Crawling Back to You

A critical and personal breakdown of ’s masterpiece, “Wildflowers”

by Nick Tavares Static and Feedback editor

Static and Feedback | www.staticandfeedback.com | September, 2012 1 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com ooking at the spine of the CD, it’s would resume, the music would begin, and clear that the color has mutated a I’d lie with my head on my pillow and my L bit through the years, trapped in hands over my stomach, eyes closed. sunbeams by windows and faded from it’s Sometimes, I’d be more alert and reading brown paper bag origins to a pale bluish the liner notes tucked away in the CD’s grey. The CD case itself is in excellent booklet in an effort to take in as much shape save for a few scratches, spared the information about this seemingly magic art cracks and malfunctioning hinges so many form as possible. other jewel boxes have suffered through The first time I listened to Wildflowers, I drops, moves and general carelessness. All was in high school, in bed, laying out in all, the disc holds up rather well. straight, reading along with the lyrics, More often than not, however, it sits inspecting the credits, the thanks and the on the shelf, tucked below a greatest hits photographs included with this Tom Petty collection and above a later . Thanks solo record. One hour, two minutes and 41 to technology, the more frequent method seconds later, I felt an overwhelming , a of play is the simple mp3, broadcasting out warmth that covered my entire body from of a speaker the size of the head of a head to toe and reached back within my pencil’s eraser mounted above the skull to fill my insides. I reached back up, computer’s keyboard, or in a more intimate hit “play” once again, and listened to every setting, through headphones plugged into a CREDITS one of the 15 again, in sequence, small jack near the base of the laptop’s without moving. Tom Petty casing. I was never the same. Though modest, Wildflowers Perhaps I’m mobile, and that’s when I’ll as the album played, I first recognized how Warner Bros. 1994 have those same headphones, tightly snug much I was enjoying the songs. When it Producers: , with Tom Petty against my ears, plugged into an iPod with ended, I was floored by an amazing sense of and the record’s 15 songs carrying me on a satisfaction, a high that has never been subway car to my destination while I try topped. I had been swallowed whole by Tracklist: desperately not to accidentally make body 1. Wildflowers what was, I realized then as now, the most contact with any of the dozens of strangers 2. You Donʼt Know How it Feels beautiful piece of music I’d yet encountered. packed alongside. Or, those headphones and 3. Time to Move On These 15 songs spoke to me in a way no that iPod are helping me focus as I tap keys 4. ☼ others had, and they had done it together, in and zip a mouse arrow across a screen while 5. Itʼs Good To Be King harmony and in order. ensconced within the of my cubicle at 6. Only a Broken Heart I hadn’t expected it, but Wildflowers the office, as varying tempos and chords 7. Honey Bee changed me. pace my serviceable output at work. 8. Donʼt Fade on Me ☼ I can also take that same iPod and plug 9. Hard on Me it into my car’s stereo system via an auxiliary 10. Cabin Down Below 11. To Find a Friend jack, transferring cold zeros and ones into Wildflowers came at something of a time 12. A Higher Place analog messages pulsed up the winding wire 13. House in the Woods of flux for Petty. Making a solo album from the cup holder where the device now 14. Crawling Back to You instead of a traditional rock record with the rests up to the main face of the stereo 15. Wake Up Time Heartbreakers, Petty drafted in Rick Rubin component. From there, it’s me, the to help capture a more natural, organic highway and as I wind my way to All words and music by Tom Petty, sound; Petty told Newsweek in 1994 that he and from home, traveling long distances, except ☼ by Tom Petty and Mike Campbell had been immersed in demos of the Beach often at night, often with few other cars on Boys recording their landmark Pet Sounds the road. It’s a solitary exercise, commuting my bed that I first heard this album, though. record, listening for hours as the miles of Eisenhower’s Interstate Coming home from a trip to the mall with and company crafted each track. Highway System without a soul but the ones the CD in my hand, I carefully removed the The last few records by Petty, with and captured in the bits of music transmitted plastic and peeled off the nagging without his trusty Heartbreakers, had seen from speakers mounted in the doors of the Soundscan barcode sticker across the top. I growing use of and studio desk vehicle. took the disc, thumb on the outside edge tricks. , despite being But none are quite as solitary as sitting and index finger in the center plastic hole, originally conceived as rustic ode to his at home, lights dimmed, shades drawn, placed it in the spindle of the player and Southern roots, has layers and layers of needle dropping on the copy pressed to pressed the lid of the portable system down, synthesizers and computerized drums, in vinyl, finding the groove and settling into instantly triggering the digital information to keeping with its 1985 setting. 1987’s Let Me that first . Now, I’m in my bed, or my spin rapidly and display a crooked number Up (I’ve Had Enough) has its share of slick couch, or splayed out on the floor, eyes on its LCD screen out front. production, and his next two , 1989’s closed as the first notes begin to emanate I had a method for starting any CD in and 1991’s Into the Great Wide from my speakers while side one of the my teenage years. I came to rest horizontally Open, saw Petty recording his music with Jeff record patiently spins on the turntable. on my bed, my back below me, and I’d Lynne from the ground up, recording each It was lying out on the bed with a blindly reach up for the “play” button, piece track-by-track and building the songs boombox perched above the headboard of always waiting where I’d left it. The spinning in the studio later.

2 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com Robert Sebree | It’s not as if Petty had been unsuccessful, creatively or commercially, in these efforts, but from the first notes of the opening title track, “Wildflowers,” it’s clear that this approach has been abandoned. It Wildflowers opens with the bright strum of Petty on acoustic with only the natural reverb of the room to accompany him. booklet Eventually, though, he’s joined by friends. , the musical professor of , chimes in on the . Mike Campbell, partner-in- crime for every musical adventure Petty’s ever had, provides the bottom end of the song on bass. New friend provides light percussion alongside Lenny Castro. Michael Kaman expertly conducts the strings that add texture to the entire affair. Engineer George Drakoulias, the liner notes state, “must have played something.” Before the record is over, Heartbreakers bassist will provide some soaring vocal harmonies. Campbell will man his traditional spot on and add some searing solos and delicate acoustic playing. Tench will play some of the most beautiful piano of his life. All the Heartbreakers will back Petty on this record, billed solo or not. All except for , drummer since 1976 when the Heartbreakers came together in the wake of Petty, Campbell and Most of Wildflowers was recorded at Sound City in , . Tench’s previous band, . He was having his own issues with Petty, and Petty with him. But rare is the great piece of art song for his daughter, to accompany her as was confusing and upsetting, that all that that comes without loss. she grew up and went off to experience all seemed so perfect and storybook could all the treasures and pitfalls that life has to come undone so quickly. Again, that was offer. then. Now, all resentment has long since But this story is a self-indulgent one, taken its leave, and what’s left is a mature, With this album, there is no skipping and until I’d come across that explanation, grateful understanding of the experience. around. There is no jumping past tracks or I’d never heard this opening song quite this There is no jumping back, no looking programming songs out of their way. Instead, I took this for a long-lost love, ahead. There is only this life, and we live it predetermined order. Whether or not it was one that came to the singer at a young age as it comes. Sometimes, there’s greatness, meant to be, this is one complete thought, a and left an indelible mark. At the time of and sometimes, there isn’t. Everything cycle composed of myriad emotions, the split, there was likely confusion and moves on, but if it means something, a tempos and tones that come together to tell anger, a common attempt to understand piece stays behind as the rest continues the one story. That story is a mystery. why this incredible girl was no longer by his search. It takes a strong composition to This is essentially how I’ve treated this side. understand and live with that reality, and it’s album since that first introduction in the That was in his youth, though. Here, not one I necessarily believe that I have ever boom box that sat above my bed all through the singer is older, the experiences have had. It’s something to strive to, and at its high school. While I don’t finish it on all piled up and there now exists a deeper base, it’s really just the act of buying into the listens (things happen sometimes in the understanding of the world. And with that, fact that everyone deserves to be happy and course of an hour), I finish it with most. he realizes that he has not a single ill fulfilled. And I always, to a fault, start at the start thought of his long-gone love. Without “You belong somewhere you feel free.” with “Wildflowers,” a lilting acoustic romanticizing too greatly, he remembers a number that tells the tale, as I’ve heard it, of wonderful girl who lived life to the fullest, a beautiful soul who may have left collected friends like bits of treasure, narrator, but has blossomed regardless. who appreciated every four-leaf clover that After my initial discovery of Petty via the There is a hint of sadness in Petty’s ever crossed her path; they seemed to Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits collection, I was voice as he sings this. “Sail away, kill off the constantly. drawn to this album by three songs: “You hours,” he tells her, “you belong somewhere But it ended, and as he went deeper Don’t Know How It Feels,” “You Wreck you feel free.” I’ve read that Petty wrote this within himself, he lost contact with her. It Me” and “It’s Good to Be King,” the three

