Tony's Guitarist Picks - Mike Campbell

For the faithful at Tom Petty Nation, most of whom probably know infinitely more about what I write here than I do… 😊

I’ve written about quite a few guitar players over the years – the Allman Brothers duo of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, and my original guitar hero George Harrison, just to name a few.  Now I’m finally getting around to Mike Campbell.  To the Tom Petty faithful this may appear like heresy to write about such a fine guitarist as if he was an afterthought, but here is my explanation.  I was always a casual fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  My foremost musical loves have always been the Beatles, the Allman Brothers Band, and Pink Floyd.  Tom Petty’s music was always in the background.  It was because of that I took his music for granted.  I had a few of his albums, but though I liked his music I wasn’t what one would call a hardcore fan.  Unfortunately, it took his death for me to dig deep beneath the radio hits and find the treasure trove that is his catalog.  Having done so, I found what the Tom Petty faithful have always known – TP’s co-pilot Mike Campbell is a damn fine guitar player.  I suppose in the back of my mind I always knew that too.

The guitars.  When you start a band, more than likely you have to borrow money to get your first good guitar.  When you make it big, guitar companies give you guitars.  Mike Campbell is one of those guys.  When he made it big, guitar companies [Duesenberg comes to mind immediately] gave Mike guitars.  But he also has money, and a serious case of guitar lust.  He’s got quite a collection.  Some guitarists are associated with one guitar – Jimmy Page [’59 Gibson Les Paul], Eric Clapton [Fender Stratocaster], Angus Young [Gibson SG] – just to name a few.  Not so Mike Campbell.  His collection is truly impressive.  Mike Campbell is a man of many guitar sounds.

In 2012, Mike did a film with Justin Kreutzmann about his guitars.  This film project [roughly 90 minutes long] is invaluable for anybody who wants to know the tools of Mike Campbell’s trade.  There are 15 short chapters [approximately 5-7 minutes each] where he talks about specific guitars in his collection.  He walks the audience through which guitars he used on specific songs.  Most of the chapters are about just guitars.  He talks about his first acoustic guitar in Chapter 1.  In the second chapter, he reveals his 1964 Stratocaster was the Heartbreakers’ “sound” for the first couple of records.  TP played the ’64 Strat, while Mike played a Broadcaster that he thought was a “perfect complement” to the Strat [discussed in Chapters 3 & 4].  He never modified the Broadcaster, going as far as to forbid his roadies to remove any of the road grime that has accumulated over the years.  The grime is part of the vibe, part of the sound, and he doesn’t want to muck up the sound.  The Broadcaster is the sound you hear on Breakdown. 

In Chapter 5, he discusses his ’67 [or ’68 – he isn’t sure] Goldtop Les Paul that he bought the same day he bought his Broadcaster.  He wrote Refugee on this guitar.  In Chapters 6 & 7, he talks about “the Rickenbacker sound”.  The Rickenbacker 12-string TP poses with on the cover of Damn the Torpedoes is actually Mike’s guitar.  He bought it from a guy in Anaheim for $120.  He was bummed that it wasn’t the same kind of Rickenbacker that Roger McGuinn owned [a Rickenbacker 360, one of which he acquired years later], or like what George Harrison played.  Once he got the guitar home, he discovered it had a great sound.  Later on, as he toured the Rickenbacker factory, he found out his guitar was the one that was made immediately after one of George Harrison’s guitars.  His “pride and joy” is a ’67 Rickenbacker 12-string that’s like the one George Harrison played on A Hard Day’s Night. 

Chapter 8 is devoted to Gretsch guitars [In Between Bright and Heavy: The Gretsch Tone].  He has a Gretsch 6129 Chet Atkins model [with the Bigsby tremolo].  He has a Gretsch Country Gentleman [again, like George Harrison] that he traded stage clothes for.  He has a Gretsch Clipper that he acquired at a video store [WTH?!?] that he used for his slide solo on I Won’t Back Down.  Chapter 9 is devoted to Vox, which Mike describes as a whole studio in one guitar because it has so many gadgets.  Those gadgets include a wah-wah “pedal” you can play with your palm, a fuzztone button, a tone filter, and a “repeater”.

