TS: Pretenders vs. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Two hit laden 80's supergroups, equally represented on the influential "Chipmunk Punk" album. Both lead by singer/guitarist/songwriters, neither too pretty (although each charismatic in that folksy americana fashion). Each rock hall-of-famers, while only one was a Wilbury. Neithr died. Now I've confused myself.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 05:57 (nineteen years ago)

Tom Petty remains the superior songwriter of the two. Thus, Tom Petty for me.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 06:34 (nineteen years ago)

pretenders. tom petty is a droney maudlin retro tool.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

All they have in common is dreadful hair.

Hynde's personality, rhythm guitar, leadership, and songwriting best Petty's. Petty never recorded albums as essential as Pretenders, Learning to Crawl, and Viva el Amor! (you could make a case, however, for Pretenders II, Get Close and Packed for being as pleasant as Hard Promises, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), and Into the Great Wide Open).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

Tom Petty

Chrissie Hynde has never written a song as good as Even The Losers.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 12:43 (nineteen years ago)

I think Chrissie's songs are arguably more clever, but Petty is master of the hook like no other. So i would have to go with the Pretendbreakers.

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 13:10 (nineteen years ago)

I've never sensed any sort of edge or sense of adventure in anything Petty's done, pleasant though many of his songs might be. The Pretenders have had lower lows, but higher highs, too -- few bands have ever rocked their collective ass the way they did on that debut. Meanwhile, Petty's pretty much walked a straight line from Day One. A bland man who makes bland records.

Pretenders all the way.

― Dan Heilman (The Deacon), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 13:30 (nineteen years ago)

I'd rather be listening to The Pretenders.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

I think Chrissie's songs are arguably more clever, but Petty is master of the hook like no other

So you're separating cleverness from mastery of the hook?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

Close contest. Petty has two essential albums (Damn the Torpedoes, Greatest Hits); the Pretenders have two essential albums (The Pretenders, Learning to Crawl). They've both been pretty dull and ignorable for the past couple decades, but Petty's been less dull and ignorable. So he gets the edge. (The Pretenders had an okay best-of LP once upon time, but almost all its great songs were from their first and third albums. Their second album and whatever that early EP was probably weren't any better than Petty's first two.)

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

Chuck, is there much difference between Petty filler and Pretenders filler? It comes down to cases, I guess: I'd rather hear Chrissie Hynde sing and play filler than Petty.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 22:36 (nineteen years ago)

The Pretenders albums I've heard since Learning to Crawl were almost all filler. Or basically, look at it this way: Both acts peaked with their first three LPs; stop both their careers there, and you really don't lose all that much. But way more post-DTT Petty sticks in my head than post-LTC Hynde etc.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 22:41 (nineteen years ago)

TS: "Night in My Veins" vs "You Don't Know How It Feels"

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 22:53 (nineteen years ago)

You Don't Know How It Feels. No contest.

But then, Petty: no contest, for pretty much the reasons xhuxk has already laid out, though I might rate Long After Dark higher and plus...

Y'all be treating this like it's TS: Chrissie Hynde vs Tom Petty. Which it ain't, and Mike Cambpell is the ultimate trump card.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:16 (nineteen years ago)

Campbell gets it for longevity; he still coughs up great riffs. But James Honeyman-Scott vs Campbell gets tricker.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:17 (nineteen years ago)

Trickier, but then Boys Of Summer. So. (Also

Plus Petty hasn't had to lean on Steinberg & Kelly yet.

(Not that there's anything really wrong with that - "I'll Stand By You" is grebt. But then so is most of the Steinberg & Kelly songbook...)

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

(Please escuse typo above - I thought better of a see-your-dead-guy-with-our-dead-guy crack, which would have been in poor taste, especially because I have not a bad word to say about either dead guy.)

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:31 (nineteen years ago)

But Hynde indentures Steinberg-Kelly! "Night in My Veins," "From the Heart Down," and "Nails at my Feet" sound more like Pretenders songs than the duo's pleasant midtempo tuneful facelessness.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

pleasant midtempo tuneful facelessness

spluttersplutter! cough! "I Drove All Night"! splutter! "True Colors"! "I Tough Myself"! "Sex As A Weapon"!

Anyway, can you believe we've gotten this deep into this thread without anyone using the word "jangle"?

JANGLEFITE!