3 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com singles that floated off the album between profound. Clearly and obviously, you don’t band in the recording of Into the Great Wide 1994 and ’95. Congratulations to everyone know how it feels to be me. You never will. Open as well. Though it’s hard to argue with at Warner Bros.’ marketing department for My trouble at the time was that I wasn’t the results — some of Petty’s best songs live successfully promoting your record and completely sure how I was supposed to feel, on that album — the process put a further converting a casual listener into another sale even if I was the only one able to feel it. strain on a band who had been used to and a repeat customer. cutting tracks live and feeling that magical Along the lines of marketing, the video moment of musical conception together. for “You Don’t Know How it Feels” aired The strain was enough that when Petty on MTV constantly, albeit with the word Stan Lynch, by all accounts, is a head- set out to record Wildflowers, he brought in “joint” transplanted for the inverse “tnioj,” strong, fun-loving guy with deep opinions Rubin to guide the process. Rubin, himself, which in practice sounded more like on how the drums should sound and the had made his name in hip-hop early, but was “neeowwj” that anything else. But the image chops to back up any boasts. Lynch, too, branching into and, with him, of him singing into the camera, without had been an integral part of the bringing a credo of natural sounds and cuts, his tale of feeling alone, in need of a Heartbreakers since the beginning. As the organic performances captured to tape. friend or two, reluctantly comfortable with band recalls in Peter Bodanovich’s 2007 film He’d later have some of his greatest success his standing in the world, all struck me with Runnin’ Down a Dream, Lynch was a needed reviving ’s career, putting the indelible force. soul on the road in the early days, keeping iconic country singer in stripped-down The Greatest Hits record covered the band loose as they traveled from club to settings and letting his voice carry the music. everything up to Wildflowers, so the love of club in an effort to get radio recognition in “I just hoped we could have songs as that compilation coupled by my intrigue of America. good as Full Moon,” Rubin told Rolling the singles made the next purchase an easy He provided harmony vocals in the Stone in 1995, “but with more rock and roll, one. I was 16 years old, out at the mall with days before Epstein replaced on more personal approach, as opposed to a my dad and sister when, strolling through bass, and on the drums, few could argue his pop presentation." the now-defunct Strawberries, I spotted In this setting, it’s easy to imagine that Wildflowers, inspected its paper-bag cover, Lynch could have thrived in the open spaces the songs on the back, year of release and of Rubin’s world. But Petty left him out. reprised its three singles in my head. CDs at He’d probably seen enough. Ferrone had the mall were always overpriced, but I felt As a 16-year-old already made an impression in the sessions, confident enough to plunk my $15 on this desperate to find a place and in keeping with Petty’s vision of the disc, money hard-earned scoring baseball Heartbreakers as a band and not a collection games and working as a paid intern at a local and some sort of identity, of hired guns, Ferrone fit with the program, newspaper. on Wildflowers and in the long-term. 18 years I went home with the disc, and through “You Don’t Know How it later, Ferrone is still in the Heartbreakers; the first, second and third listens, I was sure Feels” hit on a gut level. Lynch would be gone before its 1994 that I had one for the ages. “You Don’t release. It was time to move on. Know How it Feels” sounded so much better coming through my boombox and, at night, through my headphones, than it had influence or his might. Petty himself cites ever sounded on my TV or radio. It said Lynch as helping change the drum sound of All through high school, college, early everything that I hadn’t been savvy enough pop music in 1979, and one listen to the adulthood and even now, I’ve never felt to say for myself. mighty thwack of the kit on his single totally comfortable. Without quite feeling As a 16-year-old desperate to find a “Refugee” should be enough to confirm that I need to leave my current situation in place and some sort of identity, “You Don’t that. Lynch was a strong personality and a an effort to better myself, though that Know How it Feels” hit on a gut level. I stronger percussionist. He was one of the existed, I have yet to experience that very didn’t smoke and I didn’t live alone, ingredients that helped turn the American of feelings, the one where obviously. I wouldn’t have known how to Heartbreakers into arguably America’s best everything is where it should be, where my “roll another joint” or “head on down the rock and roll band. career and personal life and home are just road” without the requisite knowledge of The divide, though, began to grow as how I want it, where all aspects have drugs or driving. But I didn’t have a Petty pursued his options outside of the colluded to that point of being “just right.” girlfriend. I played sports, but I wasn’t very band. Though the Heartbreakers, apart from How quaint. good at them. I had fun at the school Campbell, weren’t amused as Petty recorded No, the reality has always been much newspaper, but that was a rather dorky Full Moon Fever with Lynne and other more stark and, ultimately, annoying. School enterprise by nature and, stupidly, it didn’t famous friends, only Lynch wound up has ended, so it’s time to find a new school. always make me feel better about myself. I completely absent from the record. He was After that, it’s time to find a new job. didn’t go to a lot of parties. So what’s left? also, in private and later publicly, not Beyond that, it’s a new city, and a better The singer’s sentiment, flawed or not, impressed with a number of the songs on apartment, a better job, and another city. felt perfect. “No, you don’t know how it the album, and told confidants that playing Let’s not forget new possessions and feels to be me.” It didn’t say that he was the the songs live made him feel like being in a markers of status along the way, mind you. saddest guy in the world, or the loneliest, or cover band. It never seems to end. the unluckiest. It’s certainly not a positive As Petty notes in Runnin’ Down a Dream, That long, unending cycle of want and statement, but it doesn’t drift totally into Lynne’s piece-by-piece style wore on the need usually seems to give just short of its negativity, either. It’s so simple as to be breaking point, however. Circumstances

