Lynyrd Skynyrd vs. Tom Petty
July 1st, 2008 by Wade Tatangelo in Self-indulgent musings
Which would you choose as Florida’s greatest rock act of all time?
Senior Editor Eric Snider nearly choked on a piece of apple when I told him Skynyrd. He’s a Petty guy. I like Petty but prefer pre-airplane crash Skynyrd. Plus, it’s fun to debate Snider, who despises the band responsible for “Free Bird.”
“We’re gonna have to pick up this conversation when I finish eating,” he barked. “You’re turning my stomach.”
Snider and I were in agreement, though, that the Allman Brothers Band should receive the honor if you count them as a Florida act (formed in Jacksonville).
Best Florida rock band right now? Against Me! (scroll down). All the way. Look for my interview with the band’s lead singer, Tom Gabel, in the Creative Loafing that hits newsstands July 9.
Best new Florida band? Have Gun, Will Travel.
Here’s what The Boston Phoenix had to say about the Sunshine State in its “50 Bands, 50 States” feature:
All-Time Best Band: Lynyrd Skynyrd
All-Time Best Solo Artist: Tom Petty
Best New Band: TorcheOoooh, that smell? It’s the unmistakable, greasy stink of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Southern-fried triple-guitar overload. You can’t wash it out of your clothes or your hair — don’t even try. Just embrace it, and wear it like a badge of honor. (Skynyrd gets bonus Florida points for fronting like they were from Alabama.) | Yes, he was the second-least-important Wilbury (ouch, Jeff Lynne), but top-hat-loving Tom Petty was the crucial missing link between the Byrds-y folk-rock of the ’60s and the R.E.M. indie-rock revolution of the ’80s. And a late-cresting 2007 documentary (Runnin’ Down a Dream, directed by Peter Bogdanovich) has recently resuscitated Petty’s reputation among hipsters. | Miami metal machine Torche marries triumphant, anthemic vocals with bottom-of-the-barrel bass-line sludge, and sends them off on a catchy, doom-pop honeymoon. For a taste, get your hands on “Grenades.”
July 1st, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Yeah, Snider is right. For sheer songwriting prowess and raw and jangly roots-rocking brilliance (before it was called “Americana”) the award for all-time best Florida rock band has to go to Petty.
And I’m not just saying that because I’m a Florida native and I went to college in Petty’s hometown, or because I always thought of TP as my own personal Springsteen.
(Then again, there’s the geographical dilemma: Petty’s sound was born in north Florida, but he really grew up as a musician in SoCal, where he’s lived since forever).
For my $$, Skynyrd never wrote a song as perfect as Petty’s “American Girl” or “Refugee” or “The Waiting” or “Breakdown” (not to mention all the first-rate songs he relased after his first commercial crest).
Sorry, but “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama” don’t even come close, and I wouldn’t suffer the slightest if I never heard them again.
But in a jam-out showdown, I’d have to give the nod to the original Skynyrd - side by side, Skynyrd would have out-jammed the Heartbreakers.
If the Allmans fully counted as a Florida band, I, too, would place them tops. But I really think of them as a Georgia/Florida band.
So if the Allmans are a Georgia band, then what’s their ranking in that state’s best-rock-band competition (against R.E.M. and the Black Crowes and others I can’t think of at the moment)?
Best new Florida rock band? The Ditchflowers - they’re not young and trendy, but neither am I.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Didn’t Roger McGuinn write “American Girl?”
July 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
No, Petty wrote it while he was living in SoCal.
Everyone always assumes it was written in Florida, and that it had something to do with a UF girl who committed suicide, jumping from the Beatty Towers dorms at UF.
Petty calls that a “myth.”
McGuinn has been pals with TP forever, though, and has popped up for encores during Tampa Bay area shows. One of those was at the old Bayfront Center arena.