Tom Petty #2: Wildlflowers

Release Date: November 1, 1994

Personnel: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitars); Jeff Lynne (bass, guitars, keyboard); Steve Ferrone (percussion); Howie Epstein (bass)

Produced by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, and Rick Rubin

List of Tracks: Wildflowers; You Don't Know How It Feels; Time to Move On; You Wreck Me; It's Good to Be King; Only a Broken Heart; Honey Bee; Don't Fade on Me; Hard on Me; Cabin Down Below; To Find a Friend; A Higher Place; House in the Woods; Crawling Back to You; Wake Up Time

Recorded at the midpoint of his career, Tom Petty's second solo album Wildflowers took a reflective, even confessional turn at times. Like with Full Moon Fever, the Heartbreakers took part in the recordings and made many contributions, but with Tom having all creative authority. Steven Ferrone replaced Stan Lynch as drummer for the Heartbreakers, who parted ways amicably. The reputation of Wildflowers has grown through the years, enshrining Petty as a great American songwriter. Originally intended to be a double album, the full set was released in 2020 as Wildflowers & All the Rest.  

"Wildflowers" has become one of Petty's most downloaded songs, a fragile folk ballad about freedom and letting go. "You Don't Know How It Feels" became hit single, a confessional that speaks to the universal with its slow bluesy rock made it ideal for the airwaves Tench's organ adds a nice touch). Petty pays his debts to The Byrds once again with "Time to Move On", a country rocker with thoughtful lyrics with an undercurrent of restless resolve.

"You Wreck Me" really sounds like a Heartbreakers song from the Damn the Torpedoes/Hard Promises era with its precision and clarity. "It's Good to Be King" would point the way towards future Petty records, blissed out riffs within a sonically rich soundscape. The ironic commentary on rock stardom seemed relevant at the height of grunge. "Only a Broken Heart" may be the closest Petty ever came to replicating a Beatles song, John Lennon specifically in this case. "Honey Bee" is a bluesy rocker, lyrically adventurous with a sturdy sound.  

"Don't Fade on Me" is mostly acoustic with Petty delivering a haunting vocal, marking yet another progression in craft and expression. "Don't Make it Hard" is both mellow and vulnerable - not too far from The Eagles/Don Henley. "Cabin Down Below" cruises along on swagger, "It's Hard to Find a Friend", a folk-rock tune, muses on loneliness with Petty narrating a divorce in effective use of the third person. "A Higher Place" is pure power pop, as if unearthed from 1978. 

"House in the Woods" paints an uneasy picture of domesticity, at five minutes the builds towards a fully expressed state of mind. "Crawling Back to You" dwells on weariness but is also resigned. "Wake Up Time" speaks to middle age malaise (any age really) and finding the courage to rise above the moment and find purpose, Tom is our spiritual guide by the end.

Wildflowers is track for track some of Petty's finest work, the shift inward towards quiet reflective songs never detracted from his uncanny ability to speak to the universal. As a lyricist, Petty aims for clarity and achieves it here. The production brought a more balanced sound, allowing Petty to expand the scope of his sound while staying grounded. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers #8: Into the Great Wide Open

Release Date: July 2, 1991

Personnel: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitars); Benmont Tench (piano, organ); Howie Epstein (bass); Stan Lynch (drums)

Produced by Tom Petty; Mike Campbell; Jeff Lynne

Side One: Learning to Fly; Kings Highway; Into the Great Wide Open; Two Gunslingers; The Dark of the Sun; All or Nothin'

Side Two: All the Wrong Reasons; Too Good to Be True; Out in the Cold; You and I Will Meet Again; Makin' Some Noise; Built to Last

Into the Great Wide Open begins with "Learning to Fly", Beatles inspired power pop delivered with Petty's steady self-assurance.  "King's Highway" leans into Petty's specific variety of Americana, which was fully formed by the early 1990s, a rebellious not so much rooted in regional identity but a celebration of free will against long odds. The music business satire of 'Into the Great Wide Open" foreshadowed Petty's jaundice eyed, but honest view of the industry. The star-studded music video starring 21 Jump Street era Johnny Depp as "Eddie" also featured an extended version of the song. "Two Gunslingers" turns to Western iconography to tell a morality tale. "The Dark of the Sun" sounds inspired like a lost George Harrison track, clearly influenced by the Wilbury sound fashioned by Jeff Lynne. "All or Nothin" leaned into a heavier sound, more on the Rolling Stones end of the spectrum. 