4 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com change, jobs give way to new opportunities, ‘wreck me.’ And all I did was change ‘rock’ context of youth. It is the anthem of any relationships begin and end, leases are for ‘wreck,’ and we had, ‘You Wreck Me, 17-year-old who ever fell in love with Led broken. Whether or not it’s obvious, those baby.” Zeppelin and a girl at the same time. It inescapable markers on the road present Beyond being a great and speaks to anyone in their twenties, thirties themselves with relative familiarity. It’s one of my favorite performers, Tom Petty and beyond who remembers how it felt to always easy to know when it’s time to go. has always struck me as being a very funny, be young and still longs to be alive. “Time To Move On,” then, exquisitely affable dude. He’s self-deprecating when And it speaks to how crazy it is to be in sums up the experience of knowing that it’s necessary, can crack a joke on stage or in an love. When that rare moment of falling time to carry along without comfortably interview with the best of them and, head over tea kettle for someone occurs, it’s knowing that whatever is next will live up to generally, seems to appreciate the amazing a life changing experience. Regardless of what came before. Petty sings of this, how it ends, whether in damage or in bliss however, and is cognizant of the at-once or in regretful departing, that moment when unfamiliar and unmistakable signs that it is love is realized is unlike anything else. It indeed time to carry on to the next phase of “I was calling the song, comes along a few of times in a lifetime if life. ‘You Rock Me, Baby.’ one’s lucky. I’ve been in love enough times “Broken skyline, which way to love to count on one hand in my life with a land/which way to something better/which And, you know, you can’t finger to spare, and it’s nothing to be trifled way to forgiveness/which way do I go?” In really say that anymore.” with. typically cool fashion, Petty captures the The girls that “rock” you, you’ll unsettled dissonance of every day life within eventually forget. You might remember their a stanza that contains no obvious subject, face or how they wore their hair, but they’ll no clear conflict and no immediate lifestyle that being a rock and roll star has eventually fade in your mind along with so resolution. The singer, as the listener, is at afforded him. many other memories competing for space. the whim of circumstance. I saw Petty live for the first time in Not unlike a song, the few that “wreck” you It’s a situation that has felt as relevant 2005, and beyond the stunning string of have the capability to change everything. as any in my life, at least since I was old singalong hits that emanated from the stage It’s no question as to which is the better enough to sit up and pay attention to the to suck in the audience, what drew me in experience. Whenever possible, trade “rock” fact that I was in control of relatively little. was Petty’s attitude. I was 23 years old and for “wreck.” Whether or not I could admit that, it’s the I’d seen plenty of concerts at that point, in truth. It’s up to us to work as hard as small clubs and big venues, with tiny bands possible, to be as good as possible to those and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers alike. around us, to make as many solid choices as And I’d never heard any singer say “thank More than many of his peers, Petty has we can. The rest, like tornadoes and car you” as much as Petty did that night. In always seemed comfortable in front of a accidents and explosions and layoffs and between nearly every song, Petty thanked camera, specifically those that will later turn sickness, are out of our hands, yet ours to the audience, breaking out into, “Aw, it’s his images into fodder for MTV. Even entertain and absolve. such a pleasure to be able to play these before the once-music network launched in “It’s time to move on, it’s time to get songs for you guys,” or later, “the biggest 1981, Petty had been busy making promo going/what lies ahead I have no way of thrill in the world for us is to be able to play clips for his singles, including “Refugee” and knowing.” Neither do any of us. But we still for you, and we’re gonna play some good “.” When MTV finally plow ahead regardless, uncomfortably songs tonight and have a good time.” launched, Petty became a frequent face on settled in the fact that we can never know. Along with carrying the knowledge that the channel thanks to a relatively heavy What else could we do? We have to move his music has made his life better, as well as catalog of commercials in the can. on or be trapped in a present that is too the lives of many others, Petty always seems In describing the video for his 1982 soon to turn into a horrifying past. That is to be conscious of that mystical good time. single, “,” in the Runnin’ always worse than any present reality could People don’t go to outdoor rock concerts in Down a Dream documentary, Petty notes the construct. It is always time to move on. the summer to think about mounting bills immediate power that these short films and the tenuous grasp they may or may not seemed to have. have on their jobs. They come to , to “It was a huge MTV track,” Petty live in the moment and let the music wash recalled. “So the next thing we know, “I was writing this song one day and I over them. everywhere we go, people recognize all of was working on it,” Petty tells the audience As full-on, good-time, release songs go, us. Not just me, but everybody starts being at a taping of Vh-1’s “Storytellers” in 1999, “You Wreck Me” is hard to top. “Tonight recognized. And I started to realize that, “and I was calling the song, ‘You Rock Me, we ride, right or wrong/Tonight we sail on a ‘man, a lot of people are seeing this.’ All of Baby.’ And, you know, you can’t really say radio song,” the story begins, blaring out a sudden the biggest radio station their was, that anymore, because it was pointed out it after three semi-quiet cuts to break the was the TV.” to me. The band just kind of held its head tension of an at-that-point tense-yet- Flash forward a decade or so, and while and said, ‘you can’t sing You Rock Me in a beautiful song cycle. The and drums I was certainly listening to the radio early song.’ Which, I suppose, made sense. drive, with Campbell cutting a wicked solo and often, I was still tuned in to MTV, “This went on over two years of in the break that rivals anything the Rolling watching videos in the last gasp of their making this album Wildflowers, and I was Stones committed to tape in their 50 years days when videos were still heavily asked every day if I had this song and I of recording. In three chords, Petty sums up programmed. The college stations I listened didn’t have it, and one night it hit me: it’s everything that rock and roll means in the to early in high school didn’t play much Tom

