SPIRRIT OF '79
TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
RELEASED Damn the : Torpedoes OCTOBER 19 Standout Tracks: “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Refugee”
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ third album followed the legal wrangles surrounding their independent contract and publishing issues. This release saw them break into the Top 10 for the first time, peaking at Number 2. Able to comfortably ride the new wave and rock trains simultaneously in the late Seventies, the Heartbreakers have always been a band that was cool to like. Petty once said there was a real sense of the band being “on a mission to make a really great album” in the face of all the hassles. They succeeded. The result was, as Mike Campbell has perfectly described it, “a polished but tough” record. Speaking of Campbell, when we interviewed him for our January 2019 cover story, we made sure we reserved some time to discuss Damn the Torpedoes — the sessions, the gear, the mood and more. You can check out Richard Bienstock’s interview below.
Do you have any particular memories about recording Damn the Torpedoes?
Absolutely. That record was really hard to record because we were going for a sound that we had never made before — and I don’t know if anyone else
