ROCK NEWS TODAY

Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party’ Coming to Theaters

Cameron Crowe's directorial debut, 1983's Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party, is coming to theaters this fall.

It's been fully restored and also includes 20 additional minutes of footage starring Petty and his bandmates Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench and Stan Lynch. According to a press release, it features "in-depth interviews, electrifying live performances and unprecedented intimate access to [the band]."

For the first time ever, the film will be available to watch in theaters on Oct. 17 and 20, the latter being what would have been Petty's 74th birthday. More information about tickets can be found here.

"Heartbreakers Beach Party occupies a special place in my heart," Crowe said in a statement. "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers leaned into the making of the film with a kind of hilarious music-filled honesty that still feels fresh forty years later. It was also my first experience as a director.

Thanks to Adria Petty and the Petty Estate, along with our co-filmmakers Danny Bramson, Phil Savenick, Doug Dowdle and Greg Mariotti, I’m so happy we're bringing it back in all its reckless glory. The fact that it was yanked from MTV after only one airing at two a.m. [in 1983] just shows that it was indeed an outlandish feast for fans in all the best ways. Let that sucker blast!"

America Releases ‘Live From the Hollywood Bowl 1975’ Album

America has released a new live album recorded at the renowned Hollywood Bowl in 1975. The band, whose self-titled debut album and first single propelled them to the top of the U.S. charts in 1972, were one of music’s top recording artists at the time. America – Live From The Hollywood Bowl 1975 arrived September 6, 2024, via Primary Wave Music. Previously available as a Record Store Day exclusive, the album, featuring never-before-heard recordings of their performance backed by a symphony conducted by the legendary George Martin, is now widely released on CD and as a 2-LP set on red vinyl. It’s available here. Listen to several of the tracks, including such favorites as “Ventura Highway” and “Sister Golden Hair,” below.

The unique performance from August 3, 1975, has been recently restored and remastered for this special release. America – Live From The Hollywood Bowl 1975 features live renditions of such hits as “Lonely People,” “A Horse With No Name,” “Don’t Cross the River,” and many more.

Dewey Bunnell remembers exactly how the evening played out: “As I recall, this show was planned to highlight the summer of 1975. The release of our fifth album, Hearts, in March of that year had been a great success and included our second #1 single, ‘Sister Golden Hair,’ so we were at the top of our game.. We had developed a great partnership with Sir George Martin the year before with our first project together in London, the album Holiday. And the making of Hearts at the record Plant in Sausalito, CA had been fun and creative. Meanwhile, the live performance had evolved into a strong show, and we toured a lot that year playing large sold-out venues.”

Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell and George Martin during sound check at the Hollywood Bowl, Aug 5, 1975 (Photo © Henry Diltz; used with permission)

On Aug. 2, one day before the 49th anniversary of the concert, the Grammy-winning band shared their performance of “Sister Golden Hair” with Bunnell, Gerry Beckley, and Dan Peek front and center. A thicket of strummed acoustic guitars lay a foundation for the harmony vocals, and the instantly recognizable slide guitar melody. As the song patiently unfolds, their voices swell to choir-size.

Bunnell continues: “So the plan was to make the Hollywood Bowl show as special as possible. George was involved from the beginning of the planning, and it was decided that he would conduct a symphony that would include him performing first, doing a show he called ’Bond to Beatles and Bach’ which he had recorded the year before, and he would then conduct behind us during our show.

“It was amazing to hear George conducting Beatle songs like ‘Yellow Submarine’ live at the Hollywood Bowl! We planned to record the show and had the Record Plant mobile recording truck on-site to capture the performance for posterity. There would be fireworks and a skywriter plane spelling out A-M-E-R-I-C-A above the Bowl with a big finale on the encore performance of ‘Horse With No Name’ as our three heads in fireworks were ignited above the shell of the [venue]. And we had invited many important guests, friends, and artists to attend…all very spectacular! The stage was set for a magical evening!

As the saying goes, ‘the best laid plans often go astray’! The skywriter had some trouble right away as the letters seemed to dissipate in the wind above the Bowl as each was ‘written,’ so there was never a clear reading of AMERICA. And after the show itself went very well, our three heads were ignited only to rain sparks down on the stage sending the symphony players scattering to the wings behind us! The reception and party after the show included everyone describing the hilarious chaos in those final moments as we left the stage! It made for an unforgettable scene that we have laughed about for many years!

Now, almost 50 years later, the recording of that night is finally available, and it sounds great. It represents the only full concert live recording of the original trio including Dan Peek as well as Gerry [Beckley and me].”

‘Only A Northern Song’: The first sign George Harrison wanted to leave The Beatles

George Harrison was never meant to stay in The Beatles by the end of the 1960s. He had developed into a far greater songwriter to just be known as second fiddle to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and if All Things Must Pass is any indication, he may have been even better than his bandmates in some respects. While the resentment between Harrison and his bandmates had been building up for a while, ‘Only A Northern Song’ may have been the first sign that he wanted out of the group.

Then again, there was always some question as to what the Fab Four were going to do after they departed from the road in 1966. No group had ever become a studio-only act and survived for very long, but throughout Sgt Peppers, they proved to be a cultural force to be reckoned with, kicking off the Summer of Love in epic fashion with one timeless classic after the next.

But out of all those songs, do you ever notice how Harrison only had one on the track-list? Granted, ‘Within You Without You’ may have been one of his most complex delves into Indian music thus far, but looking through Revolver, it may have been considered a major step down since he had three songs on the last record.

Well, ‘Only A Northern Song’ was intended to turn up on Sgt Peppers, but everyone was surprised that he would write something so mean-spirited. Just looking at the lyric sheet, Harrison is incredibly salty about the way he was being treated not only by his bandmates but also by his record company, constantly complaining about how Northern Songs was screwing them out of their money.

It’s no shocker that the same guy who wrote ‘Taxman’ would write something like this, but it speaks to a greater problem in the group’s history. Harrison knew that he could be making the same amount of money as Lennon and McCartney, and yet here he was, getting told what to play on every Macca tune and no one really giving his songs the time of day.

Even when working on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, the others weren’t taking the tune seriously at all until Eric Clapton showed up at the studio, by which time they were on their best behaviour. So, in essence, a song where Harrison complains that it doesn’t matter what he’s playing because it doesn’t matter anyway could have also been a slight jab at McCartney for stifling his ideas.

It’s not exactly as scathing as ‘Wah-Wah’ would be on his solo album years later, but by the time the group hit Abbey Road, no one could argue the fact that Harrison was peaking as a songwriter. Of all the tracks on the project, ‘Here Comes the Sun’ may be the most optimistic song he would ever write, and over the passage of time, ‘Something’ has given ‘Yesterday’ a run for its money in terms of how many people have covered it.

Still, for a group that was peaking around the time of Sgt Peppers, ‘Only A Northern Song’ should have been the first real sign that not everything was right in The Beatles’ camp. They all looked great standing side by side in their military jackets on the front sleeve, but that droll expression on Harrison’s face could have been the first clue that he was slowly outgrowing the need to be Fab all the time.