Bobtalk

February 21, 1986
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Kooyong Stadium
Concert

It's cold up here tonight. Is it cold out there? A cold place. (....) I wanna sing a song now that I recorded about twenty years ago. During my (cough, cough) protest period. I'm sort of still in that period (....) called Masters Of War. It meant something then and it still does now.

Thank you. I wanna introduce you to America's finest Rock n Roll band, certainly one of my favorites, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Thank you. Without a Lonesome Town you forget. You gotta go someplace to forget. God knows there's enough to remember, huh? All right, here's another song. I'm almost embarrassed to play it. I wrote it 40 years ago. Anyway, this one was called, subtitled “Famous people”, I always tell the story when I do this song. Famous people always get in the position where they have to do what they call Press Conferences. You get a lot of people from newspapers. It used to be just news readers but now it's TV and stuff like that. And they ask you a lot of questions and you're supposed to answer them all. Most of the  questions have to deal with your personal life. You know like ..., you can't tell them that because then they may put that in the paper, ha-ha-ha, so you have to do it some other kind of way. Everybody seems to want to know personal things like, politics religious things, sexual things. I don't know why they feel they can ask me those things, but I don't reply to those kind of questions. I let my songs speak for themselves. Not only that, a person’s life speaks for itself. Don't matter what you say, don't matter at all anyway. It's what you do that counts. Here's one of those songs now, just had to be done one time. Put somebody in their place. Every once in a while somebody's got to be put into their place. Cause they don't want to go. But it's a good thing to put somebody in their place. If you get the opportunity to do it, you should do it. It's even happened to me a few times. I've been put in my place and I’d rather appreciate it in the long run. So I'm gonna tell you now, if you know you're right you just go on ahead. And put somebody in their place. (plays Ballad Of A Thin Man) Thank you! Once again now Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Thank you. I wanna thank Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for backing me up tonight. On the keyboards, give him a warm hand, Benmont Tench. On the bass tonight, Howie Epstein. On the drums, Stan Lynch. OK, is that a big enough hand for you? Stan Lynch on the drums, give him another hand. Playing lead guitar tonight, Mike Campbell. I especially wanna thank Mr. Tom Petty himself standing there. And of course my singing partners, the singing Queens of Rhythm. (before Like A Rolling Stone)

All right, you know I come from the United States, an awful big country. And it has lots of different parts. People are sort of different all over the place. Anyway, I come from like a part called the Midwest. It's kind of nice there at certain parts of the year. If you go up South, by this time I'd either have been killed, or killed somebody, so I figured I was kind of lucky to grow up down there. You know of course if I had grown up out on the West I'd have been a Beach Boy! East, I never really did consider, ha-ha. Here's a song about someone I used to know a long time ago. Seems like just the other day, though. (before Girl Of The North Country)

All right, Tom's gonna come back up, (....) we just feel like we wanna play this song. This is the kind of music that we as kids were raised up on. Sounds like this. No kind of guitar loose. Anyway they used to play these kind of things on the radio all the time. As I suppose now you can't hear a real song on the radio. It wasn't always the same. Most of the time you just don't. But we were just fortunate enough to come up during a time when they used to play real songs with real feelings on the radio. This one is kind of synonymous. (before I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know)

All right, hmm. Anybody here who hasn't heard of Tennessee Williams? I guess everybody knows who that is. Anyway, he wrote these incredible lines you know, he says, what he say again, "I'm not looking for your pity, but just your understanding. Not even that, no, just your recognition of you and me and the beginning of time in us all." I used to think about those lines a lot. Anyway, you can't hear stuff like "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "Fugitive Kind" you've heard of these all kinds of places. A few years back he died in New York City hotel room all by himself and nobody even found him until the next day. He was there because he couldn't get a job. A man who does that (....) Anyway, here's another person who I listen to. Kind of a bit before his time actually. I thought he was right on time, but I guess most everybody else didn't. He was about ten years older than his time. What he did back then he got crucified for, other people do it now and make a lot of money doin’ it. And I never would write a song about them, but I did write a song about this man. (before Lenny Bruce)

All right, thank you. You know the kind of people that always say "impress me, impress me". As if they can't impress themselves. People always sitting in judgment on you. I bet everybody knows somebody like that. I know quite a few. I don't pay no attention to them though. They don't bother me none. Still, however, every once in a while I (....). Cause I ain't got no way of getting back you know. Can't shoot them. Some people just ain't worth shooting. So the only kind of way I get back is to write songs. I wish everybody could do that, surely. (before When The Night Comes Falling From The Sky)

All right, yeah! Everybody must get stoned. It's out of my hands now. That can be taken a couple of ways, though. Various things can be taken a couple of ways. So here's one that can't be.

All right. We're gonna get out of here, it's about that time of the night. A little late for me, it's way past my bedtime. You’ve been a great crowd, I hope we played good. (....) hard waking up, it takes a while. Anyway, I’m gonna sing a song now about my hero. Everybody's got a hero, I know they do. Shut up there! Everybody's got a hero I know they do. Whether you admit it or not, you do. Some people’s hero is ... well, women. Money is a great hero. Success is a great hero. Tom Petty is a great hero. Ha-ha. This man's a hero, ha-ha. Jane Fonda's a hero. Michael Jackson is a big hero. And of course Bruce Springsteen. None of these people mean nothing to me though. I don't care. I wanna sing about my hero. (before In The Garden)

---

Let us know of any bobtalk we missed or any corrections for this event

Make sure to state after (or during) which song the words are spoken.