Just saw Tom Petty play Madison Square Garden ten days ago. It's funny that the only new music he has out is from what is essentially his college-years band (don't think he went to college).
The band's name is Mudcrutch, and is essentially the Heartbreakers plus two other guys (anything Petty does, even his solo work, typically includes his keyboard player Benmont Tench and his guitarist Mike Campbell. There have been other Heartbreakers, but only these two have made it through all the years with Tom)
Anyhoo, I can't get this song from their only album out of my head. It's "Scare Easy," and it's vintage Tom Petty - snarling, ticked off, filled with the usual "watch it there buddy" tone that is so much a part of songs like "I Won't Back Down," "Even the Losers" and "You Got Lucky." Most of Petty's narrators seem to be folks that you wouldn't want to catch you trespassing on their lawn, for fear they'd show up with a shotgun pointed at you.
Back to "Scare Easy": It's the usual defiant melodrama. "My love's an ocean/You better not cross it," warns the singer. We find that he's tired, he's hurt, but in the end, "I don't scare easy /Don't fall apart when I'm under the gun / You can break my heart / And I ain't gonna run /I don't scare easy / For no one."
A good Tom Petty song is like a raised middle finger with backing by a great garage-rock band.
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