“TP and HB” as J.J. Jackson used to refer to them on MTV will release Live Anthology on Tuesday, Nov. 22. However, you will be able to start downloading half the tracks this coming Tuesday. Find out more about the “Superhighway Tour” and the different packages available at Tom Petty’s official website. I guarantee you this will not suck.
Photos by Art Meripol. Visit his photo blog here.
In early October, 1984, it was announced that Bruce Springsteen was coming to The Summit on Nov. 29. Tickets were to go on sale at 6 a.m. at the Houston Astrodome, however, the line up was at 3 a.m. Yes, 3 a.m. This was before the days of the lottery, so where you were in line was where you were in line. Thousands of us braved an unusually cold October morning in anticipation of purchasing tickets to the hottest rock and roll show on the road.
Springsteen was riding an unbelievable wave of popularity. Born In The USA was a monster album, he was constantly being played on the radio (those were the days), and on MTV and he had quickly become one of my idols. I had to get a ticket to this show. There were no ifs, ands or buts, I had to get in.
Once upon a time, television and rock music were nearly total strangers. Despite the Beatles, Elvis, etc. on the “Ed Sullivan Show” and groundbreaking appearances by people like Bob Dylan on the variety shows by Johnny Cash and the Smothers Brothers, rock musicians were fairly hard to find on TV. Then along came “Don Kirschner’s Rock Concerts,” “In Concert” on late-night ABC, “The Midnight Special,” “Saturday Night Live,” and the obstacles started to fall.
By the 1980s and the advent of MTV, rock musicians and their handlers knew the way to sell more records was to get a video on the air. Already established stars like Bruce Springsteen didn’t jump on the video bandwagon right off – Springsteen’s first official music video was “Atlantic City” in 1982 but he didn’t appear in it.
30 Days Out 