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:35 (nineteen years ago)

So you're separating cleverness from mastery of the hook?

may i take such license? they are two entirely different things, correct? I guess what I should have said is the following: to me, the Pretenders songs seem more trenchant (which I likes..iss great when sumthin's all clever 'n' stuff), while The Heartbreakers know how to push mass-appeal. But i didn't take a side on this. That's like saying: either lose a kidney OR never use public transportation again.

the real issue is what single individual has the worst teeth between the two bands

and yes..the janglefactor

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

RICKYDUEL!

BELLUM VOX VOCIS!

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Wednesday, 9 August 2006 23:50 (nineteen years ago)

I won't exactly come out and take sides, but I will say that I don't know of a Pretenders song as air-drummingly drive-worthy as "Runnin Down A Dream", and further note that Tom Petty rules. RIP ILM.

― the doaple gonger (nickalicious), Thursday, 10 August 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

I will say that I don't know of a Pretenders song as air-drummingly drive-worthy as "Runnin Down A Dream",

I refer you to the opening bars of "Middle of the Road."

rogermexico, "I Drove All Night" and "True Colors" are EXACTLY what I had in mind! (I'll cede "Sex as a Weapon" though).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 10 August 2006 00:26 (nineteen years ago)

When I was 9 I thought 'I Won't Back Down' was possibly the coolest, most inspiring, and most technologically advanced song it was possible to make. I know better now, but I'm still voting Petty.

― Louis Jagger (Haberdager), Thursday, 10 August 2006 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

rogermexico, "I Drove All Night" and "True Colors" are EXACTLY what I had in mind! (I'll cede "Sex as a Weapon" though).

"true colors" is beautiful, but it would probably be dismally boring without cyndi's vocal. the lyrics are trite on the page, but when a singer makes them real the way she does, it elevates them.

the "is that all right?" part of "i drove all night" is SO hot.

― Leave Brintey Alone (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 August 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

anyway, hmm... the filler question is a good one, but it raises the question of whether "quality control" means always being reliable and formulaic or whether it means concentrating on keeping the great songs great, since it's practically a given that there'll be some under-par filler material on every record.

― Leave Brintey Alone (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 August 2006 01:06 (nineteen years ago)

Pretenders

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 10 August 2006 01:10 (nineteen years ago)

for sheer number of good-to-great songs, petty in a walk. for concentrated burst of brilliance, the first pretenders album is pretty unfuckwithable. (altho damn the torpedoes has precious few soft spots. maybe "century city.") i have friends who have seen each in concert in the last few months and raved about them, so i guess they tie for endurance. i like petty's sonny bono cover better than chrissie's sonny and cher cover. plus, petty's original band was called mudcrutch, which i think means he invented grunge.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Thursday, 10 August 2006 04:24 (nineteen years ago)

the "is that all right?" part of "i drove all night" is SO hot.

Statements like these are what OTM was invented for.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 10 August 2006 04:30 (nineteen years ago)

plus, petty's original band was called mudcrutch, which i think means he invented grunge

Point. Though I can't say if it's a point or against.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 10 August 2006 04:48 (nineteen years ago)

Roy Orbison did a better job with "I Drove All Night," although I would love to have heard a Pretenders version.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 10 August 2006 10:22 (nineteen years ago)

celine pwns all of 'em.

― Leave Brintey Alone (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 August 2006 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

All this Steinberg/Kelly discussion and yet no mention of "Like a Virgin"?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 10 August 2006 14:07 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was wondering about that too, actually!

Also not so sure the Steinberg-Kelly Pretenders songs that Alfred mentioned above weren't mere pleasant tuneful midtempo facelessness; that's sure what they sounded like when I heard them.

― xhuxk (xheddy), Thursday, 10 August 2006 14:13 (nineteen years ago)

I did have "Like a Virgin" in mind (but not "Eternal Flame"). I may have underrated the degrees to which Steinberg-Kelly and Hynde share a sensibility.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 10 August 2006 14:22 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I was wondering about that too, actually!

Isn't it a given? Also boring.

Roy Orbison did a better job with "I Drove All Night"

I used to sincerely believe that I preferred teh Orbison. His vocal still slays, but the arrangement is painfully of its time. Teh Cyndi holds up much better to my ear.

Can't say as I've heard the Celine other than in the Chrysler spots.

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Thursday, 10 August 2006 16:01 (nineteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.