Tom Petty: Every Album, Every Song

Tom Petty

Richard James

Contents

Social Media

Introduction

1. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

2. You’re Gonna Get It!

3. Damn The Torpedoes

4. Hard Promises

5. Long After Dark

6. Southern Accents

7. Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)

8. The Traveling Wilburys: Volume 1

9. Full Moon Fever

10. The Traveling Wilburys: Volume 3

11. Into The Great Wide Open

12. Greatest Hits

13. Wildflowers

14. Playback: 1973 – 1993

15. Songs And Music From The Motion Picture ‘She’s The One’

16. Echo

17. The Last DJ

18. Highway Companion

19. Mudcrutch

20. Live Anthology

21. Mojo

22. Hypnotic Eye

23. Mudcrutch 2

24. Posthumous Petty

25. An American Treasure

26. The Best Of Everything

Social Media

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Introduction

On 25 September 2017, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the final song of the final concert of the 40th Anniversary Tour by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers was ‘American Girl’, the iconic last track from the band’s first album in 1977. This was the last time Petty would perform in public. A few minutes later, although nobody knew it at the time, his professional career was over. Seven days later, Tom Petty died.

The best of Petty’s songs, of which there are many, are timeless. Listen to ‘Breakdown’, ‘American Girl’, ‘I Need To Know’, ‘Refugee’, ‘The Waiting’, ‘Freefallin’’, or ‘Wildflowers’ (this list could go on and on, and on) and they simply do not sound dated in any way. Yes, they will transport you back to the time and place you first heard them, but they refuse to acknowledge their age. Petty’s songs could become a soundtrack for your life. With over a four-decade career in rock music, there is a Petty or Heartbreakers song for every mood. From the exuberance and energy of the early band albums to the more reflective and emotionally cathartic ‘Wildflowers’ material, and with pretty much every other base in-between covered, he was the consummate songwriter. It says much about Petty’s talent that songs written by a North Floridian Southerner, who made his home and fortune in California, speak to people of all ages across the world.

Tom Petty was born on 20 October 1950 in Gainesville, Florida, to Earl, an abusive alcoholic, and Kitty, a loving mother. Seven years later, a brother, Bruce, arrived. The absence of any musicians in the family tree didn’t stop the elder son from wanting to become a rock and roller. The young Petty viewed music as a safe place, somewhere away from his sometimes frightening family life. A chance opportunity to watch Elvis Presley filming locally, (the movie was Follow That Dream), and to briefly meet the singer left an indelible impression. As soon as Petty saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, he knew he wanted to be in a band.

Being told frequently by his father and school teachers that music could never be a career for him imbued the young teenager with an absolute determination to prove them wrong. Petty also possessed an attitude to authority which would land him in plenty of trouble in the future. These characteristics also instilled integrity and realism into his songs, which would result in over 80 million record sales, and sold-out concerts the world over.

Initially a bass player, Petty started off in a school group, The Sundowners, then joined a local Gainesville band, The Epics, on his sixteenth birthday, quitting school the following year to go professional. When Petty left The Epics, guitarist Tom Leadon went with him, and with singer Jim Lenehan they formed Mudcrutch. Via Randall Marsh, the band’s drummer, Petty was introduced to Mike Campbell, whose innate shyness and quiet-spoken manner was at odds with his brilliance as a guitar player. Petty recognised talent when he saw it.

Regular gigging led to him meeting Benmont Tench, a formidable keyboard player for his young years. Tench and Campbell would still be playing with Petty over four decades later. Mudcrutch travelled to Los Angeles hoping to secure a record deal. Denny Cordell signed the band and in 1975, a single, ‘Depot Street’ was released on Shelter Records. It failed to chart. Shelter, however, wanted to retain Petty as a solo act, and Mudcrutch was dissolved although Petty persuaded Campbell to stay with him. Meanwhile, Tench had recorded some demos with Ron Blair on bass and Stan Lynch on drums. Tench wanted Campbell to play guitar for him and then asked Petty to sing. Petty, who by now had a solo record deal, persuaded the others to join him, and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were formed. The scene was set.

