Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party
Cameron Crowe's unearthed rock doc is a treat and a treasure.
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are my favorite band of all time. Petty’s solo record “Wildflowers” (on which most if not all the Heartbreakers played) is my favorite album of all time.
My Dad got me into Petty as a kid … or more so I got myself into Petty by rummaging through my Dad’s cassettes and listening to stuff like “Wildflowers” or the Traveling Wilburys (the all-time greatest supergroup of which Petty was a member) on his Sennheiser stereo while playing “Cruis’n USA” on my Nintendo 64 in the loft of our house.
I returned the favor by getting my Dad back into Petty by taking him to his first Heartbreakers show in the summer of 2001 at Deer Creek (in the lawn, baby!) as a Father’s Day gift the summer after my freshman year of college. (Let’s go 7-0 Hoosiers football!)
In taking my Dad to this show I didn’t only reignite an interest or a passion … I sort of created a “monster.” He became an avid purveyor of all things Petty.
He procured all of the albums he didn’t already own and listened to them incessantly. He bought, read and reread books about Petty. He bought, watched and rewatched all the concert DVDs. He’s watched Peter Bogdanovich’s awesome, 4 hour and 19 minute rock doc “Runnin’ Down a Dream” countless times. He was in contact with the Heartbreakers camp about and attempted to write a book concerning Mike Campbell and his many guitars. He saw the Heartbreakers 11 more times after that 2001 show and was even generous enough to take my wife and I to see the band at Wrigley Field (my other happy place besides an empty movie theater or one with a well-behaved audience) during the summer of 2017 before Petty’s tragic passing that fall.
When I heard Cameron Crowe’s lost, first film “Tom Petty: Heartbreakers Beach Party” (co-directed by Doug Dowdle and Phil Savenick) was being restored and released into theaters to celebrate what would’ve been Petty’s 74th birthday I knew I had to go … and I had to take my Pop with me. I’m sure glad I did – this unearthed treasure is essential!
Crowe and his collaborators were granted full access to Petty and the Heartbreakers and filmed their doc in 1982 and 1983. It aired once on MTV in ‘83 as promotional material coinciding with the release of “Long After Dark” – which conveniently enough had a deluxe rerelease last Friday – but was deemed too avant-garde and promptly shelved.
Crowe cleaned the film up and further fleshed it out with outtakes and modern conversations between himself and Petty’s daughter Adria.
I left “TP: HBP” with lots of thoughts and feelings. I really miss Petty despite the fact I never personally knew him. Hearing a young Petty say not once but twice that, “If I’m old and can still hear my songs on the radio it’ll all have been worth it,” definitely brought about pangs of pain. Petty was also the funniest of fuckers – “TP: HBP” may have the most laughs of any movie I’ve seen this year … documentary or otherwise. Another thing: Lester Bangs was wrong in his assessment of Crowe (who frequently appears on screen and has a real rapport with Petty especially, but also the Heartbreakers as a whole) as portrayed in “Almost Famous” – he’s most assuredly COOL! It also seemed like Bogdanovich culled a lot of meaty material from Crowe’s doc. Mostly, I’m just glad and grateful I got to share this experience with my Dad as it brightened both of our days.
The Los Angeles Times has suggested that “TP: HBP” will be available to stream on Paramount+ sometime next year. Here’s hoping there’s a physical release too. Heartbreakers fans would be remiss to miss it.