Elegy for a rocker

The Empire of Rock is gradually coming to its final years. Not quite the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, as instead of barbarians at the gate you have Taylor Swift and an army of all sorts of styles of music, but much more oriented towards electronics than good old-fashioned guitar rock. Guitars are still played of course, but the heroes, and what my kids would call "dad rock", that is all is dying out. You can tell, can't you: there are Rock museums, histories, biographies, greatest hits albums, farewell tours, tribute bands, etc., the original creative spark has gone, fled to other things. But Rock has had a good innings: it has been the backdrop to most of my life, strutting and preening from Elvis to Oasis, creating a world of excess that us ordinary guys would have loved to have been part of: when I lived in High Wycombe many years ago, the Mum of Ian Gillan, lead singer of Deep Purple, lived down the road, so a white Rolls-Royce would glide in from time to time to visit, like a spacecraft landing from some other opulent planet, unimaginable to us chaps stuck in the semi-detached 9 to 5 routine.

Many of the towering figures of Rock have shuffled off this mortal coil, a few soldier on, but here I want to mark the passing last year of Tom Petty. Part of rock mythology is the great concerts you attended and I have been to some: Stones in the Park, Santana, Neil Young, Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, I could go on. But there are also lots of artists who I never saw perform but whose songs have made a mark. Tom Petty was one of those. I have pictured three of his albums that I enjoy and one of those, Into the Great Wide Open, came out in 1991 at a time when I was struggling. Throughout the lean years there are songs that provided me a cheering reference point, so I remember flying off for a week on my own in Fuerteventura, with a backpack, walking boots and a Sony Walkman. This album was one of the cassettes I had with me, and how bracing it was to sing the chorus of "Two Gunslingers" out loud as I yomped across those lonely volcanic hills: "I'm taking control of my life, I'm taking control of my life, now, right now, oh yeah." This is what you need to get you through.

Thanks, Tom.