Praising Tom Petty’s Los Angeles

Kudos to Daphne Carr and the LA Weekly today for the cover story “A Sound Map of Tom Petty’s Los Angeles”. (More of these, please!) The article spans 38 anecdote-loaded locations significant to Tom’s career and his writing, all of them in and around Los Angeles. Sample:

32. Charo’s house in Beverly Hills. Petty’s family lived in the house of the former wife of Xavier Cugat, Charo, while rebuilding his house after the fire. On Thanksgiving, Petty drove to the Sav-On in Beverly Hills to pick up some baseball mitts for a game he wanted to have, and Jeff Lynne — the producer, former ELO member and future Traveling Wilbury — pulled up beside him at a red light. Thus began their working relationship.

This is precisely the sort of article that inspires me to keep living in Los Angeles: One day Jeff Lynne will pull up next to me at a red light, locks blowing in the wind. And that will have been the beginning of the Lynne-inclusive phase of my career. They’ve also included some gorgeous artwork — dig that map by Scott Gursky — that they’re offering in PDF format. Want a wall version? Take it straight to Kinko’s but don’t laminate until Gursky gets a chance to sign it. It’s Friday, so if you haven’t read the whole thing yet, you’ve got time.

» A Sound Map of Tom Petty’s Los Angeles