{"id":2450071,"date":"2019-10-19T08:00:46","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T14:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=898615"},"modified":"2019-10-19T08:00:46","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T14:00:46","slug":"flashback-tom-petty-plays-a-swaggering-shadow-of-a-doubt-in-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/flashback-tom-petty-plays-a-swaggering-shadow-of-a-doubt-in-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback: Tom Petty Plays a Swaggering \u2018Shadow of a Doubt\u2019 in 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On June 6th, 1980, Tom Petty<\/a> and the Heartbreakers arrived in Hollywood to perform on the short-lived variety show Fridays<\/em>. Before they launched into the classic \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d from their 1976 self-titled debut, the band played \u201cShadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid),\u201d a track from their then-new record Damn the Torpedoes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the video above, Petty, dressed in a New Wave\u2013style polka-dot shirt, tears through the song, singing about an unpredictable woman who hates her boss. The rest of the band \u2014 guitarist Mike Campbell, drummer Stan Lynch, bassist Ron Blair, and keyboardist Benmont Tench \u2014 digs in behind him, with Lynch singing background vocals.<\/p>\n

Released 40 years ago this week, Damn the Torpedoes<\/em> was the group\u2019s most successful album to date, spending nine weeks at Number Two on the charts behind Pink Floyd\u2019s The Wall<\/em>. With the scorching opener \u201cRefugee,\u201d the desperate ditty \u201cDon\u2019t Do Me Like That,\u201d and the yearning \u201cHere Comes My Girl,\u201d the record was a breakthrough for the Florida band, instantly making them stars.<\/p>\n

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However, the record wasn\u2019t without conflict. Petty had become entangled in a nasty lawsuit when MCA acquired his label Shelter Records. \u201cI felt they just sold us like we were groceries or frozen pork,\u201d he said in the 2007 documentary Runnin\u2019 Down a Dream<\/em>. Petty filed for bankruptcy in order to void the contract, which led to a settlement: He was signed to MCA\u2019s subsidiary label Backstreet Records, where he had total artistic control.<\/p>\n

The band wasn\u2019t allowed to record an album during the lawsuit, so they kept the Torpedoes<\/em> tapes hidden in the back of co-manager Elliot Roberts\u2019 car. Produced by Jimmy Iovine<\/a>, who had recently become known in the industry for his success with Patti Smith\u2019s \u201cBecause the Night,\u201d the album is named after the legal struggles Petty and the band endured.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t sit around and talk about making an album about that experience,\u201d Petty told Rolling Stone<\/em><\/a> in 1980. \u201cBut we knew we were. They get you pinned in a corner, and the last thing you can do to keep your sanity is write songs. I wanted to present it as a collection of love songs \u2014 not lawsuit songs \u2014 and if there\u2019s one thing I know about music theory, it\u2019s that if you don\u2019t believe the singer, you won\u2019t believe the song.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Petty\u2019s relationship with MCA would again become strained in 1981, when the label would try to apply \u201csuperstar\u201d pricing to the Heartbreakers\u2019 new record Hard Promises<\/em>. For now, though, he was relieved it was over. \u201cI\u2019m still bitter about some of that stuff,\u201d he told writer Mikal Gilmore. \u201cAll those sleepless nights, sitting up in my house wondering what is life?<\/em> Going a little nuts. I never got into one of those places before, and I refuse to ever go back there.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 6th, 1980, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers arrived in Hollywood to perform on the short-lived variety show Fridays. Before they launched into the classic \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d from their 1976 self-titled debut, the band played \u201cShadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid),\u201d a track from their then-new record Damn the Torpedoes. In the video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2450071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-23 21:41:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}