"I love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love."
--Johnny Cash
Music historians will discover it one day. Prophets will shout from the mountaintops. The church bells will all ring. The villagers will wander into the unpaved streets. And the wheat will turn golden in the fields.
The Heartbreakers might well be the best backing band the world has ever seen. For starters, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, and Benmont Tench toured with Bob Dylan. And they provided the most muscular grooves to ever grace a Johnny Cash record.
It's fun to listen to Unchained and realize that Petty and friends don't sound like the Heartbreakers. They sound like Johnny Cash's band. Is there any better compliment? I don't think so, and Lord knows I tried.
Is that Petty on the count-in? Yeah. And if you listen really close, sometimes you hear a perfectly understated backing vocal. Like I said, he didn't attend those sessions to be Tom Petty. He was there to play with Johnny Cash. And damn if it didn't sound good. Those were some mean eyed cats.
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