5 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com Screen capture from Petty, nor did the Top 40 stations that seemed to swarm like a plague. But MTV, even in the mid-to-late 1990s, was still a Heartbreaker-friendly venue. The image of Petty in the video Runnin ʼ Down a Dream for “It’s Good To Be King” is one that has stuck with me longer that it honestly has any right to have. There he is in his blue shirt, jeans and week- old beard, singing as images in over- exposed colors and pigments of so many music videos of the 1990s go about their dreary, stylish lives. He sings with a detached presence among this overly colorful cast of characters as they walk through beaches, bedrooms and chapels. There they are, notelessly playing along with Campbell’s guitar solo, blankly staring into the camera as their partner enters the room, strolling Michael Kaman, bottom left corner, readies the musicians. along in a daze as the life they so tenuously know collapses around them. In this way, it’s finding patterns in the woodgrain of the bar may be, the sound of Kaman’s musicians a startlingly effective use of the and absentmindedly watching a hockey adding their melancholy progression to the format. For better or worse, they are the game on TV. Dressed in a blue shirt, he’s words is what wins out over the listener. kings of their insignificant little worlds. not the vision of sin or some kind of This song is a work in contradictions, a It’s not hard to see that that was the derelict. He’s just, for lack of a more meeting of spare and reserved with the full point Petty was trying to make with this appropriate term, a guy, alone in the tavern and lush. That kind of music compromise song. In art, aspirations of glory are as with plenty on his mind and trying to relax and vision is certainly rare in the pop realm, common a motif as any. The trick here was for a couple of hours and feel like he has and it may ultimately serve as the high water to paint that within the context of a some company. mark of not just this humble little record, sympathetic character trapped by mostly This is the guy who won’t necessarily but Petty’s career as a singer, songwriter, harmless thoughts of grandeur as the low talk to you right away, the kind that looks to musician and troubadour. din of real life slowly slides by and sinks engage whoever sits next to him in small “It’s good to be king, whatever it pays.” further and further into the recesses of age. talk, but if you get him going, he’ll go. With the video, Petty gives a number of Opinions on beer come first, followed by faces to his many kings, both foreign and the game, women, specifically the cute little domestic and at various rungs of the brunette at the end of the bar. What’s that, I had my heart broken for the first time economic latter. Some of his kings are kings you have a girlfriend? Good for you, man, I in January 2003. There had been minor of their home, others kings within their bet she’s a fun little number. I tell you what, failures before then, but that was the first minds. The level of delusion to the fact, I’d like a girl like that, I bet she’d treat me time I experienced love ending. Of course, whether it’s the guy sitting up in bed right. It’s been a while, it feels like. Shit, I’m it doesn’t really end; two people are left wearing a crown while a girl puts her pants rambling now, you take it easy man. trying to figure out where to go now that on, or the impersonator later, “Excuse me if I have some place in my the shared experience they knew have rests on the viewer. And in and out appears mind/Where I go time to time.” ended. Petty, tapping along in his Chuck Taylor Along the way, Petty incorporates I didn’t deal with it very well. The idea sneakers and giving a mischievous smile to Kaman’s symphony to induce lush strings that I shouldn’t be afraid, that “it’s only a the camera between lines. and stirring notes to the song’s breaks and broken heart,” seemed condescending at Between the folks gliding in and out of coda. The strings, hanging back in the mix worst or, more likely, just detached. the video and Petty’s own everyman visage for much of the song, begin to take center Unrealistic. If I wasn’t supposed to be anchoring the film, he succeeds in bringing stage just before the 4:00 mark as the piano- afraid of this, of being alone and being a visual component to the song that doesn’t led refrain gives way to the majestic without the person for whom I cared more necessarily betray any image the listener may orchestration. The strings are soon than anything, what is there to fear? have had for his protagonist. By showing so augmented by light touches of the brass and Monsters? many folks from so many situations, he winds, lifting the song from a daydream into In high school, “It’s Only a Broken avoids the pitfall of so many music videos. truly regal territory. The final notes are of Heart” was a nice companion when things The character I always envision singing the violins stretching out the high note until were down, even if I didn’t understand the this song is, perhaps stereotypically, a guy in it dies a natural death, the remaining sounds emotional heft of the subject. At that age, it a bar, gently spinning on a stool while he hanging in the air, then fading. seemed like a sleepy lullaby with an twists the neck of a beer bottle between his As lasting as the thought of Petty interesting guitar break at the end that thumb and forefinger, alternating between strumming along with his band of misfits

6 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com Screen capture from sounded somewhere between the worlds of and sitar. “What would I give to start all over again?” Petty sings in the break after Runnin ʼ Down a Dream another chorus assuring the subject that everything will eventually be okay. “To clean up my mistakes?” It’s a mature statement that could only come from a seasoned artist familiar with years of falling short in emotional endeavors. Of course it’s never only a broken heart, but it is. Unless someone takes the ultimate escape, life always moves on. There are always bills to pay, mouths to feed and work to be done. What The mixing board at Sound City. happens in the margins of our lives becomes mileposts of experience as we look back. The true work, sadly, or, to a lesser extent, the Allman Brothers with their reputation and spirit intact, it’s comes in what we accumulate and what we Band. By the time of the Heartbreakers’ not uncommon. Reaching that point is, accomplish. The emotional turmoil serves debut album, the sound of “Rockin’ however, and it’s a move that should be as footnotes to the primary article. Around (With You) and “American Girl” celebrated when it’s made with integrity. In the years after that first traumatic had him pegged as a Byrds-style revivalist, a Most of Wildflowers reflects that breakup, there were a couple more musician intent on bringing the jangly maturity and growth. There are lush heartbreaks that certainly rivaled it. But sound of harmony friendly music back to textures and raw touches balancing each none had quite the same, singular impact, the pop charts. other out as Petty and Rubin searched for thanks to the simple fact that age and years That was all before he was actually the correct sounds and treatment for the had piled on experience and other discovered as a radio-hit maker, so by 1977 record. But Petty and the Heartbreakers challenges. By 2009, I went through a real and ’78, he found himself lumped in with never ceased to enjoy breaking out and whirlwind that left me 3,000 miles from the New Wave, listed alongside Elvis ripping. Their live shows, in the early days, where I started and right back where I Costello and , not to mention in the 1990s and now, show as much. And began. I had a lot ahead of me, which and The Buzzcocks. Though the that sound would be represented on this included changing nearly every facet of my styles of those four bands didn’t totally album as well. life. mesh with what Petty was doing with the No where is it as jagged and edgy, I bore down with blind, cold intensity. I Heartbreakers, there was a common motif however, than on “Honey Bee.” For a band had a few tasks: finding a new job, new in having songs rule over style. All those that has always, at its core, been a garage apartment, new car, new dishes for the bands, and several others, felt no allegiance band in love with , rock and the 1960s, kitchen, new bed, new guitar, new life. I to the over-bloated tendencies of rock “Honey Bee” is an anthem declaring their detached emotionally, as I thought the radio’s biggest bands at the time, bands like love of the kind of raunchy rock that litters singer had when I was 16. I plowed forward and Foreigner who were more the Nuggets garage-punk collections. It’s the in an attempt to show that I could make it interested in slick perfection over capturing singer trying to tempt the woman, declaring on my own. a pure moment. The Talking Heads went his authority and strutting his stuff. There is For those first few months, I put weird. Costello was a singer-songwriter with no more hidden meaning here than when emotions aside. I couldn’t let them stop me. a jagged edge. The Buzzcocks were power Robert Johnson, and later Robert Plant, It was only a broken heart. pop princes. The Clash had a righteous asked his baby to squeeze his lemon ‘til the agenda. Petty had great songs and played juice ran down his leg. “Come on now, them with a great rock and roll band. None gimme some sugar/Gimme some sugar, were too far removed from the next. little Honey Bee.” Though seemingly settled into an As the years went on, the shows got Landing right around the middle of an identity of an unflinching, heartfelt rock bigger and the records grew more popular, extremely introspective and heartfelt album, star with a distinctly American feel, Tom Petty arguably became a better songwriter, “Honey Bee” blasts out of the speakers, a Petty went through quite a few labels at the one more comfortable within the craft and wall of distorted guitars and crashing outset of his career. Early on with more willing to explore the studio space symbols with Petty’s gravelly croon poking Mudcrutch, he seemed to be channelling the rather than cut a take live and move on. For through the noise. The drums are key, and roots of , a la those that survive the years and decades while Ferrone shows he can play delicate as

