THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE:

...with TOM PETTY!  Over the holidays, I have again caught big chunks of Peter Bogdanovich's four-hour film on Petty, "Running Down a Dream,"  reminding me again how underrated he is.  The doc goes as far back as Petty's days in Mudcrutch, which led him -- and some future Heartbreakers -- to legendary A&R man Denny Cordell, who would produce the first TP records, including "American Girl," "I Need To Know" and "Listen To Her Heart."  He fought -- and beat -- his label twice.  The first fight -- over the sale of his contract to MCA -- preceded the seminal Damn The Torpedoes album (the master tapes were kept in hiding during litigation) that would launch the band to super-stardom with tracks like "Here Comes My Girl," "Even The Losers," "Don't Do Me Like That" and the signature "Refugee."  The second fight was over the pricing of his follow-up, Hard Promises; in the movie Petty also shares the backstory for "The Waiting" from that LP.  The movie is not just PR; it is acknowledged that while the video for "You Got Lucky" was state of the art for that era, the Long After Dark album was treading water creatively.  

Bogdanovich also makes clear that Petty's success is due in no small part to a relentless drive that occasionally strays into the ruthless.  Petty was not above dumping band members, stealing band members and collaborators -- like Eurhythmics' Dave Stewart, whom he suggested write for Stevie Nicks, but ended up making off with him and "Don't Come Around Here No More" for himself, even though its psychedelic sound did not really fit with songs like "Rebels" on the Southern Accents album.  Indeed, the Wonderland-themed video for the former would supply Petty the Mad Hatter persona who would pop up in later videos for songs like "Into The Great Wide Open," which was expanded to almost seven minutes just because they had great footage from Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway.  And in the movie, Nicks doesn't seem to mind, esp. in light of the success of their collabration on tracks like "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around."  While I'm less of a fan of Petty's later work, the film tells the engaging backstory of the Traveling Wilburys, which reminds you that not just anyone gets to be in a band with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and the late Roy Orbison.  Indeed, TP & the Hartbreakers backed Dylan on tour (saw it) and later backed Johnny Cash.  And Petty is still capable of turning out great stuff, as the movie documents TP's solo LP, which spawned hits like "Won't Back Down," "Free Fallin'" and "Runnin' Down A Dream."  Somewhat surprisingly, it was Petty's biggest album to that point.  There's also some great footage of Petty standing up to some music-biz types who wanted former Byrd Roger McGuinn to record some piece of pop fluff;  Petty & McGuinn would turn out "King Of The Hill," a song about "Papa" John Phillips (though they don't say so in the movie).  McGuinn also tells the story of the first time someone played him "American Girl": "When did I record that?"  Catch it on Sundance today or Jan 6th -- or queue it from Netflix.

DELANEY BRAMLETT of Delaney & Bonnie, a singer and songwriter whose bluesy, gospel- and country-flavored music influenced Eric Clapton and George Harrison among others, and whose songs were covered by popular musicians ranging from Ray Charles to Sonic Youth, died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 69.

PRINCE tells Ann Powers of the L.A. Tines about plans to realease three albums this year and more...

LOS LOBOS, Live at Biddy Mulligan's in 1984, via Captain's Dead.

JEFF MANGUM of Neutral Milk Hotel, Live at Aquarius Records in 1996, via Aquarium Drunkard.

THE BEST 25 VIDEOS of 2008, according to Best Week Ever.

MUSIC DOWNLOADS set records, but not enough to offset declining CD sales.

WINTER 2009 RELEASES: Compiled at Pitchfork.

VIKING MOSES does the four free songs thing for Daytrotter, three previously unreleased.

CUTOUT BIN: From Bob Dylan to Zager & Evans, from Stff Little Fingers to Sly & the Family Stone, from the Hombres to Devo, plus Billy Bragg, the Count Five, Cat Power, T.Rex and more  -- this Friday's fortuitous finds are streaming from the Pate page at the ol' HM.

GREAT MOVIES not available on DVD.

THE BEST DVDs of 2008, according to The A.V. Club.

THE WORST DVDs of 2008, according to PopMatters.

NOW SHOWING:  There are no new wide releases this weekend.

CHARLES BARKLEY gave statements to the police after his DUI arrest that were very Barkley.

JENNIFER GARNER did not give birth yesterday.

WATCHMEN has a new featurette online.

DARREN ARONOFSKY, director of The Wrestler, says wrestlers should be part of SAG.

TOP GUN: A visit to the "Where are they now?" file.

THE HOLLYWOOD RECESSION:  Studios have now had time to develop proposals for pictures about the financial chaos, inspiring a clutch of big-budget films over the next year.

PAKISTAN: Security forces detained 28 al Qaeda and Taliban facilitators as well as 116 Afghans during a security operation in Khyber.

IRAQ has transitioned to full sovereignty as the SoFA has taken effect. Iraqi forces detained 15 insurgents in separate raids throughout the country. 2008 had the lowest US troop casualties since the invasion, almost two-thirds lower than 2007 -- which I mention because the establishment media certainly did not bother to do so.

DUCKS ON AN ESCALATOR: Trying to get to the Chinese restaurant.

CREATURES GREAT & SMALL 2008: Year in Review in Photos.

DISABLED DUCK teaches tolerance and inspires hope in children.

BIRDWATCHER & BIRD cross signals.