By Steve Newton
A Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert isn’t the first place you’d normally go to in hopes of hearing long, drawn-out guitar solos.
In fact, lead guitarist Mike Campbell–who I was fortunate enough to interview back in 1999–is famous for his economical approach to soloing.
But then there’s this 12-minute version of “It’s Good to Be King”, a song off the 1995 Wildflowers album that was featured in the 30th Anniversary Concert from Gainesville, Florida in 2006.
Petty plays some mighty tasty guitar too, but it’s Campbell’s solo–running from around the 8:46 mark to 10:35–that really gets me going. Shades of David Gilmour, maybe?
Actually, now that I think about it, I should probably ask God to bless Steve Ferrone’s drumming during that solo as well. Holy crap is that guy on the money!
And of course it doesn’t hurt that the whole damn thing is framed by one of Tom Petty’s 20 best songs.
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