Good morning everyone and welcome to your annual Tom Petty Track of the Day, where we at Hoddle Headquarters like to remember the great rock n’ roller.
Louisiana Rain is one of my favourite tracks from Damn the Torpedoes (I don’t think there’s a single miss in there, for what it’s worth). It’s certainly a hell of a closer.
It also came during a time of intense legal drama for the band, which was embroiled in a lawsuit battle against MCA Records.
But Century City came during an important time for the band, which was discussed at length during a must-watch four-hour documentary.
The legal trouble came when ABC Records was sold to MCA in 1979, leading his recording contract to land there. MCA proceeded to sue Petty after he said his recording contract couldn’t be assigned to another company without his permission. He eventually declared bankruptcy to get out of the contract and eventually signed with Backstreet, an MCA subsidiary, under new terms.
It was a big win at the time, and it wouldn’t be the first time Petty fought record labels.
You can feel a lot of the tension throughout Damn the Torpedoes, mostly through Refugee and Century City. I also think it needed a bit of a palate cleanser, and that’s where Louisiana Rain comes in. It’s a wonderfully soft way to end the record.
Fitzie’s track of the day: Louisiana Rain, by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
And now for your links:
Jay Harris ($$): “Tottenham need to control games better. They are too reactive”
Alasdair Gold: “The £74m Tottenham transfer hole the Lewis family must fix for Thomas Frank”
BBC: “Being USA boss like becoming a grandparent - Hayes”
Rolling Stone from 1980: “Tom Petty’s Real-Life Nightmares: Rocker on ‘Damn the Torpedoes’ Woes”