7 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com well as tough, another drummer got a And like “Honey Bee,” it provides a chance to make his mark on the song after necessary break in the tempo, moving from the sessions let out. reserved, acoustic-based music back into the With Lynch out of the band and kind of rock and roll Petty, Campbell and Being a kid at heart, I have a feeling that Ferrone unavailable in the intermediary, Tench started playing as teenagers. Petty is no stranger to the beautiful art of Petty recruited former Nirvana drummer But beyond that and the volume in the the mix tape. From countless interviews and Dave Grohl to sit in with the band for an room, the similarities end there. Because articles, he seems too in-tune to all of the appearance on . With “Cabin Down Below” finds Petty in a details and idioms of the lifestyle of the Grohl, the Heartbreakers performed “You deeper voice that turns much more sinister diehard music fan. The diehards memorize Don’t Know How it Feels” and “Honey than he typically treads. As the singer calls where the guitar solo starts in the groove of Bee,” and the unglued rocker was one that for the girl to go with him “to the cabin the 45. The diehard knows by heart how Grohl was all too happy to perform. down below,” he could be asking and many seconds to count after hitting “fast “I was really excited to play both songs, forward” on a cassette before hitting “stop” but mostly ‘Honey Bee,’ because ‘Honey to land right before the desired song. The Bee’s’ such a rocker,’” Grohl said in the diehard understands that there’s always Runnin’ Down a Dream film. “It’s like the “It’s like the kind of thing between 30 seconds and a minute of buffer kind of thing a bunch of 16-year-olds time on each side of a 90-minute tape would play in their garage to get off. It’s a bunch of 16-year-olds beyond 45. The diehard gets that the mix good, it’s killer, it’s a barn burner.” tape is art. It’s fun to look back at footage of the would play in their garage Despite its lofty status in my being, young Grohl sitting in with the band. The to get off. It’s good, it’s when constructing mix tapes, mix CDs and first thing I noticed in re-watching the clip playlists, I’m not likely to pull a song off of was just how hard Grohl was hitting the killer, it’s a barn burner.” Wildflowers. It feels a bit off, as previously drums. Grohl, to his credit, is possibly the stated, to break up the flow of the story by best drummer of his era. He’s a monster singling out selections. Anything I pull who channels John Bonham in every kit he courting as much as he could be would feel random and unfair. pounds with his extra-large sticks, and he threatening. Even the final line of the song, But I have made exceptions. I’ve was in full force here, head banging and “Baby let’s love in the cabin down below,” included “Time to Move On” on collections limbs flying as he supported the while clearly stating the intentions, don’t I’ve made for friends and well-wishers. Heartbreakers. To see someone playing with necessary give away the tenor of the “Honey Bee” has earned the cut such force and aggression behind Petty was, conversation. They could be kids flirting occasionally. And in 2010, I took part in an if nothing else, fun. It certainly made me clumsily behind the bleachers at a football experiment with a friend we called our laugh. game. They could be adults meeting at the “Audiobiography,” creating a playlist that What made that appearance work, lounge of the ski resort. They could be in a summed up our introduction and though, was that it didn’t feel out of place. dive or an airport bar. He could have her subsequent immersion in music and how it One look at the rest of the band revealed locked up, or worse. had fueled each of us in the process. Petty in jeans and a corduroy jacket and Because of all that, it serves as a This was as fun and challenging a Campbell in a t-shirt, outsized sweater and standout song in Petty’s career, not just on project as I’ve ever had, right down to Converse sneakers. Everyone’s hair seemed Wildflowers. While I don’t think he intended creating artwork and packaging for the a little unkempt and ratty. Everyone looked to record that evil a song or send that type entire product. I started at the beginning, as to be smiling. They weren’t much different of message, the fact that their is a question I had in life, with ’ “Paperback than the 16-year-olds that Grohl referenced. makes this number unique in the Petty Writer,” and slid up through middle school Simply, they were still just a rock and catalog. It’s the kind of song that, perhaps, and high school with classic rock, onto roll band cutting loose and playing a great would have sounded out of place on a punk in college and then some of the great song. Petty’s vision for the Heartbreakers Heartbreakers billed record. Here, though artists of the 2000s I’d seen grow up from was still on the original course he’d set 20 it’s the band behind him, it’s a solo Petty clubs to arenas. The playlist spanned the years earlier, clearing all retro-fitted labels episode. There’s a bit more freedom to likes of Oasis, , Radiohead, the along the way. explore new territory, even if it’s with his , Pixies, Wilco, Spoon and Queens usual cast of supporters. of the Stone Age. Retracing my growth as a As we’ve seen and will see, “Cabin fan directly paralleled my growth as a Down Below” is not the only time Petty person. If “Honey Bee” is Petty’s call to a group veers into ambiguous adult territory on And to be sure, I had to include of 16-year-olds romping in the garage, Wildflowers, but he certainly sounds like he’s something from Wildflowers. Despite my “Cabin Down Below” is his version of the having more fun here than on any other preconceived aversion to splitting up the blues, an adult-themed rocker point on the record. holy playlist, I couldn’t leave such an recorded to make his grown-up friends Perhaps that, really, is the entire influential piece unrepresented in the very laugh and get off. message. It’s not just the 16-year-olds that collection that was supposed to, above all, Like “Honey Bee,” “Cabin Down know how to have fun. The old guys can represent me. Below” opens with a single distorted guitar make just as much of a racket with some So, why did I pick “Don’t Fade On ringing out a heavy, downstroke riff, guitars and amps. They’ve just seem a bit Me?” There are a few reasons. For one, followed quickly by a smack of the drums more and know some darker stories than since it would be Petty’s only spot on the and the band kicking into a higher gear. the kids. CD, I wanted something that wasn’t

8 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com necessarily a huge hit, a song that hadn’t Like all the great songs, it will likely where he isn’t singing from his own point of been screaming out of radios and movies forever remain a mystery, along with Petty’s view, “To Find a Friend” and “Wake Up for 20 years. I wanted a song that best motivation for writing the lyric and the tune. Time,” Petty serves as an all-knowing captured the spirit of the album, something And like every great Petty song, it has the storyteller relaying the details of what has that had all of the key elements of the ability to resonate in myriad ways for happened to the song’s subjects. In “To record. Namely, open spaces, beautiful listeners, replacing the subject with the one Find a Friend,” he channels a dreamily sad instrumentation, interesting lyrics and that person in their lives that couldn’t ever be voice that calls back to his role in an earlier Petty touch that doesn’t quite exist served by substitution. hit, “.” In “Wake anywhere else. And, with all that, it’s one of the more Up Time,” he serves as something of a I wound up choosing a song that striking songs in Petty’s catalog. I was conscience to the object of the song’s doesn’t quite sound like anything else in sharing this playlist with another person direction. Petty’s catalog. With just Petty and who wasn’t necessarily in tune with his work Songs like “Hard on Me” indirectly Campbell on guitar, it’s an acoustic number beyond the handful of singles that have give Petty the credibility to comment on the Screen capture from Runnin ʼ Down a Dream