Chapter 10 is Biting Clear and Loud: The Gibson Les Paul Jr. and SG.  He bought the Les Paul Jr. at the same time he bought the Gretsch Clipper.  It’s the guitar he used to record Running Down a Dream.  He used a ‘64 SG when the Heartbreakers played You Wreck Me live.  They’d play the song a little longer than what appeared on the recording, and he would play in the style of Jerry Garcia.  It’s one of his favorite guitars.  Chapter 11 is Begging To Be Played: The 1959 Gibson Les Paul.  His ’59 Les Paul is “the motherlode of all guitars” which he claims cost more than his house.  It’s the only guitar he keeps in its case.  It does not go on the road with him.  It’s a studio-only guitar.  The ’59 Les Paul is the sound of the Mojo album [maybe that’s why I like that album so much].  I think he used it a lot on Hypnotic Eye [another album I like very much] as well.   

Chapter 12 is The Surf Sound of the Fender Jaguar – The Mike Campbell Duesenberg and the Super Bowl.  During a 30-date stand at San Francisco’s Fillmore, Mike came up with a “surf arrangement” of Goldfinger [found on Live Anthology].  That’s the sound of the Jaguar.  While on tour with the Black Crowes Mike noticed a Duesenberg guitar.  He asked a roadie about it.  The roadie told Mike the Duesenberg USA rep had brought the guitar to see if TP was interested.  He wasn’t interested but Mike was.  After he played it, he met the Duesenberg USA rep, who offered to make a Mike Campbell Duesenberg model.  He played one such model at the Super Bowl halftime show.

As for acoustic guitars, Mike and TP used mostly Gibsons or Martins.  Mike has a pretty good memory for the tones of each guitar.  While he’s listening to a track-in-progress, this memory comes in handy for choosing which guitar will fit a song or a part of a song.  He talks about his guitars the same way an artist talks about different paints – how different guitars give different colors to music.  That’s why he used so many guitars on Heartbreakers recordings. 

Mike Campbell’s guitar heroes.  Chet Atkins, George Harrison, Roger McGuinn, Jerry Garcia, Carl Wilson, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry.  If there are more, he doesn’t mention them.

The Slide.  If George Harrison says you’re a good slide player, take it to the bank.  George knew a thing or two about guitar players.  He uses a glass slide and plays in standard tuning.  My favorite Mike Campbell slide moment: Learning to Fly.  A close second is A Face in the Crowd, which is more sedate than the in-your-face slide on Learning to Fly, but equally effective.

Finger-picking.  For a long time, I didn’t know that this was in his bag of tricks.  Then I heard Don’t Fade on Me.  Need I say more?

Favorite Mike Campbell moments.  I might be in the minority, but I tend to like Tom Petty’s music from Wildflowers through the second Mudcrutch album more than what came before.  Here are my favorite Mike Campbell moments, mostly in no particular order:

1.      Got My Mind Made Up – This is a cool headphone song.  This is proof that a song doesn’t need a guitar solo to be cool.  TP is jamming away on the acoustic in the right ear, Stan is doing the Bo Diddley rhythm thing, and Mike is in the left ear.  How he got that shimmering, metallic-slide sound I’ll never know, but it gets your attention.

2.      So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star [Live] – For a little less than four minutes, Mike turns into Roger McGuinn on a Rickenbacker twelve-string.

3.      Makin' Some Noise – This one has a pretty twisted riff.

4.      Walkin' From The Fire – Why didn’t this one make Southern Accents?  As swampy as this one is, it would’ve fit the whole Southern concept thing perfectly.

5.      Running Down a Dream – While Mike Campbell is like George Harrison in that he plays exactly what the song needs, and his guitar solos are concise and to-the-point.  Sometimes a guitar player has to step on the gas and just blow.  This is that song.

6.      Goldfinger [Live] – Mike Campbell plays a Fender Jaguar where Shirley Bassey’s voice would be.  This rendition of a Bond theme is as cool as it is unexpected.

7.      Can’t Stop the Sun – Most of Mike Campbell’s solos are usually two to four bars and not much longer.  He gets to stretch out on this one.

8.      Room at the Top – There’s some wonderful interplay between Mike’s guitar and Benmont Tench’s clavinet, which almost sounds like a guitar.

9.      Two Men Talking – There’s some Allman/Betts-like harmony guitars going on here.  It would not have been out of place on Mojo.  I wonder how good it was live…

10.  Mojo [First Flash of Freedom, I Should Have Known It, Something Good Coming, Good Enough].  Anytime the leader of a band wants to make an album for the expressed purpose of highlighting his guitarist’s playing speaks for itself.  Some critics claimed TP & the Heartbreakers lost their identity with this record.  I think they took a chance to break out of their comfort zone to do something different.  You can hear the ghosts of the Allman Brothers, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin all in one album.  I like it.

