Search - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers :: The Last DJ

Broken Dreams, dashed hopes and The last DJ

Tim Brough | Springfield, PA United States | 07/25/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Remember Eddie, the young aspiring rocker from Tom Petty's Into the Great Wide Open? The one who defied "the A&R man said 'I don't hear a single'."? Eleven years later, he grew up to become Johnny, an aging rocker in "Money Became King," who sold out while his aging fans hunger for one last whiff of that old rebellious innocence. But what they get - after hocking some stuff in order to afford tickets in the nosebleed section - is a rude awakening.



"Johnny rocked that golden circle

And all those VIPs.

And that music that had freed us

Became a tired routine.

I saw his face in close-up

Trying to give it all he had,

And sometimes his eyes betrayed him

You could see that he was sad.

And I tried to rock on with him

But I slowly became bored.

Could that man on stage with everything

Somehow need some more?"



So goes Tom Petty's "The Last DJ," where Petty vents his anger at the music biz. He's done it before (the infamous price war over Hard Promises), but for the first time, he tries his hand it saying it musically. sadly, he is mostly unsuccessful. The first three songs here are all pretty good, with the title track bemoaning the fate of free-form radio ala The Kinks' "Around The Dial." The thing is, this is a format that was all but extinct by the time Petty was recording Damn the Torpedoes. It's followed by Johnny and "Money Became King," a fan's disillusionment with stars that go from controversial to recording lite-beer commercials. But again, this turf has been covered heavily by the likes of Neil Young's This Note's for You. So while it's a good song, Petty again seems late to the party.



Then comes "The Last DJ's" best song. On "Dreamville," Petty looks back to the time when he started to aspire towards music making as a kid.



"Ridin' with my mamma to Glen Springs Pool

The water was cold my lips were blue

There was rock and roll across the dial

When I think of her it makes me smile."



It is vintage Petty, with just the right touch. "Like a Diamond" comes a close second. But the 4th song is easily the worst Petty has ever recorded. "Joe," the nasty tale of a sleazy record company CEO, crosses the line from anger to bile. Joe wants to sign an "Angel Whore" and bemoans that his aging star could make him more money "if he'd just die quicker." It's an ugly bit that wears thin after a few listens. The other 'message song' here, "When a Kid Goes Bad," is heavy handed and clunky. Then there's "The Man Who Loves Women," a novelty that might have made a good B-Side, but seems puzzling here.



The rest of "The Last DJ" hovers between fair and average. Saving it from total mediocrity is Mike Campbell, who is given a few extended solos here, maybe more than any other TP&TH record. Both "Can't Stop The Sun" and "Lost Children" are better because of Campbell's lead work. And Mediocre is a word I would never have applied to any Petty album before this, which makes it a disappointment. Granted, Petty got his mojo back when it came time to record Highway Companion, but "The Last DJ" had me worried that he'd lost his groove."

Biting The Hand That Feeds....

Michael Neiss | Princeton, NJ United States | 03/29/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tom Petty has always been among the most interesting (and refreshing) artists working in popular music. Who else would put out a concept album to decry the extinction of the concept album and then further antagonize various patrons, overlords and distributors within his chosen profession by challenging their morals, scruples and sexual proclivities!



All I can say is the man has balls and, in The Last DJ, quite a story to tell. Having ridden out Punk, Glam, Big Hair, Techno and the frequent ridiculousness of MTV, Petty found himself entering the new century a charming anachronism - cranking out "albums" of substance and staying power while the rest of the music world was reducing itself to iPod proportions by relying on singles, jingles and lip-syncing pop tarts to spew "content" in every direction while being squeezed by the narrow strictures of corporately defined playlists.



From his vantage point, Petty is living through the death rattle of the music business in all of its glorious and messy demise. Even his beloved tour schedule (which used to a be a somewhat affordable loss-leader to sell albums) became pumped up beyond the recognition and reach of the casual music fan - with the business now selling nostalgia-laden "experiences" for Investment Bankers and tax deductable Client entertainments rather than anything approaching raw authenticity.



The Last DJ offers a brilliant spectrum of anger, invective and a not so subtle middle digit to all concerned. DJ is a single-play masterpiece, caustically putting Petty's boot on the throat of the heroes and villains that populate his world - the title song a bittersweet lament of DJ's who once had autonomy - Money Becomes King, a narrative of the depressing and soulless concert experience and, Dreamville, a meditation of days past and expectations brought down to size. And, as usual, The Heartbreaker's are there to cover it all in hard rock professionalism.



To be fair, Petty's hand-wringing over the state of the industry didn't prevent him from charging $250 for floor seats the last time I saw him a few years back however, hypocrisy in the service of virtue is always fun and at almost thirty years in (in 2002) very few artists ever set a new creative standard. The Last DJ is a very rare exception. A landmark record from a landmark artist!

"