"All the Wrong Reasons" is tinged with a soothing melancholy, "Too Good to Be True" could be a sequel to "Freefallin." 'Out in the Cold" features a blistering solo from Mike Campbell and Petty's impassioned lyrics on disconnection, Lynne's production maintains the melodic landscape of the record. "You and I Will Meet Again" never goes too far beyond the title, but the performance sustains the track. "Makin Some Noise" goes along with thematically with "Into the Great Wide Open" as a counter to the cynicism. "Built to Last" end the album on a retro note with a synthy doo-wop sound and easy-going lyrics. 

With Petty's superstar status now enshrined with his stint in The Traveling Wilburys and an impressive solo album with Full Moon Fever, Into the Great Wide Open proved the Heartbreakers were becoming stalwarts of classic rock, Lynne's production put them in synch with their influences while expanding the possibilities. 

Tom Petty #1: Full Moon Fever

Release Date: April 24, 1989

Personnel: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitars); Jeff Lynne (bass, guitars, keyboard); Phil Jones (percussion)

Produced by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell, and Jeff Lynne 

Side One: Free Fallin'; I Won't Back Down; Love is a Long Road; A Face in the Crowd; Runnin' Down a Dream

Side Two: Feel a Whole Lot Better; Yer So Bad; Depending on You; The Apartment Song; Alright For Now; A Mind with a Heart of Its Own; Zombie Zoo

Full Moon Fever would be the first of three albums Tom Petty recorded as a solo artist. After his previous record with Heartbreakers, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), Petty had written a new batch of songs leaning in more pop direction to the chagrin of his bandmates, so he decided to make an album on his own, but members of the Heartbreakers still participated in the recording sessions. By this time, Petty was also recording music with The Traveling Wilburys, the supergroup including Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne (would help produce Full Moon Fever), and credited the experience for leading to a new burst of creativity. 

"Free Fallin" instantly became iconic with its dreamy hooks and nostalgic lyrics. Its themes of artistic liberation and detached bliss remain powerful, perhaps Tom Cruise expressed it best in Jerry Maguire. "I Won't Back Down" served as a clear-eyed mission statement, a recalcitrant rocker at the end of history. George Harrison played guitar and provided backup vocals, never a bad idea to have a Beatle at your side. "Love is a Long Road" was perfectly suited for a Heartbreakers record, co-written with Mike Campbell, the synth sound and melodic guitars perfectly evoked surreal dark highways. "A Face in the Crowd" might be my favorite on the record, lyrically and vocally one of Petty's great achievements. "Runnin' Down a Dream" proved another triumph, a classic rock staple of evergreen quality with killer solo by Campbell. 

Side two opens with jaunty cover of "Feel a Whole Lot Better" by The Byrds. "Yer So Bad" satirized yuppie and supermarket tabloid culture. 'Depending on You" was high quality filler, "The Apartment Song" is another quirky track, I especially like the lyrics, "I'm ok, most of the time/I just feel a little lonely tonight." "Alright for Now" is a tender, stripped down ballad. "A Mind with a Heart of Its Own" and "Zombie Zoo" end the record on a playful note, the latter a karaoke staple. 

Full Moon Fever marked a creative triumph for Petty, ending the decade on a high note. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers #7: Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)

Release Date: April 27, 1987

Members: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitar); Benmont Tench (piano, organ); Howie Epstein (bass); Stan Lynch (drums)

Produced by Tom Petty; Mike Campbell

Side One: Jammin' Me; Runaway Trains; The Damage You've Done; It'll All Work Out; My Life/Your World

Side Two: Think About Me; All Mixed Up; A Self-Made Man; Ain't Love Strange; How Many More Days; Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)

After the ambitious Southern Accents, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) marked a course correction for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a no-frills record that's both steady and on point.

"Jammin" Me" was written by Petty, Campbell, and Bob Dylan who the Heartbreakers opened for on their recent tour. A mildly piqued commentary on mid-80s media saturation that may seem trite by today's standards in one of the humorous tracks to appear on a Heartbreakers album with its pop culture references ranging from Eddie Murphy to Vanessa Redgrave. 

