TOM PETTY, 1950-2017
For the fifth straight year, there will be a free concert at Sinatra Park in Hoboken at which all attendees are invited to bring a acoustic guitar or another stringed instrument and play along, with a goal of breaking the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest band. (It’s 953, set by the Beijing Contemporary Music Academy in Tianjin, China, in 2016, in case you were wondering.)
This year’s show, scheduled for July 26 at 7 p.m., will have a second goal, too: Paying tribute to Tom Petty, who died in October. The setlist will include 16 Petty songs (well, technically, 15 Petty songs plus “Changed the Locks,” a Lucinda Williams song that he covered).
The strumalongs will be led by James Mastro and staff members at his Hoboken music store and school, the Guitar Bar, and large posters with the names and fingerings of the chords will be held up, so that even novices will know what to play. For those who would like to prepare in advance, the chords are available at facebook.com/guitarbarnj.
Registration begins at 6 p.m. (it’s essential that everyone register so that the number of participants can be verified).
These are the songs that will be performed:
“American Girl”
“Swingin’ ”
“Free Fallin’ ”
“I Won’t Back Down”
“You Wreck Me”
“You Don’t Know How It Feels”
“Learning to Fly”
“Runnin’ Down a Dream”
“Walls”
“The Last DJ”
“I Need to Know”
“Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
“Breakdown”
“The Waiting”
“Changed the Locks”
“Yer So Bad”
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