Petty records his vocals.

with one foot in the blues and the other in filled the air since the late 1970s, and as lives and actions of the other beings whose heartbreak. The singer is pleading with a such, I saw myself as something of an worlds he has created. Even though he love or a longtime friend to not bail out ambassador for his music. Beyond “Free typically stops short on casting judgement and surrender, to not give in, to hang in Fallin’” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” do you on their actions, he words would certainly there. This person is needed. There’s no really know Tom Petty? Well, have you heard carry credence if he ever decided to do so. true replacement to be found. “Don’t Fade On Me?” Well, try this out, let me With “Hard on Me,” Petty is Despite not sounding quite like know what you think. recounting the personal struggles he has anything else Petty has written, there are And with that, the aura of the mix tape endured in attempting to keep a relationship a few hallmarks of the man’s career, lives on, the diehard sees another day. intact. Here, he runs through, again vaguely, notably the ambiguity that exists in the all the actions he’s taken and all that has song. Who is he singing about? Is he been thrown back in his face as he struggle pleading for someone to stay by his side to maintain normalcy through this in the face of a painful breakup? Is he On “Hard on Me,” as on a whopping 13 emotional divide. He’s even a bit begging a friend to stay out of the horrid out of 15 songs on this record, Petty sings incredulous here, unnerved that, after all pitfalls of hopeless drug abuse? Is he in the first person, another confessional that he’s gone through, “you want to make it singing to Stan Lynch, his estranged stops short of specifics but leans heavy on hard on me.” The couplet in drummer? allusion and inference. In the two songs speaks loudest to the song’s point of view

9 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com Screen capture from as Petty, either out of options or sick of them, asks, “Maybe if I tried I could turn the other cheek/Maybe, but how big do I have to be?” He rides the line between Runnin ʼ Down a Dream inward reflection and outward accusation, calling out his partner and wondering what else he has to do to maintain the relationship. Of course, even those self-directed questions are really just outwardly aimed and disguised as a moment of self review in order to further inflict guilt. Who, in their lesser moments, is innocent of that little trick? True, Petty sings in the first person more often than not, and that’s a tally that isn’t close. But, despite the repeated use of I, me, Rick Rubin and Tom Petty. mine, he’s a skilled-enough songwriter to find new devices and new ways to express what he’s trying to express. Here, he’s not as sympathetic as his listeners might believe. ’s drums, is a truly heartbreaking Now I try not to think about it. Which His patience is wearing thin. He’s done all tale of divorce breaking up a family and is a shame, but it’s the truth. But the he can, and she still wants to make it hard leaving the former partners searching heartbreak didn’t end there. Moving across on him. desperately for a new way. The man moves the country to escape problems didn’t truly While not being as immediately on, moves out and changes nearly every ease any problems. There are still myriad relatable as “You Don’t Know How it aspect of his life in search of an identity pitfalls and moral dilemmas. Feels,” at least on the surface, Petty takes that makes sense. The woman finds his I don’t believe Petty was singing another approach to conveying near- replacement in an uncomfortable attempt to autobiographically when he wrote this song. universal feelings without actually maintain the status quo, creating an He’s not quite this direct when singing from addressing any specific issue or conflict. uncomfortable situation in which everyone a personal perspective, and true to form, he Instead, he opts to channel the notion of is trying not to speak too loudly. addressed his own divorce a few years later feeling frustration at the hands of another, A few years ago, I was thrown into the in a beautiful and restrained way on his using a bitter voice that borders on unsettling world of divorce, though 15 or 1999 album Echo. There, he dealt more in condescension. 20 years before reaching what’s normally feelings than in details and outlines, relaying Perhaps, over time, he can look back at considered middle age. Even so, the emotions in his trademark universal style, the situation with a little less baggage and confusion and hurt was unlike anything I’d albeit a slightly veiled version of it. see what went wrong. And, perhaps, he’ll ever been through, and I hope to never have But he was in his 40s by the time he decide to take that lesson and apply it to to experience anything like it again. One wrote this, and I’m sure he’d suffered his another third-party situation, like Eddie calamity came after the other in the coming own pitfalls, as well as friends going running off to or his friends weeks, culminating in my sitting on a plane through this traumatic life change. “To Find splitting into the uncomfortable, unspoken flying over New Mexico heading for a a Friend,” then, serves as a hypothetical world of divorce. connecting flight in Chicago, merely left to roadmap, a step-by-step way we all try to wonder what went wrong for the next few avoid the bigger issue while it stares us in months. the face. We’re all fallible, and we all want to The idea of spinning that into this be loved. It’s hard to know when to zig and Paralleling the idea of found literature breezy acoustic tale seems so bizarre and when to zag. It’s hard to know when or found poems, the concept of found practically pathological. But that refrain that someone honestly and completely cares, and songs, those that have been familiar for repeats, that “the days went by like paper in when someone is just confused and years yet somehow spin back into new the wind/everything changed, then changed conflicted. It’s hard to do the right thing. It’s relevancy much later, should be a legitimate again” is frighteningly true. Before long, I hard to get by alone in this world. one. “To Find A Friend” is one of those had a new car, a new apartment, new It’s hard to find a friend. that lived on as a simply pleasant tune for friends and a new life in an old city. The years, a welcome addition to a collection changes came fast and furious. She moved that, without outshining the rest, merely on, then I moved on. The effort required to complemented the set. bridge the gap between “amicable” and So, lyrics are funny. They are there to “To Find a Friend,” though, propelled “friends” is a bigger one than I realized, provide the bones of pop music as we by acoustic guitars and the easy shuffle of certainly. know it. They are propped up and

10 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com considered as poetry, whether warranted or plays keyboards of all shapes and sizes, that Petty was hoping to “survive the wait.” not. Lyrics are plastered across notebooks leading to some interesting, high-pitched At some point in the past few months, I and t-shirts, read at weddings and funerals textures in the final break. Ferrone is back noticed Petty’s voice curling a bit as he came and shouted along with in cars and bars on drums, with Castro again helping out down on the “aaaayyyyt…” of the extended across the world. And, often enough, the on percussion. In place of the “wait,” before the music kicked back in. I fans singing along have no idea what the Heartbreakers, this is the core Wildflowers was in my car, and when it ended, I sent the singer is saying. band. song back to the beginning and listened I haven’t been guilty of some of the The song jangles and rolls, with Petty’s again. And when it was over, I did again, more famous mondegreens of rock voice high above a mix of acoustic guitars waiting for the spot. music, like “I was on the Muppets” in and gently rolling symbols. The refrain of “I can’t believe this,” I thought to place of “I was up above it” in Nine Inch “find somebody can help somebody, might myself, or possibly said out loud to myself Nails’ “Down In It,” or “Can’t find the nobody no more” is one of the more since I was driving and I’m prone to butter, man” in lieu of Pearl Jam’s “Better memorable ones on the entire record, and ridiculous imaginary arguments as I wind up Man.” But I occasionally have my it’s one that has lodged itself in my brain and down highways alone. “I think he’s struggles. I still can’t decide if Jimi rather permanently, from one of those first saying, ‘weather?’” Hendrix is asking me to “hurry up and listens to today. Sure enough, when I got home I rescue me” or “execute me” in “I Don’t And it’s not the only great line in the looked at the lyrics. “We gotta get to a Live Today.” Every time I look it up, I song, either. Going into the main break, higher place/If we want to survive the seem to forget, too. Petty sings a rising line that reaches a weather.” Damn. For much of my life, I never thought crescendo as he declares, “We gotta get to a Like most people with pride and any there were any ambiguous lines in higher place/If we want to survive the sense of stubbornness, I don’t like Wildflowers. The lyrics admitting when I’m

