Adventures in analogies: Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen

Loose Ends – Bruce Springsteen (from Tracks)
Keeping Me Alive – Tom Petty (from Playback – the Petty box set)

(Tracks chosen to represent Petty doing his best Springsteen and Springsteen doing his best Petty. And to give you something not from the regular albums)

Yes, this is another post about Springsteen that’s not actually a review of the new record. And it may only be interesting to me.  But it’s my blog so you don’t have to read it if you don’t want. So here goes.

It occurred to me this morning that the career paths of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty are remarkably similar. The thing that brought this to mind is the analogy between Born to Run and Damn the Torpedoes. In each case, it’s the third record – and it’s the first one to really grab the popular imagination. It’s where the voice of the artist becomes really clear. And then I thought: hmmm, they both also have mid/late 80s records that were huge but are often critically panned for being overproduced (Full Moon Fever and Born in the USA).

So I started to think about their whole discographies, and the similarities are really striking. Bruce is a couple of years ahead the whole way, but if you stack up his first, second, third, etc. against Petty’s, they track VERY well. Generally speaking, the Springsteen records are better. But they’re usually in the same ballpark. Observe:

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Greetings From Asbury Park

Debut albums, show a ton of promise, clearly fairly derivative of major influences. Beloved by some fans, but generally not considered peak work.

You’re Gonna Get It
The Wild, The Innocent…

Generally similar to the debut record, but developing the premises a little bit. A few major, long-lasting hits. Bruce’s record is probably more highly thought of by fans – but it’s still reasonably close.

Damn the Torpedoes
Born to Run

The breakthrough record. Clearly shows a lot of signs that it’s the same artist, but has taken a significant leap. Songs about people living difficult lives and wanting to believe in something more. Even the Losers as an analog to Thunder Road or Backstreets. Louisiana Rain as an analog to Jungleland. Refugee is one of his biggest hits, so it’s at least somewhat analogous to Born to Run.

Hard Promises
Darkness at the Edge of Town

A much darker version of the breakthrough record. Both of them were famously unhappy when working on this one because of huge fights with the record company. The Waiting is an analog for Badlands. Springsteen is definitely more down in the muck, though. There’s nothing that really compares to Racing in the Streets or Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Long After Dark
The River

The analogy isn’t tremendously strong here. But in some sense these are both records about being in a holding pattern. There is an effort to try and get back to the roots of the music after the last two bigger ones. The River, though, is big and sprawling where the Petty record is not.

Southern Accents
Nebraska

Their roots record. For Petty, this was about his own personal heritage. While for Springsteen it’s all about characters. But the general feeling and tone of the records is similar. Stripped down. About the very small parts of life. This the first record where Petty has a reasonable case for being better, though of course the Nebraska-lovers will disagree.

Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)
Human Touch/Lucky Town

This is the first out-of-order comparison. Petty had his crappy ‘wait, I’m a rock and roll guy who is still relevant and stuff’ record come prior to his uber-popular one, rather than after. But still, they’re pretty similar(ly bad).

Full Moon Fever
Born in the USA

And here is the big one. Made people angry for being overproduced and selling out, etc. Has a ton of really good songs in spite of that.

Into the Great Wide Open
Tunnel of Love

This is another relatively weak analogy. ItGWO is basically just Full Moon Fever redux, while Tunnel of Love is clearly on the other side of a significant dividing line from Born in the USA. This is another one where Petty is probably better.

Wildflowers
The Ghost of Tom Joad

Acoustic music! Wooo! The analogy isn’t fantastic here, though, because a) there’s a fair number of rockers on Petty’s record, too and b) Wildflowers is his best album, while Tom Joad is…not Bruce’s best record.

Echo
The Rising

Big records from big stars right around the turn of the millennium, reflecting their sense that they are now the elder statesmen rather than being in the mix of it. They’re both quite good.

The Last DJ
Working on a Dream/Magic

The real analogy is between The Last DJ and Working on a Dream.  They are both records that demonstrate they have forgotten about being elder statesmen, and kind of fail because of it.  But Working on a Dream is kind of just the far-inferior version of Magic, so they kind of fit together.  And the title track for the Petty record is very similar in quality and content to Radio Nowhere from Magic.

Highway Companion
Devils and Dust (slightly out of order)

Acoustic-fun, part II. But not as acoustic. Mediocre (but not bad) records.

There’s only a couple records – all from pretty recent – that don’t really fit. Petty had a record that was a soundtrack to a bad Jennifer Aniston move in the late 90s with some good songs but which kind of dragged. And a boring record a couple years ago. And Bruce did has Wrecking Ball and the Seeger Sessions (which maybe doesn’t even count).

Anyways, I thought it was interesting.