Tribute: 11 Amazing Tom Petty Songs You Have Probably Never Heard

Kids today. The older you get, the more you find yourself starting a sentence with those words — kids today. From me those words do not come from a bitter place, a place about howkids today have it so easy. Actually, I do not think kids todayhave it so easy. There is nothing easy about an Internet that is forever, helicopter moms, pressure from social justice warriors, and a dearth of unpretentious musical icons like Tom Petty.

Tom Petty never told anyone how to feel, he already knew how we felt — especially when it came to wanting, wooing, waiting, having, and losing the girl. Tom Petty never told you what to do, he merely provided the soundtrack to what you did — whether it was having a good time or nursing something a little more serious.

He mercilessly mocked phonies like Spike and whoever that was with the “David Bowie haircut and the platform shoes,” and he also expressed an extraordinary faith in people — most especially women, including American Girls.

Born in Gainesville, Florida, in 1950, Petty always considered himself a Southerner and never stopped using the fantastic Heartbreakers or his lyric to remind us of the little things that make everyday life lyrical — primarily rebellion, a good laugh, rock n’ roll, and those dogged memories of the one who got away.

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