Day 21 - American Girl

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

1976

Disclaimer: All perspectives, opinions, and memories in this entry are mine and mine alone. Some content is rugged, raw, and - sometimes - NSFW, but it's all authentic and included with purpose.

Why It’s On The List: I was unfortunately late to the Tom Petty party and didn’t really get in to his music until my early/mid 30’s. And then I really got into him. The Waiting, I Won’t Back Down, Learning to Fly, and of course Free Fallin' (definitely recommend listening to John Mayer’s cover with a glass of wine) are other Petty classics but there is just something so fun about “American Girl” that gets me in a good mood every time I hear it. 

A couple of years ago, Petty was coming to Denver in concert and I wanted to go. As the date got closer, I decided to pass because there was just too much going on at the time. Then Petty passed away unexpectedly in 2017 and it hit me - now I can’t ever see him live in concert. 

I don’t remember a single thing that I was “busy with” that kept me from going to that show but I do remember not going and now I can’t. 

Fast forward to the late fall of 2017. Our favorite football team, the Philadelphia Eagles, were in the midst of a really good season and getting closer and closer to clinching a #1 seed for the playoffs. I just happened to notice that if they did get the top seed, they would be playing their first playoff game in January on the SAME DAY that our favorite band, The Killers, would be playing across the parking lot in the Sixers/Flyers arena.  

It almost seemed too good to be true. 

Summer and I agreed to keep our eyes on it and make a decision on trying to go to both based on how the Eagles wound up finishing. Our hearts were broken in mid December when Eagles quarterback (and our favorite player) Carson Wentz tore his ACL and was done for the season. The Eagles eventually clinched the #1 seed but it felt like the season was over, so there was no point in wasting a bunch of money to fly to Philadelphia to watch the Eagles lose in the playoffs - even with The Killers next door that night. 

While Carson was still healthy and playing, I had told my buddy Jonathan about our plan and then we met up the Thursday before the game/concert that Saturday. He started our conversation by asking when we were leaving for Philly and I responded with a scoff, telling him we weren’t going. 

In our 6 years of friendship, Jonathan has only yelled at me one time and this was it. 

He was so mad at me for not taking advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity and Tom Petty came back to my mind. I wasn’t going to make that mistake a second time. 

I went home that night, told Summer we had to go, and we found flights, tickets, and hotels within a few hours. We flew out on Saturday morning and landed in Philadelphia a few hours before game time. 

We saw the Eagles defeat the Atlanta Falcons to start their road towards winning the Super Bowl a few weeks later and then we walked across the parking lot with a bunch of euphoric fans to see The Killers.  

All. Time. Memory. 

That’s going to be my advice to my kids: when you have the chance to do something, just go do it. 

You won’t remember the hassle or money or logistics. You won’t remember the other mundane things you did that kept you from going. But you will remember those big moments. You have to be responsible, but you’ve gotta live life. 

You only get one ride, go enjoy every minute of it. 

Listen to "American Girl" here:

Favorite Line:

“And for one desperate moment there

He crept back in her memory God, it’s so painful when something that is so close

Is still so far out of reach”

While We're Here:
As I researched each song on this list, I had a pretty good internal guess as to what year every song was released - except this one. I was WAY off on "American Girl." I would have guessed late 80's/early 90's for sure, so I was stunned to see that it came out in 1976. It just SOUNDS a lot more recent than that. I guess it does have some of those disco beats thumping in there, but it just feels way more progressive musically than late 70's to me.