Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' classic third album, 1979's Damn the Torpedoes, is the latest to receive the in-depth, behind-the-scenes treatment of Eagle Rock's excellent Classic Albums DVD series. Previous entries in the series include everything from the Doors' landmark debut to (most recently) Black Sabbath's heavy metal masterpiece, Paranoid.
What makes this series so great is the way that it gives you a ringside seat into the way that such groundbreaking rock and roll albums were created in the studio, as well as filling in the blanks of exactly how the artists involved got there in the first place. This entry for Petty's Damn The Torpedoes is no exception.
With this roughly one-hour presentation (not counting the extras), brand new interviews with producers Jimmy Iovine and Shelly Yakus, as well as with Petty and members of the Heartbreakers themselves, transport you back to the heady late seventies period when the band was making what was then their "make or break" third record — which would ultimately come to be regarded, and rightfully so — as a rock and roll classic.
Producer Jimmy Iovine, who was an obvious believer in the Heartbreakers' potential from the get-go, provides particularly revealing insight.
"I'm a great believer in third albums," the producer explains, pointing to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Patti Smith's Easter (the latter of which he was directly involved in) as just two of the more obvious examples.
Petty himself describes the album's subsequent success as the point where "the dam burst, and nothing was ever going to be the same again." At another point, keyboardist Benmont Tench describes calling the local radio station and disguising his voice in the process to request his song, only to be told "we don't play that shit."
Although the details of what got Petty and his band of "goober rednecks in velvet clothes" (Tench's description) there in the first place are a little less telling here, the basic story of Petty's journey from Gainesville, Florida to L.A. in search of a record deal is retold in brief, but vivid detail.
Article comments