If we do not speak ill of the dead, who will?
-Harold Bloom
Of all the horrors of late, not least is Tom Petty songs everywhere. It had been bad enough to hear them only occasionally.
Into the bargain words like “genius” are being used to describe him. Gentle Reader, we need some unpleasant fact-face interface: Tom Petty’s music is not good.
(And that’s just the music. His lyrics are mere text. Bloom wept.)
E.g. “Learning to Fly” is gemlike insipidity. “I Won’t Back Down” is an artless slog. “Running Down a Dream” seems the work of the Anti-Euphony League.
Etc.
It mystifies me how he hung out with Bob Dylan and Randy Newman yet remained, at least compositionally speaking, unimproved.
Do I have nothing nice to say about him?
Oh, alright. He declined to sue the Red Hot Chili Peppers, which does indicate a generosity of spirit, one that I would certainly lack where the Red Hot Chili Peppers are concerned.