Chapter 1

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Personnel:

Tom Petty: vocals, guitars and keyboards

Mike Campbell: guitars

Benmont Tench: piano and organ

Ron Blair: bass guitar and cello

Stan Lynch: drums

Guest musicians:

Phil Seymour: backing vocals

Harley Fiala: backing vocals

Jeff Jourard: guitar on ‘Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)’

Charlie Souza: saxophone on ‘Hometown Blues’

Jim Gordon: drums on ‘Strangered In The Night’

Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn: bass on ‘Hometown Blues’

Randall Marsh: drums on ‘Hometown Blues’

Jane Petty: hand claps

All songs by Tom Petty except where noted

Recorded and mixed by Noah Shark and Max Reese at the Shelter Studio, Hollywood, California

Mastered at Capitol Studios by Ken Perry

Produced by Danny Cordell

Released: 9 November 1976

Highest chart position: US: 55, UK: 24

If your first album has one great song and the rest is terrible, you’re a one-hit wonder. But when your debut record contains two timeless classics, which are still being played worldwide half a century later, and a slew of other great rock’n’roll songs, then you’re onto something.

Hindsight is a great gift. When Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers was first released, it disappeared like the proverbial last bun at a buffet. One year and many positive reviews later, the album finally appeared in the US charts, eventually receiving gold certification (500,000 sales). Whilst most of America ignored the band, Britain took Petty to its heart. Appearances on the nation’s two music television shows of the time, Top of the Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test, helped in establishing both the band and their debut release.

First impressions of the album? It’s so short. With a running time of just over half an hour, and the longest song not making it past the four-minute mark, brevity is the order of the day. At the time, vinyl records could last up to twenty minutes per side, so potentially there’s room for another six songs. But the best things can come in small packages, and with this first release Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers set out an eclectic, electrifying stall.

Alongside the stand-out tracks, ‘Breakdown’ and ‘American Girl’, other numbers range from good time rock’n’roll through angry blues to reflective ballads. Recorded in just fourteen days, the band’s debut release captures their youthful energy and attitude. Subsequent albums would tighten the focus and define their ‘sound’, but Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers is a strong calling card, packed with great songs and excellent musicianship.

‘Rockin’ Around (With You)’ (Petty, Campbell)

That said, the album’s opening track isn’t its strongest tune. Petty wrote the words and vocal melody around Campbell’s tightly funky blues riff. Whilst the song is an energetic two and a half minutes, it really acts as an attention- grabbing overture for the better numbers which follow.

Lynch’s enthusiastic drums lead into the bass guitar riff with an acoustic guitar grooving away in unison at a lively 126 beats-per-minute tempo. Petty’s harmonised vocals are strong, although lyrically it’s lightweight stuff (rhyming ‘blue’ with ‘you’ isn’t exactly new ). The chorus refrain, with its off-beat chord attack and backing vocal ‘hey’s’, are the song’s strongest elements.

There are only two verses with choruses before the number becomes an instrumental coda which fades with some guitar fills and Tench’s synthesiser growing in prominence. Brisk, brief, and to the point, the track has plenty of enthusiasm and tight-knit musicianship to it, but it’s just not as strong as the other songs. Originally intended as the opening number of side two, it was producer Danny Cordell’s suggestion to switch it to pole position.

‘Surrender’, a song which would finally appear on Anthology – Through The Years (2000), and latterly on An American Treasure (2017), is a far superior song. A favourite of the band’s early gigs, it’s a ‘classic-in-waiting’ and deserved top billing, being a much more appropriate and involving track. It is a mystery why ‘Surrender’ was overlooked in favour of ‘Rockin’ Around (With You)’, which could have displaced ‘Mystery Man’.

‘Breakdown’

‘Breakdown’ was written in the studio in the midst of the recording sessions. The loping drum introduction and Tench’s deep keyboard groove set the mood, with Campbell’s classic guitar melody really establishing the song. His tune was initially part of the play-out, but it was felt to be too good not to be used as an instantly identifiable introduction to Petty’s sly vocals.

