What Would Tom Petty Do?
By Emma-Lee; streaming at youtube.com
Pop singers can be just as obsessive as anyone else. Look no further than Billy Ocean ("Get out of my dreams, and into my car") or Sting ("Every breath you take … I'll be watching you"). Pretty creepy, right?
So here comes the Canadian songbird Emma-Lee, who is not shy with her hyphens or her fixations. Her super-catchy new pop-country tune is What Would Tom Petty Do?, in which the singer seeks guidance from the Free Fallin' Floridian. The song brashly appropriates Petty song titles and favourably stacks the man up against Messieurs Lennon, Jagger and Dylan.
According to the Hollywood-filmed video, Emma-Lee is running down a dream of a co-write with her idol. The odds are against her; Petty's preference for an American Girl is well known.
And as for Emma-Lee's titular question, well, all we can say is that we know what Tom Petty wouldn't do, which is to write a song called What Would Bob Dylan Do?
Brad Wheeler