Petty: The Biography
Posted: Fri May 20, 2016 8:30 pm
Just noticed the "Running Down a Dream" thread got dusted-off and realized nobody had started a thread on the Warren Zanes book.
I'm a pretty big Petty/Heartbreakers fan (my 'gateway drug' to Rickenbackers and this forum), and have read a lot of interviews, watched videos, etc, but there was quite a bit of material in this book that I hadn't heard/read elsewhere. (Granted, I've never spent much time scouring the Internet for info, but generally consider myself pretty familiar with the band and their history.)
The book is really well written and generally a good read.
"Breaking" the story of Petty's past heroin addiction was certainly a surprise. A friend sent me a link to a review/preview of the book before it came out and it mentioned that Petty insisted that Zanes could in no way romanticize or even excuse the past addiction as his 'terms and conditions' for letting him write about it. I was pretty impressed by that part of it, at least.
On a more positive note, I was amazed by how much 'right person/time/place' went on early in his career in terms of making contacts and connections and learning from an incredible number of artists who welcomed him in just as easily as they could have disregarded him. Like I said, I've seen/read a lot, but this book really highlighted some of that.
Plus, you learn where the "It's just the normal noises in here!" clip on the lead-in to "Even the Losers" came from.
I'm a pretty big Petty/Heartbreakers fan (my 'gateway drug' to Rickenbackers and this forum), and have read a lot of interviews, watched videos, etc, but there was quite a bit of material in this book that I hadn't heard/read elsewhere. (Granted, I've never spent much time scouring the Internet for info, but generally consider myself pretty familiar with the band and their history.)
The book is really well written and generally a good read.
"Breaking" the story of Petty's past heroin addiction was certainly a surprise. A friend sent me a link to a review/preview of the book before it came out and it mentioned that Petty insisted that Zanes could in no way romanticize or even excuse the past addiction as his 'terms and conditions' for letting him write about it. I was pretty impressed by that part of it, at least.
On a more positive note, I was amazed by how much 'right person/time/place' went on early in his career in terms of making contacts and connections and learning from an incredible number of artists who welcomed him in just as easily as they could have disregarded him. Like I said, I've seen/read a lot, but this book really highlighted some of that.
Plus, you learn where the "It's just the normal noises in here!" clip on the lead-in to "Even the Losers" came from.