You mean unlike Prince, who played last year? Prince, who thoroughly outclassed Petty in song selection, musicianship, and showmanship? Or the Rolling Stones, who played the year before? Or Paul McCartney, who played the year before them? Or others in this century including U2 and Aerosmith, both of whom are of course known for not playing their own instruments and doing their own singing.
Yeah, Petty’s performance was sure unusual, Rip Van Newcrasher. 
I loved seeing and hearing Tom Petty in the halftime show. It was just right.
Great Half Time Show. Much better quality than the Stones a couple of years ago. Good show does not always have to be over the top and glitzy.
I like Tom Petty just fine, but the overpowering stench of safeness turned me off.
Exactly.
I suppose Prince is a hard act to follow, even if it is a year later.
But I could not shake the feeling that this show was staged with safeness in mind.
As much as I like him, Petty probably isn’t the ideal choice for a four-song set like that. In a two-hour show, there’s more of a mix of moods, I think, but during the set I picked up on the loneliness in “American Girl” more than I had in the past, and it was just sort of a downbeat set. At least by Super Bowl standards. But I preferred it to the Stones’ set, which was really ragged (and I’m not a Stones fan), or the Aerosmith-teenybopper show, which Lewis Black aptly compared to the sound of pigs being slaughtered.
The party we went to all hated the half time show. It wasn’t the right energy for such a huge venue.
That’s when we decided that it is all a conspiracy to drive up beer and food sales across the world.
Petty is a survivor, great musician and songwriter. I found the performance boring simply due to the focus being only on the delivery of hit songs. There was little in the way of on-stage entertainment (not that anyone could really follow Prince) and of course no room for musical spontenaity.
Geek hijack:
Mike Campbell - Petty’s lead guitarist - is very highly respected as an “in the pocket” lead player - he can do flash, but typically just plays the perfect lick for the song. He was playing a new Mike Campbell signature Duesenberg - that blue with the white racing stripe is the official color. Duesenbergs are assembled in Germany of parts made in a variety of places and are currently getting buzz as a cool New Thing.
The other guitarist - not Petty and not Campbell - was playing what looked to be an early-60’s custom color Fender Strat; if so, easily a $30,000 guitar…
I sense the malign influence of the National Association of Municipal Sewer and Water Authorities.
I liked it, but I’m biased because Petty started his set with a Rickenbacker, and I’m a Rickenbacker man myself.
I think that Tom Petty is great, though perhaps not the best choice for the SB halftime because people want dance-oriented pablulum coupled with wardrobe malfunctions, not straight ahead rock.
I think the SB timing is all wrong. This obsession with “prime time” is idiotic. I think they should play the game at 4pm, then have a concert after the game, for those who wish to stay up on a school night. I think it would’ve been better to have the usual lip-synching teen slut wannabe doing the halftime, then have TP and the Heartbreakers rock for a 90 minute set after the game.
It was an ok performance, but how on Earth does any Tom Petty song need three guitars playing at the same time? Seemed like overkill unless they were going to do Freebird and ran out of time.
Thanks for answering the question I had planned to ask you by email! I can usually identify guitars on television, but the two that Campbell played had me stumped. Can I assume that the double-neck he played was also a Duesenberg? It looked similar.
Well, the guy wrote a couple of damned fine songs about 30 years ago on his first 3 albums, but even then he was boring as shit in concert.
When Squeeze opened for him we went to see them, and left after 2-3 TP yawners.
I must say, tho, that my family got mighty tired of my nasally sing-along imitation mighty fast!
I had a friend who was in the crowd at last year’s Super Bowl halftime show. She was a huge Prince fan, so it was awesome for her. She was 18 and very pretty (so she fit the desired demographic), and got to run in for halftime, but didn’t get to stay for the game (which didn’t bother her at all; it was all about Prince for her). Unfortunately, I don’t remember how she got to be in the crowd, but I seem to recall that she knew somebody who was part of the group collecting fans.
Meanwhile, I enjoyed Tom Petty (always do), but I did think it was funny that the first song at the Super Bowl halftime (American Girl) was a diddy about suicide. (Trivia: The line referencing “441” is an allusion to a street in Gainesville, Florida, where UF is located, Tom Petty is from, and where I went to college. Supposedly, the song is about a girl who committed suicide by jumping from Beatty Towers, a dorm at the school which runs adjacent to 441, called 13th Street locally in Gainesville).
Uh, not quite. Snopes link
Agreed, and I’m perplexed at how enamored people are of the hugely overrated FMF. I would have loved to see some more Heartbreakers and maybe one solo number, but virtually the whole set? Ugh.
I’m swamped right now, but it looked like a custom-made Baker. He’s a guy who worked at either Fender’s or Gibson’s Custom Shop and now does his own stuff. There’s another guy, Giffin, with a similar pedigree who it could also be. I’ll check when I can…
Quick check turned up this quote on The Gear Page: “That’s Campbell’s custom Ferrington double neck…it’s in a coffee table book I have. He must bring that out for special occasions!” You can Google Danny (?) Ferrington - he does great work and there are some gorgeous books out on his custom work…
Well, here in Glendale, the game did start at 4pm. The nation ran it live, so on the west coast, it started at 3.
I had no interest in the superbowl, but when It got close to halftime, I stuck a tape in the VCR and caught it. Good thing, when I walked back in, he was halfway through ‘American Girl’. I was struck that not only was I watching it live, the venue was only about five miles away from me.
I’m glad it’s over. For the last month, when it came to the superbowl, the papers and TV were full of it. (As usual.)
Hence, the word “supposedly” 
Okay, you got me. I always heard it was an urban legend, but at UF, it’s one that gets around. Just like how Century Tower loses a brick everytime a virgin graduates from the school (hence, the Century part).
I’ve never been a Tom Petty fan. Over the years I thought his songs were vaguely listenable, but nothing special. Interesting, then, that I thought the halftime show was pretty kick-ass. No analysis, no comparisons to previous shows, just my gut impression.