More of the Music of Tom Petty
- Both sides of this vintage copy were giving us the hard rockin’ sound we were looking for
- Credit for the tremendous presence and energy of the recording goes to the brilliant engineer Shelly Yakus
- The better copies of Damn the Torpedoes are, simply put, the best sounding Tom Petty albums we have ever played
- Tons of hits too: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” and my favorite of the bunch, “Don’t Do Me Like That”
- 5 stars: “Few mainstream rock albums of the late 70s and early 80s were quite as strong as this, and it still stands as one of the great records of the album rock era.”
Credit must obviously go to the man behind the console, Shelly Yakus, someone who we freely admit, now with a sense of embarrassment, has never been one of our favorite engineers. After hearing a White Hot Stamper pressing of Damn the Torpedoes and a killer copy of Animal Notes, we realize that we have been seriously underestimating the man.
If your Damn the Torpedoes doesn’t sound good (and it probably doesn’t), you sure can’t blame him — the master tape is mind-boggling in its size, weight, power and sheer rock n’ roll energy.