"Runaway Trains" nicely incorporates a synth sound with guitar rock and impressionistic lyrics on the somber end to a relationship. "The Damage You've Done" is in a similar vein as a country rock ramble, "It'll All Work Out" is a more stripped-down lament. "My Life/Your World" blends the observational with a touch of the surreal on California life, also wonderfully produced.

"Think About Me" returns to standard rock and roll formulas of winning over the mystery girl, it's fine. A playful outtake opens "I'm All Mixed Up", a jaunty track. "A Self-Made Man" is a bit of a toss-off, "Ain't Love Strange" also keeps it simple. "How Many More Days" is a call back to "Here Comes My Girl." The eponymous "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" closes the record, ending on a note of restlessness. 

Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) coasts along well enough with some inspired moments, while the rest is standard '80s rock. 

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers #6: Southern Accents

Release Date: March 26, 1985

Members: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar); Mike Campbell (guitar); Benmont Tench (piano, organ); Howie Epstein (bass); Stan Lynch (drums)

Produced by Jimmy Iovine

Side One: Rebels; It Ain't Nothin' To Me; Don't Come Around Here No More; Southern Accents

Side Two: Make it Better (Forget About Me); Spike; Dogs on the Run; Mary's New Car; The Best of Everything

Conceived as a concept album about the South, Tom Petty's most problematic LP Southern Accents was recorded during a stressful point in the band's career. Nevertheless, it was well received and produced a major hit with "Don't Come Around Here No More." During the tour in support of the record Petty used Confederate iconography during concerts, as modern critics have pointed out the Neo-Confederate undertones running through the record and subsequent tour.

"Rebels" opens the album with a hardscrabble tale of tough love and generational resentments, specifically referencing Sherman's March and the damaged pride of Southern white men, while remaining silent on the debt owed to Black culture. Petty reframes these themes through the lens of '80s rock and roll with a catchy arrangement and impassioned vocal performance. Conflating rock and roll with rebellion appears trite these days and was even showing its age by the 1980s, the sentiment comes through but not without mawkishness.

"It Ain't Nothin" To Me" is a Dylanesque sermon of sorts with hints of a disco beat. The Alice in Wonderland themed music video for "Don't Come Around Here No More" was an MTV staple. Petty wrote the song with Dave Stewart, inspired by a wild L.A. party and an encounter with Stevie Nicks. The most sophisticated track by the band up to that point, the production and vocals are inspired. "Southern Accents" could be accused of trafficking in 'Lost Cause" mythology of the white man being the only one who truly understands freedom (or the perspective of poor whites exploited by the economic system), Petty ends the songs with:

I got my own way of livin'

But everything gets done

With southern accent

Where I come from

The "Don't Tread on Me" sentiment comes off as more aggrieved than poetic, once again tonally out of synch with the song's intention. 

"Make it Better (Forget About Me)" seeks to mend a relationship in a nod towards blue-eyed soul. "Spike" is a playful track about an eccentric character, I wonder if they debated whether this one belonged on the album. "Dogs on the Run" muses on life and desire, the mix of guitars and horns cancel each other out. "Mary's New Car" is exactly what the title promises and nothing less. Ending with 'The Best of Everything", Petty deals in iconography like Bruce Springsteen, a sad romance with a waitress (not that Bruce holds a monopoly on tragic diner romances). 

To his credit, Petty later disavowed the strains of white supremacy on Southern Accents and implored his fans to not display the confederate flag. One can read an interview here with Michael Washburn who wrote the 33 1/3 book on the album and interrogated its ties to lost cause ideology. 

Musically, Southern Accents is a band trying to escape from a creative stupor. Petty's frustration with the production led to him punching a wall and seriously injuring his hand. Whether one views the record as a failed experiment, a misguided reflection on southern culture and history, or a record at best hinting at creative breakthrough, it was anything but a disaster as the band continued to tour and make records in the decades to come. 

