I happened to really love the whole feel of that Southern Accents album--MINUS the Dave Stewart stuff, though I was a fan of his Eurythmics material, and he and Tom really DID hit it off...I know: My location "Concert Team" shot their consecutive night stint at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles back in the mid-80s, when we shot two identical sets two nights in-a-row, in that deco place with great sound; to a highly appreciative audience of fans who got free tickets in various ways...I was the floor-director for the shoot, with 5 Panaflex Cameras and full lighting, both nights.
Yeah. So I DO have a bit of a weak spot for that album's songs; I was already a big admirer of it BEFORE that gig: It had come out the summer before (the shoot at the Wiltern was several months later, the following Fall), when I'd finished my Masters at USC film school and by then was working my way up in the business, at that time pursuing my interests in rock'n'roll video-direction...But I still had a certain amount of home sickness for Florida, G-ville and UF in particular, and that album really touched that nerve deep inside me.
However, my OWN favorites had begun of course with "Breakdown", his and the Heartbreakers' first breakthrough hit..."American Girl" was the next off of what was an amazing album, "Damn the Torpedoes"...To this day I love and get the chills whenever I hear,
"...Cars goin' by, Out on 441, Like waves, Breakin' on a beach...And for one desperate moment there, She traveled back in her memory ...MAN, it's so lonely when something is so CLOSE, and yet, so far out of REACH..."
I could go on...As a video guy, I thought "Last Dance With Marianne" was his best "early/mid career" combo of song and image...though "Free Falling" was damn CLOSE. LOVED HIS Traveling Wilburies stuff too.
And make no mistake: People who weren't there, who aren't Gators don't GET how "TP" is a fixture, something one finds attached to Gainesvilltle, the University and the whole vibe around the school and town from the moment you first arrive there from the very start, first begin to acclimate yourself TO, identify yourself AS a "Florida GATOR".
More like almost a MYTHICAL figure to today's undergrads, he was still a young breakout star with blond peachfuzz when I was a freshman!
His only big, well known hit yet then was "Breakdown"...and we listened to it a LOT.
As for the song that he originally wrote for Stevie Nick's, that was "Insider", which included the line, "...and I've had to live, with some hard promises, by crawling through the mire...I'm an insider..."
As you see, it included the line with "Hard promises...", which became the actual name of his next album...Stevie always said that although she had asked him to write a song for her, and LOVED that one, when she heard Tom sing it for her in particular so plainfully, from his heart and soul, she told him "Oh, that song is YOURS...Write me another--and also maybe let me sing THAT one with you on the album..."
Tom was so grateful that when he next played the song on stage it was IN Gainesville at a big show in the newly-opened "O'Connell Center" (humorously nicknamed almost immediately "The Condome" for its big white bulging fabric roof!), a show I was at (in 1981, I believe--my Senior Year), and which for the first of what subsequently became a number of times, he brought Stevie Nicks herself onstage to sing that song (and after that several others) with him and the band.
The point is, as Gators we ALL have to at least SOME degree a NUMBER OF touchstone moments and favorite TP-SONGS associated with the town, the University and our time there...That despite the ignorant comments of outsiders who think it's some phony, artificial connection, it is in fact quite deep and real.
We really do love and feel a special attachment for the man--one that is deeply entwined with the town, the school, and yes, now more than EVER, the TEAM.
(...SO I really HATED us LOSING this game, on this day with ALL THESE EYES UPON US, in particular...)
We will revisit the matter NEXT season, at their place, I suppose...and most ESPECIALLY IN 2024 I imagine, back here in The Swamp, NO?
In the backs of our minds, we already GOTTA be preparing for VICTORY, BIG TIME, for that one.
Assuming we are all healthy/happy/HERE, am I RIGHT??!
I don't know how LONG this "Gator Reclamation Project" is gonna take, but of course we are HOPING that by mid-season 2024 it will be WELL UNDERWAY--and perhaps we'll be capable of "flicking these Tigers ASIDE on our way through Death Valley!"
Down today--but NOT for very long.
