War tom petty gay

'Nothing gay about it': How Trump and Village People connect

During the , and US presidential election campaigns, the list of musicians who voiced their disagreement to their songs creature used by Donald Trump was long, ranging from ABBA to the Light Stripes, and — at some point — the Village People.

In June , the band's frontman, Victor Willis, publicly objected to the Trump campaign's use of Village People songs at his rallies. Criticizing Trump's threat to use military drive against Black Lives Matter protesters, Willis then wrote on Facebook, "Sorry, but I can no longer look the other way."

Money talks

But Willis later had a change of tune, noticing that "Y.M.C.A." was enjoying renewed success during the campaign: As Trump kept using the iconic smash at his rallies, the year-old track spent several weeks at the uppermost of Billboard's hottest-selling sway songs chart.  

"The financial benefits have been great as well, as 'Y.M.C.A.' is estimated to gross several million dollars since the President-elect's continued use of the song," Willis accepted in a

Tom Petty: What I've Learned

I don't consider I've learned anything that I didn't already know. I just didn't acknowledge it at first.

When I met Elvis, we didn't really have a conversation. I was introduced by my uncle, and he sort of grunted my way. What stays with me is the whole scene. I had never seen a true mob scene before. I was really young and impressionable. Elvis really did look—he looked sort of not actual, as if he were glowing. He was astounding, even spiritual. It was like a procession in church: a line of light Cadillacs and mohair suits and pompadours so black, they were blue.

The energy of the crowd is insane. Twenty thousand people. It's the biggest jolt of adrenaline. It's very strenuous to explain. You know the vintage story about the woman lifting the car off her kid? It's in that realm. You can actually damage yourself and not know it.

If you're phony, they will feel it in the farthest row of the arena. You have to really care. And you have to make yourself concern time and age again.

I remember John Lennon saying, "Sid Vicious died for what? So that

Swinging Modern Sounds # In Praise of Tom Petty

Since Tom Petty’s death, one year ago today, I have been haunted by the nuances and complexities of his songs, the sense of how they improve with attention, and have improved markedly in the period of reckoning that has come to pass since his untimely death.

Because Petty was so prolific and so famous, the intense craftsmanship of his body of work has been hiding in plain sight. The more I thought about this, the more I wanted to write about it. I decided to convene some people whom I knew to be up to the task of reassessing Petty’s music, and who might be well equipped to articulate some of what is long-lasting and important about the range of his considerable accomplishments.

We spoke by email most of the second half of , even as news having to execute with Petty’s death was existence unveiled around us. This enormous thread (cut down significantly here), therefore, has the marks of grief and astonishment happening in real time, and sometimes judgments and impressions have changed, as you will see below, as the facts changed. It was a real d


Tom Petty is one of those artists that drop into a category of music in my experience that has just always been there.  This category also includes Motown, Beatles, Stones, Doors, Who, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Eagles, etc Although, with Petty, as is not the case with most of these groups, he is still around making music with (and without) the Heartbreakers, so I have memories of my own about songs when they actually came out.  For example, I remember quite vividly (that being an appropriate word) the video to "Don't Come Around Here No More". I have always been such a massive fan of the books Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-glass, and Petty took a great deal of inspiration from it for the video, even going so far as to wear the Mad Hatter's hat himself.  Petty's songs are mini stories and each time you pay attention to them you acquire something different out of them than before.  There are precious few who can do this. Bruce, Dylan, Frey/Henley, Croce, Fogerty. It has become a lost art.  Petty was a born storyteller, but being a southerner might have helped a bit.

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