298. Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever"

 


The mid-80's Ford Mustang of albums, this redoubtable classic is beloved by middle-aged white guys, the people who stock jukeboxes, and anyone who has a Tasmanian devil tattoo.  Every account of the making of this album includes the irresistible nugget that MCA initially rejected it because they didn't hear a single.  Brother, this album is all motherfucking singles.  If you don't know every word to "Free Fallin'" or "I Won't Back Down" then you were probably in suspended animation since the 90's.

These are undoubtedly great songs.  But let me swoop in here with kind of a downer: they're not particularly interesting songs.  They're all verse-chorus-bridge/solo etc., and they all sound like they were written on an acoustic, which they were.  This is not to say there aren't some great moments!  When he hits that E minor in the prechorus of "Yer So Bad," and sings "But nottttttt meeeeeee baaaaaaaaby" it is a genuinely great piece of songwriting.  "Feel a Whole Lot Better" is great, but it's a Byrds cover, which makes sense because the Byrds were obviously a huge influence on Petty.  "A Mind With a Heart of Its Own" has a fun Bo Diddley beat.

But this album is, and always will be, about the hits.  It spawned five singles and sold five million copies.  Technically, it was Petty's first album without the Heartbreakers, but they almost all played on it and it was recorded in the guitarist's home studio so I'm not sure if that means anything.

Petty died, of course, of an accidental overdose of painkillers and sedatives in 2017, but as long as there is a fishing trip with the boys or a road trip with the girls or a dive bar with a Miller Lite sign the songs on this album will live forever.  Sometimes rock 'n roll can just be simple and uncomplicated and direct and still hit you where you live.  God bless you, Tom.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Indisuptably.

Comments

  1. GGSeptember 7, 2021 at 10:51 AM

    This is the first Tom Petty album I ever owned and I wore the cassette out. "The Apartment Song" is still one of my favorite songs. Maybe these aren't particularly *interesting,* but writing a simple pop song that resonates with so many people is so much harder than it looks, and I'm glad this made the top 500!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. TKSeptember 8, 2021 at 2:20 PM

      I've been thinking about this and I think what's going on is that maybe I've heard these songs so much that maybe they've just become rote to me. So maybe I was a little harsh in saying they're not interesting, when I should have said they were severely overplayed.

      Delete
    2. GGSeptember 9, 2021 at 4:16 PM

      Fair.

      Delete

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