are printed in the CD Screen capture from wrong. On the grand booklet and on the scale of things to be vinyl insert; it’s not as if wrong about, this is Petty has ever certainly a minor one. shrouded his songs in But I’d spent mystery the way practically my entire Michael Stipe used to Runnin ʼ Down a Dream adult life with an in R.E.M.’s albums. He incorrect notion about wrote them, he sings a song I’d listened to them, and they’re all so much. And how laid bare for the had I noticed Tench consuming masses to playing the see. harmonium in the So the lyrics were liner notes but not the there, and I’ve scanned clearly printed type of them from time to the word, “weather?” time. But sometimes, In life, even when staring at the lyrics is we’re paying close an unintentionally Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench. attention, we all have passive exercise, the ability to scan and though I might feel like I’m pick out half-truths in studiously staring. Even spite of hard evidence wait,” with the word “wait” stretched out with such lyric-heavy artists as of the latter. We choose the bits that are over several beats before the drums slam and Ryan Adams, the music has always pleasing, the ones that help us feel better back down into the rhythm. I’d always loved come first for me. And appropriately, that’s and get us through the day. We invent that sentiment, the idea of being on the run where my eyes go in the liner notes. realities where reality doesn’t live. This can and needing to hide out if the two were to Wildflowers is notable for having a rotating sometimes manifest itself in cruel, have any hope of surviving the perils of the cast of characters bouncing between disruptive ways, leading to paranoia and wait. Looking back, it serves as a nice call instruments. Campbell eschews his guitar breakdowns of trust between people, back to his 1981 hit “The Waiting,” a song for bass and even harpsichord on this shattering lives and relationships in the that sums up the dangers and mental album. Petty spends some time on the process. Picking and choosing what torment of having to sit patiently before the piano. Everyone seems to play the maracas. registers, even subconsciously, can be object of desire is reached. Take it on faith Each song, while blending in nicely with its dangerous. and to the heart, the waiting is absolutely trackmates, maintains its own personality But, many times, it’s just funny. Some the hardest part. If, in 1994, they’d want to in part because of this. people can’t find the butter. Others are survive the wait, they’d need to duck for “A Higher Place,” a song about waiting to see Trent Reznor on the cover. retreating with a partner before resuming Muppets. For years, I had to get to a higher Except, that’s not the line. the real work, seemingly has the basic place to survive the wait. And sometimes, I For at least 13 of the 14 years that I’ve crew on board. Campbell and Petty man still do. known and loved this album, I’d assumed the guitars and bass, respectively. Tench

11 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com rules of the album and set up the next words of the collective or simply solitary track. And all those guitars and horns thoughts from someone who has had quite romping towards the finish line and ending the adventurous life, they sum up those With Wildflowers, Petty wanted to explore on that hanging sound give way to a subtle, classic themes of longing and regret. the studio space and push the limitations of serene chapter. recording tape in an effort to get something “House in the Woods” is an excellent “I’m so tired of being tired that went beyond five guys banging around song and a team player, one that fits Petty Sure as night will follow day on a stage. He brings in different people, and the Heartbreakers’ mission statement as Most things I worry about searches for new textures and experiments well as any. But it quickly cedes center stage Never happen anyway.” with his sound enough that Wildflowers for a masterwork. wound up sounding at once completely his, And with that, the story is essentially but fresh and new. over. Tired of being tired, the singer is just Of course, he did record with most of looking to be back where he belongs. He the Heartbreakers, and on “House in the Of all those common themes that have belongs with his love on his arm. He Woods,” Petty lets them stretch out within been attached to Petty — Southern charm, belongs where he feels free. Calling back to this new context and really give the record a heartland appreciation, love songs, the first track, after that long and winding heavy, sobbing punch. The song’s message and roll, take your pick — road of sentiment and separation, no matter is a simple one, calling for an escape from a one constant is his ability to write to all where he is, he keeps crawling back. It’s a hectic life with a girl in one arm and a guitar groups. Again, he doesn’t write in specifics forlorn, beautiful thought. And whether it’s in the other, and Petty sings it passionately. and he’s also not purposefully abstract or the thoughts of one person or those of What takes the song from rote to difficult. He simply has the innate ability to Petty’s cast in this play-within-a-song, it brilliant, however, is simply the beautiful put his listeners inside of his songs no works. musicianship of the band. Here, the matter his subject or intention. It’s the key But why does it work? Simply, that Heartbreakers jump into the song almost ingredient that has turned so many of his refrain. In Petty’s entire catalog, there is not immediately, giving Petty a tight, loud another moment that seems so crystalized canvas to paint his lyrics. Epstein in helpless love, in an emotion draped in harmonizes with Petty on the chorus as well sadness and powerlessness. It’s two voices as he ever has. And the band alternately — Petty on lead, and then Petty again with jumps and lurches, jamming in conjunction What takes the song from Epstein harmonizing — and floating over a with Kaman’s orchestra for a sound that is rote to brilliant, however, clean, quiet , it is without peer. so clearly theirs, but given new life. The rest of the song, whatever it may be, The song’s coda plays like an upbeat is simply the beautiful serves to bring the song to this moment. If variation on the Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s that was the exclusive point of the verses, So Heavy),” trading the doom and tension musicianship of the band. then they would have been justified, their for a rolling battle of guitars over a bed of job one well done. horns. And the interplay of Petty with most The fact that they’re still so mysterious of the Heartbreakers is typically telepathic pushes the song to another plane. Countless songs into huge radio and TV hits. Who is and, in the right context, breathtaking. bands in this never-ending rock and roll era the girl in “You Got Lucky?” What is the Campbell navigates the space of the have admitted as much, that their lyrics subtext of “Learning to Fly?” Really, what is augmented band and relays some amazing aren’t poetry so much as a way to give the he singing about on “Free Fallin’?” sections of guitar that are uniquely his. He song’s instrumentation a proper bed or, That touch of ambiguity is at its finest has always had an interesting tone, soft yet regrettably, to get the song back to a poppy and most beautiful on “Crawling Back to biting, and a signature phrasing where his hook that guarantees chart positions and You,” the penultimate song on this record solos sound like Yardbirds rave-ups run record sales. you’ve already read so much about. This is a backwards through the turntable. It’s all in “Crawling Back to You,” then, song where staring at the lyrics for weeks or full effect as the band vamps towards the becomes a special feather in Petty’s . years could yield few solid answers, if any, hanging note at the song’s conclusion, More than any other song he’s written, and myriad possibilities. feeling more inevitable than imminent. before or since, he navigates the great “Waiting by the side of the road/for For a record that’s eminently spaces possible in songwriting, and most day to break so we could go,” begins the repeatable, “House in the Woods” fits in so importantly, he nails it all together with a song, and it seems innocuous enough as it well with the rest of the album in keeping chorus so good as to render the entire song starts to roll into what appears at first to be the songs fresh, interesting and always nearly beyond analysis. All that’s left, after a couple’s travel monologue. But the story moving forward, albeit in something of a lyrics, instruments, chords and charts, is begins to twist and evolve. Soon, a ranger circle. Unlike the rest of the songs on music, pure and infinite. That mystical and a chamber maid are in a hotel room. It Wildflowers, though, this is the only song that combination that so many musicians are soon turns to a cowboy and a sidekick in a could be put on repeat and played endlessly, after, Petty finds. saloon shootout, fending off shots from an a score to whatever project might need a errant Indian. Are these separate episodes soundtrack. from the same character’s life, or are they But this isn’t a mix tape or, even more glimpses into different lives? generically, a playlist. This is an album, and Nearly any song that attempted to In either case, the narrative is tied up aside from having to stand alone as a piece follow such a masterful piece as “Crawling nicely in the final verse. Whether they’re the of work, each song needs to play by the Back to You” would feel like a letdown.

