The coda to a sad day in the U.S. was a doozy – the unexpected death of rocker Tom Petty, apparently of a heart attack at his home in Malibu. It's hard to see him go.  He came to the fore about when I came of age in the late 1970s, early 1980s, not quite punk, certainly not disco, not heavy metal, just the resurrection of good rock and roll, with evocative, memorable melodies, depicting great highs and lows that imprint on the time when they are heard.  To me, his songs evoke San Diego beaches, Los Angeles highways, San Francisco bars, wind-whipped Monterrey cypress trees at the end of Golden Gate Park, the first Silicon Valley nerds, and student all-nighters at the Foghorn, the student newspaper at the University of San Francisco.  That's just the dredgings of one person.  It's likely everyone has a slew of comparable memories when thinking of Petty's music. Despite his music's capacity to capture a moment and sustain...(Read Full Post)