Pemberton Day 2: Tom Petty Hauls in Crowds, Hits, Adoration

At other festivals, Tom Petty might seem like the wild card. But in a valley full of kids raised by classic rock radio (and even some of their parents) he's quite the opposite: he's the draw. Cries of "Give me Petty!" started the second the Flaming Lips exited the stage, but it would be another hour before the man in question would deliver a two-hour, hit-heavy set that would see 40,000 people emerging from campsites and bushes to sing-shout along. Beneath a banner of screens bearing Petty and his band mates, the Heartbreakers catalogue was tested and approved, bookended by "Won't Back Down" and "American Girl" (with the Traveling Wilbury's "End of the Line" thrown in for good measure). Throughout, Petty thanked the crowd and his band profusely, sporting a charming gee-whiz grin. The masses, in kind, saluted their bewildered hero the only way they could. "I can smell that marijuana," Petty said, smiling mid-song.

For complete coverage of the Pemberton Festival, check out rocknrolldiary.com.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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