic - which his fans love and his critics criticize - is to elevate everyday activities to grand operatic moments. Going to work can tear your heart out. Getting in the car and driving out of town town is a crusade. Sometimes I want to take him aside and say, Settle down dude.
On Darkness he settles down. It's a literary album, and even though hearts are ripped out here and there, it's a more relaxed, thoughtful album than Born to Run.
Both albums were delayed due to music industry issues. TP held Promises back, protesting MCA's decision to raise prices on what they considered premium albums. Darkness was delayed for 3 years due to legal issues with Bruce's former manager.
Interlude: Songs for Women
Around this time, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song called Because the Night. He gave it to Patti Smith, a great songwriter and artist in her own right, and it became her biggest hit.
Around this time, Tom Petty wrote a song called Stop Draggin' My Heart Around. He gave it to Stevie Nicks, a great songwriter and artist in her own right, and it became her biggest hit.
The Next 3 Albums: Curiosities Before the Mega-Smash
Bruce:
The River (2-record set)
Nebraska
Petty:
Long After Dark
Southern Accents
Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)
Okay, I'm cheating here a little bit. Technically, Bruce only released 2 more "albums" before his mega-smash, but The River was a 2-record set, so...
Boy, there's some curious stuff in this run of records.
The River always reminded me of U2's Rattle & Hum. A great artist, at the peak of his powers, releases a mediocre double-album that would have been a great single-album with a bit of pruning. (by mediocre, I mean, by the ridiculously high standards of U2 and Bruce).
Then he goes full Woody Guthrie on Nebraska, to the delight of the critics and the bafflement of his fans.
Long After Dark is a step back for Petty, though he does score big with You Got Lucky.
He also releases a sort-of southern rock album, but the biggest hit on it is a psychedelic tune with synthesizers and sitars. Seriously: is any song more out of place on an album than Don't Come Around Here No More is on Southern Accents?
He follows that with his worst record to date, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough).
In this period the divergence of the artists as Critical Darling and Hit Machine come into greater focus. Bruce does finally score his first Top 10 Hit with Hungry Heart*, but Nebraska didn't even release a single in the US. He seems to be declining in relevance among average rock and roll fans.
* It's always amazed me that Hungry Heart - maybe the 31st best song Bruce had written up to that point, finally broke the Top 10. Maybe he wasn't as big outside of the NY area where I grew up.
Petty, meanwhile, discovers MTV. The videos for You Got Lucky and Don't Come Around Here No More help make Tom Petty a huge star.
The "7th" Album: MegaSmash
Bruce:
Born in the USA
Petty:
Full Moon Fever*
How big was Born in the USA? From 1973 to 1983 Bruce had one top 10 hit on 5 albums. USA had seven Top 10 hits! His previous albums sold a combined 19 million records; USA sold 15 million on its own, and he followed up with a live triple album that sold 13 million copies (all U.S. figures.)
And he discovered music videos, as his awkward dancing with future Friend Courtney Cox got heavy MTV rotation.
If there was a Championship Belt for rock artists, Bruce won it with this album, and would hold it till The Joshua Tree came out.
Full Moon Fever didn't make as big an impact, but it was his best-selling record, and returned him to the critical heights of Damn the Torpedoes. Free Fallin' and I Won't Back Down became arguably the two biggest sing-alongs in Petty concerts for years to come.
Which brings up another interesting divergence: Petty fans love Full Moon Fever. I just listened to Petty's 2006 interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air and he said Won't Back Down is, by far, the song fans come up to him about. He only needs to strum the opening notes of Free Fallin' at a concert, and the crowd takes it from there.
But Bruce fans don't feel the same way about USA. In fact, I think they almost sort of resent it - it's the hit machine album that created millions of bandwagon fans and lacks the poetic power and street grandeur of Born to Run and Darkness.
Still: after these albums, our boys were on top of the world.
* I know, Full Moon Fever is a solo album. But, well, with Mike Campbell on guitar, and Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein both playing on the record, I never quite understood why...
Interlude: The Roy Orbison Connection
Bruce gives Roy one of the greatest shout-outs ever in Thunder Road ("Roy Orbison singing for the lonely"), but it's his induction speech at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that's credited for the beginning of The Big O's career revival.
A year later, The Traveling Wilburys release their first album. Tom Petty may not have been the biggest star in a band that featured Bob Dylan and a Beatle, but he was certainly the biggest star at the time, and the magical voice of Roy Orbison is introduced to a new generation of fans.
Roy Orbison, amazingly, was a star again. He released a hit album within a year, and died shortly after that.
The 8th Album: Growing Up
Bruce: Tunnel of Love
Petty: Into the Great Wide Open
Growing Up may have been a song on Bruce's first album, but it's on these albums that our artists release adult albums.
The creation of art is essentially a childish act. And rock and roll, the ultimate teen art form, more so than any other. John Mellencamp is still writing songs about high school.
All the earlier Petty and Bruce albums feature, I would argue, immature people. They are outsiders, losers, people struggling to figure out who they are. They are falling in and out of love. They care about cars and guitars and girls. They have shitty jobs. They are largely people with no accountability, who I would rather not date my daughter, even if it is my last chance to get her in a fine romance.
But this changes on these mature 8th albums. Two of my favorite Petty songs, All the Wrong Reasons and Dark Side of the Sun are about (to quote Petty in his Breakdown riff from Pack Up the Plantation) adult people in adult situations.
Bruce's voice on Tunnel of Love, a breakup album that's his Blood on the Tracks (yes, it's unfair to compare anything to that brilliant masterpiece), is a far cry from the guy who had a wife and kid in Baltimore Jack, who went out for a ride and never went back.
These are mature albums by mature people.
The Rest of the Albums
At this point they settle into the Elder Statesman Rock Star stage of their careers.
In the 90's, Bruce goes into a bit of a career downturn. He breaks up the E Street Band, does a couple of uninspired solo efforts, another Guthrie-esque album, and stops doing the epic concerts he's famous for.
But the Boss wasn't done. In 1999 he reunited the E Street Band and went on a major tour, selling out arenas for a year. In 2002, inspired by the 9/11 attacks, he released The Rising, arguably his last culturally significant album. (I wrote about his decline and rise here.) In 2017, at the age of 68, he is still capable of epic 3-hour shows you can hear in Staten Island.
As for Tom Petty - he had one last great album in him, Wildflowers, another solo effort that connects with audiences and critics, though not at Full Moon Fever level. He continues to write some great songs - like Walls on the "She's the One" soundtrack.
Amazingly, his 2013 album, Hypnotic Eye, is his first album to debut at #1. I suspect that's mostly because only old people who like Tom Petty still buy albums, but still (Yes, I'm one of those people. I own Mojo and Hypnotic Eye and the Mudcrutch record...)
And now, one of them is gone. Let's pray the similarities end there.
