CD Odyssey Disc 510: Tom Petty

I wanted to mark this next album down, because to not do so would mean giving Tom Petty three five star albums.  Oh well; the ear hears what it hears, never mind the heart.  Petty may even end up with four perfect scores before it’s all over.

Disc 510 is…. Full Moon Fever

Artist: Tom Petty

Year of Release: 1989

What’s up with the Cover?  Tom Petty, posing with his guitar.  I like the simplicity of this cover.  The colour scheme, the font, Tom’s pose – the whole thing just adds up to a nice overall effect – kind of like the music on the album itself.

How I Came To Know It:  This was a monster album – commercially the biggest of Tom Petty’s career.  It went platinum five times over in the U.S., six times in Canada.  I know it because I didn’t live in a cave in 1989.  I first bought it on tape, but quickly upgraded to CD.

How It Stacks Up:  I have fourteen Tom Petty albums (11 with the hearbreakers, and 3 solo).  “Full Moon Fever” is one of the best; I’d put it third.

Rating:  5 stars

Great albums are rarely attributable to just one person, and although “Full Moon Fever” is a solo project from Tom Petty, by any reasonable standard it is a collaboration.

In this case the collaboration is principally with Heartbreaker guitarist Mike Campbell and E.L.O. frontman and producer/writer phenomenon Jeff Lynne.  The liner notes inexplicably thank a laundry list of other famous musicians – everyone from Roger Whittaker and Roger Miller to Stevie Nicks and the Bangles.  I assume they were each inspirational in some way, but Campbell and Lynne do the heavy lifting.  Of the twelve expertly constructed songs on “Full Moon Fever” Lynne is cowriter of seven, and Campbell claims two.

I’ve mentioned it before (I think) but Petty as a solo act is always a bit more pop-oriented than when he’s got the Heartbreakers with him.  Campbell keeps enough rock edge on this album to give it the gas it needs to power Lynne’s post-disco production values.

When I say post-disco it may come across as a slur, but nothing could be further from the truth.  For one thing, I actually like the Electric Light Orchestra.  Yeah – you read that right, punchy.  Even if I didn’t love ELO, the production decisions on this record take a decade’s worth of album-wrecking eighties production ideas and show the world how it should be done.

Every mistake of synthesizer and fuzzy production made on previous efforts like “Southern Accents” and then “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough)” are corrected.  Instead you get a wall of sound that keeps Petty’s roots alive by understanding that even when you add a bunch of organ and odd percussion, you still need to let the guitar speak loudest in a rock and roll song.  Even on a repetitive mood piece like “A Face In the Crowd,” Lynne lets the guitar have little moments here and there that keep the song interesting.

Which brings us to the songs, which as I noted earlier are pretty well known.  “Full Moon Fever” spawned five top ten singles, three of which (“Free Fallin’”, “I Won’t Back Down” and “Running Down a Dream”) hit number one.  “Free Fallin’” remains one of the great feel-good anthems in the history of rock and roll.  Twenty-four years after its release it still sounds fresh and inspired, and it will for decades to come.

“Runnin’ Down a Dream,” is co-written by Petty, Lynne and Campbell.  The song has a pedal-down feeling with two amazing guitar riffs, as well as a classic Mike Campbell solo that never gets old.

At the end of “Runnin’ Down a Dream” there is a true ‘of its time’ moment.  The song fades out and Petty’s voice comes on, saying:

“Hello, CD listeners. We've come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette, or records, will have to stand up, or sit down, and turn over the record. Or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we'll now take a few seconds before we begin side two...Thank you. Here's side two.”

The weirdest part is that I think I used to own this on tape, so when I got it on CD for the first time I thought this was particularly hilarious.  It is now a joke referencing not two, but three dated technologies (I am under no illusions about my CD obsession, dear reader).  Still, I find it funny – if anything it is funnier now. I find myself hoping that everyone who downloads the song doesn’t get that part, so it’ll just be for us ‘old timers’ who get to enjoy it.

There are no bad songs on this album.  “Zombie Zoo” is a bit weak at the end, but I still like it, and the song captures perfectly the empty existence of night-clubbing:

“All down the street they’re standin’ in line

With white lipstick and one thing on their mind

Hey little freak with the lunch pail purse

Underneath the paint you’re just a little girl.”

The irony here is I was heavily clubbing when this album came out, likely chasing after the very girls Petty is mocking. 

The other song where the lyrics have a personal connection is “The Apartment Song” which goes:

“I used to live in a two-room apartment

Neighbours knockin’ on my wall

Times were hard, I don’t wanna knock it

I don’t miss it much at all.

“Oh yeah I’m alright I just feel a

Little lonely tonight

I’m okay most of the time

I just feel a little lonely tonight.”

When I first moved to Victoria I lived in a two-room basement suite, where I could often hear the landlord’s kids playing in the rumpus room next door (good kids, mind you).  “The Apartment Song” always brings me back to that experience, and being up-tempo, it reminds me of the fast and loose quality of youth at the same time.  I like the way the music of the song catches the energy of being young (note the night clubbing mentioned earlier), while the lyrics remind us that sometimes all the energy in the world can’t dispel a little loneliness.

Overall, the lyrics are not complicated but they perfectly fit the songs all of which will sound as fresh and easy as “Free Fallin’” for decades to come, even if they don’t get the same amount of radio play along the way.

It was hard to separate my long relationship with this album, and the incredible commercial success it enjoyed.  The over-familiarity tends to simultaneously inflate how I feel about the songs because of how well I know them (see any of my KISS reviews for this effect in action) even as I look more closely for missteps so I can prove the masses who also loved it wrong.

At the end of the day, though, you can’t let the crowd’s reaction decide what you think of something.  This record made me feel damned good just listening to it, and what’s more, it shows that not every album produced in the eighties had to be poorly handled.  This is the eighties done right.

Best tracks:  all tracks – even Zombie Zoo