Bad to Good?

A lot of people into music will list their favorite bands. I'm sure I'll get around to doing that (in my profile, you can probably see a good list of them under "favorite music") but for now, I want to go over something unusual that's happening with music I don't like.

Of my friends, there are two that I discuss music a lot with. There's Guitar-Guy (GG), who plays the guitar (imagine that...) and listens to music with that perspective. Then there's Crazy Cat Lady (CCL) who is actually an accomplished classical musician, but also appreciates rock and roll (and spent many hazy late nights in the clubs with me back in the day.)

So, in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area where I live, radio is really pretty pathetic. Fortunately, there were two stations that were listen-able - KZPS and "The Bone" - KTBN. For a while, KZPS was the "classic rock" station, and The Bone was the "classic hard rock/heavy metal" station, so both had their appeal to me.

I have (had?) 3 criteria that would lead me to change the station, and fast: 1) anything by Creedence Clearwater Revival is played, 2) anything by Tom Petty was played, and 3) "Paint it Black" by the Rolling Stones was played.

Well, KZPS changed formats, and they're now "Lone Star." It's actually pretty interesting, because they play music with what I would say is "Texas-appeal," so in addition to southern rock, they mix in what they call "outlaw country" - not your glitzy Nashville-turned-Hollywood stuff, but really mostly quite interesting music. But, try as I might, I'm still not hugely into country, so flipping back to KZPS doesn't happen that much when The Bone breaks one of my 3 radio-changing rules.

And, actually I guess to fill the gap, The Bone changed their format slightly, too, going more for the classic rock crowd, so in general, it's about as close to the "perfect" radio station I can get in this area.

One HUGE problem - they play Tom Petty ALL THE TIME. I'm serious. I don't think an hour goes by that I don't hear a Tom Petty song. One time, I even stuck it out through a Tom Petty tune just to hear it followed up by "Paint it Black." ARGH!

I've taken to IM'ing Guitar-Guy and Crazy Cat Lady when it happens, just to share the misery. Problem is, they won't wallow in it with me. They actually seem to LIKE Tom Petty, which was driving me nutty (not a terribly long drive these days.) I finally started asking them, "why?" in my most pathetic of voices. GG goes on about how, even though I may think all the songs are funereal, that "American Girl" is actually quite upbeat and has very interesting guitar work. CCL says that while "Free Falling" is indeed painful, most of Tom Petty's work is quite well-written, and that she loved all the Alice-in-Wonderland-theme stuff he did.

I finally adopted a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude about the whole thing, and have recently decided to attempt to begin to like Tom Petty. The attitude shift is actually working. I see GG's point about "American Girl," and even find my toe tapping to that one. There's one called "Even the Losers" or something like that, that I enjoy the lyrics very much. "Running Down a Dream" is quite catchy as well. So I'm trying, I am. I don't think I'll ever be a card-carrying Tom Petty fan club member, and probably won't ever pay to see a concert of his, but I'm finding that I like his older stuff. Still don't care for the dirges, though... ;)