New Road Music: Tom Petty’s “Highway Companion”
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 07.25.06 | 11:00 PM ET
Tom Petty knows how to write a road tune. “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” from his 1990 album Full Moon Fever, featured an infectious guitar riff and celebrated the freedom and promise of a good road trip with verses like this: “I rolled on as the sky grew dark / I put the pedal down to make some time / there’s something good waitin’ down this road / I’m pickin’ up whatever’s mine.” Petty’s new album, released today, has a title that suggests it, too, will play nicely on the road: Highway Companion. Writes Rolling Stone in a review: “His songs are filled with images of motion, travel and the road; the sharpest writing appears in the cryptic, evocative ‘Down South,’ describing a journey that includes plans to ‘see my daddy’s mistress,’ ‘sell the family headstones’ and ‘pretend I’m Samuel Clemens / Wear seersuckers and white linens.’”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
TambourineMan 07.26.06 | 1:00 AM ET
You can never take the traveling out of a Wilbury.
(rim-shot, please)
“It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down/I had the radio on, I was drivin/The trees went by, me and Del were singin…
little runaway, I was flyin”
Any song that references the late, great Del Shannon is ok in my book. Alright, so his only hit was Runaway. He’s still great.
I plan on picking up this new album. Great cover.
Jim Benning 07.26.06 | 11:33 AM ET
Consider this a virtual rim-shot, TambourineMan. Very nice.
And I had a tough time deciding which verse to quote. That’s a great one, too.