Quote of the Day of Day (Tom Petty, on How Being Pissed Off is ‘The Best Position for Observing’)

"Sometimes I feel really gracious. Everything is really good, the world is so wonderful. It doesn't last very long. I'm always pissed off at something again. It's the best position for observing. You see all these groups get to the top, get too content and then blow it with bad music….Our intention is to stay pissed off." —Singer-songwriter Tom Petty, quoted in Cameron Crowe, “Cameron CroweTalks to Tom Petty for First Rolling Stone Feature,” Rolling Stone, Oct. 19, 1978

Remembering, amid an already terrible week, Tom Petty (1950-2017). What I admired about the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer was the urgency of his music—reflecting the emotions at the surface so evident in quotes such as the above.

If pressed, I’d probably tell you that my Petty song was “American Girl,” with its jangly evocation of the Byrds. But even many of his less-popular songs ring with the raw honesty of someone all too aware that exhilaration doesn’t last long and that something more was needed to get you through the tough times. Here’s how he explained it in a song written with The Heartbreakers’ Mike Campbell in “You Wreck Me,” from Petty’s 1994 solo effort Wildflowers:

"Rescue me, should I go wrong.

 If I dig too deep, if I stay too long.”