11.  Hypnotic Eye [Fault Lines, Red River, All You Can Carry, Forgotten Man] – I like to hear the songs I listed from Mojo and these songs from Hypnotic Eye in this sequence [Fault Lines coming right after Good Enough]. I don’t know why, but hearing these eight songs in a row like this sounds right.   On Fault Lines, Mike Campbell gives us what Duane Allman would call the Gibson “full tilt screech”.  There are some nasty guitar sounds on Forgotten Man.

12.  Hungry No More – Another George Harrison comparison [forgive me].  Mike’s guitar fills and solos sound like they were recorded backwards, like George did on I’m Only Sleeping.  At first, I thought it was just a studio thing, then I heard the live version from An American Treasure and heard the same thing. To be able to do such a thing in a studio takes some time to work out, but to do it live and on-the-fly is something else.  Very impressive.  One needs some serious chops to do that.

13.  Crystal River – I had to go to the videotape to confirm what I thought I was hearing.  Mike was getting some otherworldly sounds out of his B-Bender-equipped Telecaster. 

14.  You Got Lucky – Mike gives us the twang of a Gretsch.  Can you imagine any other guitar sound on this song?

15.  Bootleg Flyer – Mike trades solos with Tom Leadon.  Mike is playing a Telecaster, and Tom L is playing a Gibson 335.

16.  A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) – Sometimes the easiest solos to play are the most memorable.  Mike’s solo in the middle [2:18 – 2:41] is one of those solos.  Extra credit goes to the riff that introduces the song and repeats three more times therein.

17.  Oh Well – Mike played this with the Heartbreakers, and is his spotlight with Fleetwood Mac.  My comments about Running Down a Dream above apply here as well.  Mike can wail with the best of them.

Written by Tom Petty & Mike Campbell.  Mike Campbell is not just a guitarist.  He writes as well.  One can fill an entire CD worth [and more] of songs written by both Tom Petty and Mike Campbell.  They include:

1.      First Flash of Freedom – Mojo [2010]

2.      I Should Have Known It – Mojo [2010]

3.      Good Enough – Mojo [2010]

4.      Fault Lines – Hypnotic Eye [2014]

5.      Can't Stop the Sun – The Last DJ [2002]

6.      Bootleg Flyer – Mudcrutch [2008]

7.      You Wreck Me – Wildflowers [1994]

8.      Don't Fade on Me – Wildflowers [1994]

9.      Blue Sunday – The Last DJ [2002]

10.  Climb That Hill - Songs and Music from "She's the One" [1996]

11.  All or Nothin' - Into the Great Wide Open [1991]

12.  Makin' Some Noise - Into the Great Wide Open [1991]

13.  Love Is a Long Road – Full Moon Fever [1989]

14.  Runnin' Down a Dream – Full Moon Fever [1989]

15.  Down The Line – Playback [1995 - Full Moon Fever outtake]

16.  Ways to Be Wicked - Playback [1995 – recorded in 1986]

17.  Jammin' Me - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

18.  Runaway Trains - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

19.  My Life/Your World - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

20.  All Mixed Up - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

21.  Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

22.  Dogs on the Run - Southern Accents [1985]

23.  You Came Through – Playback [1995 – recorded in 1988]

24.  You Got Lucky - Long After Dark [1982]

25.  Finding Out - Long After Dark [1982]

26.  The Same Old You - Long After Dark [1982]

27.  Between Two Worlds - Long After Dark [1982]

28.  A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) - Hard Promises [1981]

29.  Nightwatchman - Hard Promises [1981]

30.  You Can Still Change Your Mind - Hard Promises [1981]

31.  Here Comes My Girl - Damn the Torpedoes [1979]

32.  Refugee - Damn the Torpedoes [1979]

33.  Casa Dega- B-side [1979]

34.  Baby's a Rock 'n' Roller - You're Gonna Get It! [1978]

35.  Hurt - You're Gonna Get It! [1978]

36.  Rockin' Around (With You) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers [1976]

37.  Stop Draggin' My Heart Around – Bella Donna [1981]

Tom Petty let one get away – Don Henley’s Boys of Summer.  Mike co-wrote The Heart of the Matter with Henley, too.

That’s all I have.  I came late to the party, but as is cliché, better late than never.  Thanks for reading.