A few things I’ll remember from this year’s Super Bowl and the Tom Petty Halftime show:
1. No Bears to watch crumble or Rex Grossman myriad fumbles.
2. Wishing Eli Manning was the Bears QB last year.
3. Wondering who was the set designer for the Half Time show the last two years, a descendant of Sigmund Freud? I know rock n roll is full of phallic but come on! Prince’s pulsing symbolic silhouette last year and Tom Petty’s intro this year, an illuminated guitar unit chugging across the darkened field to link up with the rest of the band?
4. Still wishing Eli Manning was the Bears QB last year.
5. Yes, the Petty classics American Girl, Won’t Back Down, Free Falling and Runnin’ Down a Dream where safe choices, but Petty could’ve pulled a rebellious lyrical malfunction and slipped in a little bit of You Don’t Know How it Feels. But amidst a sea blinking LED and in all his sly and shaggy-bearded wisdom Petty and his Heartbreakers knew better and opted not to sing:
….But let me get to the point, lets roll another joint
And turn the radio loud, I’m too alone to be proud
You don’t know how it feels
You don’t know how it feels to be me…
Well, after watching the Halftime show I did get a good idea of what it feels like to be you these days Mr. Petty at the rockin’ age of 57. And even though the show was a solid but sadly subdued 12 minute set, I’m just glad that Eli had other plans to keep me watching until the last second.