The Albums of 1975: Patti Smith: Horses

 Release Date: November 10, 1975

Personnel: Patti Smith (vocals); Jay Dee Daugherty (drums); Lenny Kaye (lead guitar); Ivan Krai (guitar, bass); Richard Sohl (piano)

Produced by John Cale

Side One: Gloria: In Excelsis Duo; Redondo Beach; Birdland; Free Money

Side Two: Kimberly; Break It Up; Land: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/ La Mer(de); Elegie

Alongside Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, Patti Smith's Horses embraced rock as an artform of liberation. Smith's poetic lyrics, expressions of pure emotion set to surreal imagery are the hallmarks of her debut album. The influences are manifold drawing from the vibrancy of early rock and roll, the uncompromising mid-60s Dylan, surreal poetry, Gothic literature, and the free stylings of the Beats. The songs are personal and universal, laying the foundation for punk and New Wave. 

"Gloria: In Excelsis Duo" opens the record with a slow burn build, a track that no less attempts to expand and redefine the possibilities of rock and roll. The song is all energy and defiance, joyfully seducing the song's subject, infusing it all with poetic lyrics and impassioned delivery. 

'Redondo Beach" tells of an impassioned fight between female lovers that leads to a suicide, based on a poem Smith write in the early 1970s. Infused with a reggae arrangement, Smith's vocal evokes edgy emotions amidst shock. 'Birdland" is a spoken word track, dealing with transcendence, grief, and intense perception, the birth of a poet. "Free Money" was reportedly autobiographical, about Smith's childhood and poverty, finding hope in dreams and imagination. 

"Kimberly" pays tribute to Smith's younger sister, also with allusions to motherhood and creation. Accompanied by Lenny Kaye's melodic guitar, Smith's vocal once again aims for transcendence and achieves it. "Break it Up" was written as an ode to Jim Morrison , the sense of loss, the idea of a poetic soulmate, and the burden of living up to fallen idols. In some ways the most traditional of "rock" songs on the record. The medley "Land: Horses/Land of a Thousand Dances/La Mer(de)" alludes to Smith's relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe with allusions to surrealist poetry. By turns sinister and adrenaline fueled, another synching of rock and roll with underground art. "Elegie" ends the record on a note of loneliness, haunted by memories of friends and times long gone.

Horses stands alongside Born to Run, as albums from 1975 by the generation raised on rock and roll. Now in adulthood, they are pushing the boundaries and expanding the art form. If Springsteen was synthesizing different eras of rock, Smith was merging the music with poetry and transgressive art. 

The Albums of 1975: Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare

Release Date: March 11, 1975

Members: Alice Cooper (vocals); Dick Wagner (guitars); Steve "Deacon" Hunter (guitars); Prakash John (bass); Pentti "Whitey" Glan (drums)

Produced by Bob Ezrin

Side One: Welcome to My Nightmare; Devil's Food; The Black Widow; Some Folks; Only Women Bleed

Side Two: Department of Youth; Cold Ethyl; Years Ago; Steven; The Awakening; Escape

Alice Cooper's debut solo album, Welcome to My Nightmare, follows the dark visions of young Stephen. Bombastic and theatrical, fifty years later the album still rocks, reveling in its nightmarish themes.

The titular track "Welcome to My Nightmare" opens the record, both playful and menacing with its epic production. The song also sets up the theme of the record - living on the edge of sanity and madness. "Devil's Food" features a spoken word appearance by Vincent Price, joyfully describing the ways of the Black Widow, while the following song is told from the perspective of the deadly arachnid itself. "Some Folks" sounds like a lost song from West Side Story crossed with a standard '70s lament about rock star excess. "Only Women Bleed" is a somber ballad about a woman trapped in an abusive marriage. Released as a single as well, the album version features more orchestration. 

Often compared to Cooper's earlier hit "School's Out", "Department of Youth" is a rock and roll anthem for all the fans with a child chorus and all. "Cold Ethyl" somehow never made the playlists for FM classic rock radio, it sure as hell deserved a place with catchy guitars and macabre lyrics. "Years Ago" is a baroque psychedelia waltz told from the perspective of Steven's wounded psyche. "Steven" opens with hints of "Tubular Bells" and a nuanced performance by Cooper, sounding crazed and haunted throughout. "The Awakening" is a grim companion follow up to "Only Women Bleed." The album ends on a high note with "Escape", channeling the attitude of The Who in their rock opera era.

Welcome to My Nightmare plays like a slightly demented variety TV show with its Gothic playfulness. Cooper's vocals are wide ranging and convincingly inhabit other characters. The music's well produced and brings an essential element that makes it stand out - fun!