12 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com Petty, it has been shown, is something of a song is here. It’s going to take time, he says, surveying his entire catalog, Petty’s realist and understands the difficulties with and it’ll be all right. But it’s a battle that can’t masterpiece. making a great album and maintaining be won in one day. So, here it is, dawn is Commercially, the album was a momentum from start to finish. So, with the breaking late in the record, and it’s time to tremendous success. Coming on the heels final song on a record that was so long in resume the slow, arduous fight against ills of of the Greatest Hits album and the hit single the making, he accepts the challenge of the world. It’s also a new day, and the “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” Wildflowers made coming down from a great song with grace. challenges might be easier to overcome than it to no. 8 on Billboard’s US albums chart, “Wake Up Time,” a summation of many of they had been. selling more than five million copies in the emotions and themes of a wonderfully It happens every day. It’s wake up time. North America. The band was all over varied album, then, captures the spirit of Every day, if we’re lucky, we make decisions television for more than a year, played sold Wildflowers, albeit with a sound that is unlike that bring us to the next moment in our out shows and served as a mid-career peak any on the record. lives, the next morning. The fight never for Petty. But artistically, nothing in his back Here, Petty mans the piano, a first on ends until it’s too late. Until then, it’s time to catalog could touch it. this album which has seen him and the face the world again. Tying in delusions of grandeur, others bounce around so many instruments. “It’s time to open up your eyes/And rise, and heartbreak, melancholy, childish romp, Campbell lays down the rhythm on bass shine.” packaged in one very earthly collection, with Ferrone on drums, and Kaman bound by an unassuming cover and a singer orchestrates the rest. Petty moves from a looking off in the distance as a bus brings high, soft voice, and I imagine him singing him to his next destination, his next night’s to his many narrators from the record’s In compiling my thoughts on this work, Wildflowers is the moment that rock first 14 songs. record, such an obvious landmark in my life, and roll artists dream of. In its own way, it “You’re just a poor boy a long way I went searching through some old crates of contains nearly all of the elements of any from home,” he sings before moving into a pictures, CDs and tapes and came across a great American novel, disregarding the speaking voice, telling his subject that it’s blank cassette of this album, an obvious unifying narrative in favor of syncopated wake up time, time to open up your eyes. essential in the days when driving around in themes that thread and fly through the It’s essentially a lullaby to all the tired souls my dark green Saturn meant recording my songs, dropping in and diving back as who have put themselves through so much, favorite discs and songs to tape to make needed. for all the tortured creations of his muse. It portable, not to mention a walkman that The great novels are not excerpted must be eventually taxing to keep creating was a constant companion in high school often; they are classified as required reading these imaginary lives so full of longing and and even the earliest days of college. and devoured whole. Fans of literature may regret. Writers get attached to their That cassette still plays fine, with three discuss their favorite passages and chapters, creations, and I imagine that Petty was no quarters of the album on the first side of a but the idea of breaking a chapter out of different. 90-minute tape and the final four songs on Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises or The overriding theme of the album, the other. It’s one where I did my best to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road is absurd. the simple love of a boy and a girl, is match my handwriting on the spine to the On Wildflowers, Petty crafted a complete addressed at the start of the third verse, and scrawl on the record’s brown cover, and statement, one that would not stand for for an artist so groomed on that motif from then on the front of the j-card, the songs being split up. At least not to these ears, years of rock and roll singles, from Elvis to are printed neatly with a rolling-ball pen. anyway. Other songs may join the party if the Beatles to Springsteen, with the blues For whatever reason, I didn’t note what they wish, but only if the original record has and soul mixed in for good measure, Petty I used as filler on the second side — thanks said all that it set out to say. more or less captures the struggle in one to the limitations of the medium and Like any great piece of art, Wildflowers line: “Well, if he gets lucky, a boy finds a annoyances of rewinding, filler tracks were has the ability to change its subject forever girl/To help him to shoulder the pain in this necessary — but on listening, it sounds like if circumstances are right. Obviously, world.” I took my favorite bits of Echo, the 1999 dominos were in line for me and I have That’s all it is, really. And, album Petty recorded with the never been quite the same. Even if it’s understanding poetic license, it could Heartbreakers that I had been given for my impossible to know how it feels to be me, obviously be a boy and a boy or a woman 17th birthday shortly after its release. As has know that I come crawling back. I always and a woman, however the binary dynamic been stated ad nauseam, Petty is a master come crawling back. happens to play out. The point of the song, songwriter, and the songs I included — of the record, of the music, of life, is that “Room at the Top,” “Swingin’,” “Echo” no one wants to go through all this alone. — reside among my favorites. I loved that Written by Nick Tavares [email protected] There’s so much daily nonsense that can album when it came out, and I still love it drag a vital soul into the gutter, so much now. References: • “Tom Pettyʼs Pet Sounds.” Newsweek. Nov. 7, mental clutter to poison the positive mind. But it was painfully obvious that I 1994 As time goes on and age sets in, it becomes hadn’t recorded Echo to a blank tape in full • “Tom Petty On the Road: This is how it feels.” Fred Shruers, no. 707. May 4, harder and harder to maintain optimism in and filled in the back-end with four or five 1995 the face of all the ugliness the world has to songs from Wildflowers. That would have • “Storytellers,” broadcast on Vh-1 spring 1999. • “Tom Petty hosts the ultimate summer party.” offer. If any of us are lucky, we won’t have been patently ridiculous, then or now. Echo Static and Feedback. May, 2005. to face every challenge and every hurtful, is a very good album that will never • Runninʼ Down a Dream (film), , 2007 hateful life event alone. completely leave my vast rotation. Keeping that all in mind at all times is Wildflowers is a statement, a milepost in my © 2012 Static and Feedback, www.staticandfeedback.com exhausting, of course. And that’s why this life, a constant companion and, when

13 September, 2012 Static and Feedback www.staticandfeedback.com