Structurally ‘Breakdown’ doesn’t follow a standard pattern. There are two verses where Petty is daring a woman not to leave him, a chorus followed by a guitar solo based around the opening pentatonic based melody with some added fills, a second, extended chorus, and an instrumental play-out. On stage, this coda would be extended further, with Petty acting out a ‘breakdown’ scenario as the couple’s relationship falls apart. The band would then mimic the album fade to silence rather than go for the big rock ending, making the number all the more effective.

‘Breakdown’ is a magnificent song, a well-deserved instant classic, and a track that would end up on permanent rotation on American rock radio. Of special note is Lynch’s high pitched backing vocal in the choruses and the unstoppable, underlying groove established by Blair and Tench, which leaves Campbell time to tastefully fill the spaces. Petty’s laconic vocal style works wonders with his introspective, personal words, sounding simultaneously intimate and defiant.

‘Hometown Blues’

Driven by a relentless, irresistible foot-tapping rhythm, ‘Hometown Blues’ has an engaging country-rock feel throughout, which is heightened by Campbell’s Telecaster double string bends and Lynch’s excellent drum sound.

The song follows a set formula, breaking into a bridge section after the second chorus. The third verse, ‘All of the girls run with the crowd, they go wild when the lights go down, they gotta little money, livin’ in a dream, wanna be the queen of their little scene’, is highly emotive thanks to Petty’s style of singing. Bereft of dynamic or textural changes the track, all two minutes fourteen seconds of it, doesn’t even have time for a guitar solo before fading in the play-out after the final chorus.

‘The Wild One, Forever’

Another song that was written in recording situ, this first ballad is the longest track so far, clocking in at just under three minutes. Opening with a strummed acoustic guitar joined by piano and cymbals, Campbell adds a chiming guitar arpeggio pattern which is played constantly throughout the song, never changing despite the underlying chord progression. This sets up a hypnotic effect which, when added to Petty’s poetic opening lines, ‘Well, the moon sank, as the wind blew, and the street lights slowly died’, is supremely effective.

‘The Wild One, Forever’ has more than a hint of Bruce Springsteen’s early work about it, especially in the chorus where Lynch’s drums drive the rhythm along against Blair’s unexpected cello. The backing vocals, apparently also sung by Petty rather than Lynch, have an arresting quality. There is a return to the verse instrumentation in the quieter post-chorus section, ‘I’ll never get over how good it felt, when you finally held me I will never regret, those few hours linger on in my head, forever’, which is wryly effective.

The play-out features an interesting chugging electric guitar rhythm as the music fades, but again there is no guitar solo and therefore no chance for Campbell to shine in this atmospheric number.

‘Anything That’s Rock ’n’ Roll’

Opening with a straight four-to-the-floor twelve-bar blues guitar groove, ‘Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll’ is both a celebration of the musical art form and a hymn to the rebellion of youth against authority (bosses, parents, school, rules, the usual suspects) played out against a ‘by the book’ I, IV, V chord sequence. It’s an anti-establishment anthem set in a well-established genre.

Again the structure is different to the norm. After the opening verses and chorus, the song swings into a more melodic bridge section. This is followed by Campbell doing his best Chuck Berry impression. The solo plays in the left and right stereo channels, initially bouncing phrases to-and- fro, and then in unison as the track moves into its second and final chorus. The number fades out with additional guitar fills, strong backing vocals, and Petty’s ad-libs.

‘Strangered In The Night’

The recording starts with some live-in-the-studio sounds before Lynch’s pounding drums and Campbell’s overly distorted guitar soon drop onto another solid groove for both guitar and bass, which is at odds with the song’s dark lyrics.

Petty describes a confrontation between a knife-wielding white man and a gun-toting black man. The reason for the interracial violence isn’t explained, but the end result (the black man is wounded by the knife, the white man killed by a gunshot) leaves the white man’s partner bitterly proclaiming, ‘You’ve blown away my dreams’.

