They Won’t Back Down

For someone with little vested interest in last night’s game (at school today I jokingly told a colleague that I’m a “non-denominational football fan” – I’ll let you play with the religious ramifications of that one), I’m not sure that I could have asked for a better Super Bowl from top to bottom.

The reason I placed my preference with the Patriots was centered around the idea that a perfect season would make an excellent story. However, I’m not sure there’s a better story than the one that played out last night. The Giants pulled together a scrappy performance from a generally discounted team (I personally envisioned a blowout, but then again I write about football 2 – 3 times a year) that featured an impressive defensive performance, a few enchanted plays (be prepared to see David Tyree catch that football on his helmet for the rest of eternity), and a star-making performance out of Eli Manning.  This was the kind of story that if Disney made it up (or, say, bought the rights to), we’d deride them for making the most cliched sports/underdog movie of all time.

However, you didn’t come here to read what I had to say about the game – let’s talk music!  I was pleasantly surprised with Tom Petty’s performance both in the setlist and the performance itself.  I didn’t expect lots of flash in the performance, but the songs sounded excellent and the setlist was a mix of crowd favorites(“Free Fallin’” and “American Girl”) with perhaps my two favorite Tom Petty songs – “Running Down a Dream” and the unexpected surprise (to me) of “I Won’t Back Down.”  While I didn’t expect the pace of the song to fit in with a football halftime show, the tone of the song completely fit the NFL champions.  As Petty calmly sings about being backed against the fiery gates of Hell, he repeatedly proclaims his refusal to give in.  In a very strange way, Eli Manning’s demeanor (and elusive nature on the Tyree catch) presented the physical manifestation of Petty’s song.  It was an apt soundtrack to his performance.

Two related links, and then a brief thought.  First, I must point you toward’s Carrie Brownstein’s fantastic blog Monitor Mix, a blog I’ve been meaning to add to my blogroll.  Today, she wrote about Petty’s performance.

Petty played some of his best-known songs, from “American Girl” to “I Won’t Back Down”. The delivery was staid and earnest, with very little flash. The drama and movement of Petty’s songs have always been in the lyrics themselves, or in the stripping down of the excess, the sudden emphasis on a perfectly constructed chord progression. “American Girl” sounds like it could have been written in recent years. (It almost was, by The Strokes on their debut album.). And “Free Fallin”, a meditation on life, love, and loss, was sung by tens of thousands in the crowd. It was a more heartfelt moment of togetherness than the one conjured by American Idol’s Jordin Spark’s delivery of our national anthem.

Additionally, music industry blowhard Bob Lefsetz wrote (devoid of his usual over-the-top rage) about his preference for musical moments over sports moments.

Football was never cool.  But music was.  Music was that sound that Harry Chapin heard in his head as he drove his taxi.  He could be a star in his own mind, even though his life was positively second-rate, at least economically.  Music is the elixir of life, it gets you through.  I’ll be high on this Super Bowl victory till…TUESDAY?  Shit, I’ve already come a long way down.  But I still tingle when I think of seeing Petty at the Whisky back in ‘77.

Sure, I can’t argue with the emotional power of a great rock show and I’m fortunate enough to have my own personal collection of “tingle”-inducing moments (ask me in person some time).  However, I think that Lefsetz discounts the communal nature of sporting events.  While I can buzz about the time that I saw the Hold Steady in the basement of a Masonic hall, that memory is largely a personal one.  However, the beauty of sports events like last night’s game is that it belongs to everyone.  Today’s reports suggest that Super Bowl XLII had the second highest ratings of all time (behind the M*A*S*H finale).  We might hold concert memories (and other personal highlights) close to our hearts, but games like that will become cultural touchstones for all time.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the inclusion of The Arcade Fire in last night’s game.  I didn’t think that the inclusion of “No Cars Go” was for a NFL commercial but  rather for a FOX playback of first half highlights (I was surprised by the song to the point where I didn’t really notice what was on the screen).  It’s also worth noting that Fox has done this before, as I remember hearing the Replacements’ “Left of the Dial” before a commercial during an earlier Giants broadcast.  Either way, it gave me a shiver as I instantly connected it with the Giants’ plight – the song captured the desperation that the G-men played with throughout the second half.  Faced with the impossibility of escaping, the Giants rallied together and joined Win Butler’s plea to run towards that elusive land just off the horizon.

So on this day, the day of Lawrence Taylor’s birth (I know this because it’s mine as well), congrats to the Giants.