Musically the song appears to be following a traditional blues progression in the key of E major until the chorus refrain, where chords of G and D major are used instead of the anticipated B7. The foreboding atmosphere is heightened by angry, heavily distorted guitar fills interspersed between the verse lyrics and the instrumental section at 1.53. This leads into a highly effective slide guitar solo until the final verse with its dramatic denouement. After the third chorus, the track fades away amidst backing vocals, and Campbell weaving in and out with more fills.

‘Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)’

The album’s second-longest track opens with a shaky start as the master tape wobbles momentarily before the band settle into a brooding minor chord progression over which Tench plays sustained synthesizer lines against a slow, bluesy chord progression.

Lyrically this is a ‘relationship-in-trouble’ song, with Petty receiving a threatening phone call advising him to leave a woman alone. This culminates in a bitter chorus with a pained vocal, ‘Looks like I’m the fool again, I don’t like it’, followed by some excellent lines in the second verse, ‘If two is one I might as well be free, it’s good to see you think so much of me’.

At 1.33, there is an instrumental section which includes a fine, melodic guitar solo before moving into the third verse, which is a disappointing reprise of the second verse. Petty’s repeated mulling suggests that rather than being the wronged person in this situation, perhaps he is the ‘other man’ to the woman whose partner has discovered ‘what’s been going on’.

After the third and final chorus refrain, the remainder of the song is an instrumental, which breaks back into the previous progression at 2.53. Further guitar fills over the initial chord sequence, and Petty’s repeated ‘I don’t like it’s, lead to the fade.

‘Mystery Man’

There is a holiday feel to this lyrical ballad which begins with a gently strummed electric guitar to which a tremolo effect has been added. This is then overlaid with some pretty slide guitar fills. The drums push the song into a medium tempo, with Campbell adding a Duane Eddy style refrain. Petty’s words relate a man appealing to a woman with her ‘ruby lipstick, rose petal rouge, dime-store jewellery, and cheap perfume’, wanting to be her ‘mystery man’.

Musically the song lifts to the bridge at 1.16, which leads into a Hawaiian sounding guitar solo which is reprised after the third verse at 2.28. ‘Mystery Man’ is the only song on the album to come to an actual stop rather than a fade and, despite its deft touches and pleasing change of mood, is the collection’s only dispensable track.

‘Luna’

The longest song on the album (an epic four minutes!), ‘Luna’ is lyrically poetic and musically ethereal; the band’s arrangement makes the most of Tench’s layered keyboard tones. After an opening that sounds improvised, a cowbell sets up the slow 12/8 shuffle rhythm 30 seconds in over which Petty paints pictures with words; ‘White light cut a scar in the sky, thin light of silver, the night was all crowded with dreams, wind made me shiver, black and yellow pools of light, outside my window, Luna come to me tonight, I am your prisoner, Luna, glide down from the moon’.

The instrumental section again relies heavily upon keyboards and drums, with only the occasional guitar fill to be heard. The second verse is followed by a repeat of the instrumental section and the third verse is, sadly, a repeat of its predecessor. The coda section at 3.20 is a reprise of the introduction with its loose feel leading to a gentle fade. Haunting and hypnotic, ‘Luna’ is an excellent early example of Petty’s succinct song writing skills, and the band’s knack for classy, clever arrangements.

‘American Girl’

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers closes with an anthem recorded, appropriately, on Independence Day 1976. When it was released as a single, astonishingly, it failed to chart. Years later, Rolling Stone magazine would rank ‘American Girl’ at 76 on its list of ‘The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time’.

Campbell’s chiming chords and Lynch’s pulsating drums set up a Bo Diddley- esque beat, with Blair providing a simple, memorable bass melody before Petty’s famous verse lays out the story of the girl ‘raised on promises’. The track bristles with energy as the verse/chorus/repeat format gives way to an instrumental passage where Tench becomes prominent for the first time with a call and response section with Campbell. This leads back into the introduction and Campbell’s stunning solo, which fades far too quickly.

The lyrics, which chart the story of a