FEATURE:
Feel a Whole Lot Better
Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever at Thirty-Five
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ONE of the finest and most enduring…
IN THIS PHOTO: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers in concert at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater on 14th Aug, 1989 in Irvine, California/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
albums of the 1980s, I wanted to celebrate Tom Petty’s Full Moon Fever ahead of its thirty-fifth anniversary on 24th April. Among Petty’s most successful and strongest albums, it contains classic tracks such as Free Fallin’, Runnin’ Down a Dream and I Won’t Back Down. It is an album I am very fond of. The debut from Tom Petty, it was a step away from his band, The Heartbreakers. It does feature contributions from members of the band, such as Mike Campbell and Jeff Lynne. Roy Orbison features, though he died prior to the album’s release. George Harrison is also in the mix. With Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell writing and predicting the tracks, it was this collaborative album where Tom Petty was exploring his music roots. There are a few features and reviews about Full Moon Fever that I am very keen to bring in. I want to start with a 2019 feature from Billboard. They gave a track-by-track guide to a classic album. I have selected a few of the best-known numbers:
“One 1987 fall day in L.A., Tom Petty went out on a drive to play some baseball — and had a run-in that would define his career. Driving to the Thrifty Drug store to pick up a mitt, he pulled up to a red light — and caught a glimpse of Electric Light Orchestra’s Jeff Lynne in the next car. Petty waved for Lynne to pull over.
Lynne, then in town to produce Brian Wilson’s solo debut album, began stopping by Petty’s house to woodshed new material. Together, they seemed to reignite each other’s mojo. Over the first two days, they wrote “Yer So Bad” and one of his signature songs, “Free Fallin’.”
Thus, the ball got rolling for Petty’s first solo album, Full Moon Fever, a bold step outside the Heartbreakers that shot to No. 3 on the Billboard 200. Wednesday (April 24) marks the album’s 30th
Petty was deep into stardom with the Heartbreakers, but by 1989, what looked like a holistic gang was disrupted. After the tour for 1987’s Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough), the band was scattered around the country — and Petty was on-edge and paranoid from an arson on his home in May 1987.
Lynne, too, was ready for a change. ELO had disbanded in 1986; in the producer chair for Petty, he could flex his creative muscles in a new way. His Beatles-tuned approach — radiant keys, dense harmonies, outsized choruses — buffed Petty’s sound to a gleam.
This drew mixed reactions from the Heartbreakers. Guitarist Mike Campbell stepped up as his sidekick and co-wrote “Love Is a Long Road” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream”; keyboardist Benmont Tench, though credited on “The Apartment Song,” felt burned. “I was pissed off and hurt,” he told Rolling Stone. “We were supposed to make a Heartbreakers record.”
Bandmate drama aside, the sessions foreshadowed a new union: the Traveling Wilburys. One year before Fever, the tongue-in-cheek supergroup released its first album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1. Listen closely, and you can hear George Harrison and Roy Orbison singing backing vocals on “I Won’t Back Down” and “Zombie Zoo,” respectively.
When Petty suddenly passed away Oct. 2, 2017 of an accidental overdose, Lynne’s tribute was one of the simplest and most touching: “Tom was the coolest guy I ever knew.” Full Moon Fever reflects that brotherly respect — and remains the zenith of Petty’s solo career.
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Full Moon Fever, here’s a track-by-track retrospective of the album.
“Free Fallin’”
Petty’s most recognizable song is his ultimate work of magical realism: cosmic flights, vampiric marches and out-of-body experiences set against mundane San Fernando Valley geography. Never had he worked in such dualities: references to many Angelenos’ daily commute set to sky-high suspended chords. We don’t know what became of the good girl and the bad boy, but it hardly matters — “Free Fallin’” is magic. And at No. 7, it was Petty’s highest-charting Hot 100 solo single.
“I Won’t Back Down”
In 1987, Petty waged and won a courtroom battle against B.F. Goodrich, a tire company that ripped off his song “Mary’s New Car” in a TV ad. Eleven days after the decision, an unknown assailant burned his home to the ground. These tribulations led to “I Won’t Back Down,” a clear-eyed song of resilience; its bracing simplicity made Petty second-guess its value. “That song frightened me,” he said. “I thought it wasn’t that good because it was so naked.” But, as always, he stood his ground.
“Runnin’ Down a Dream”
A high-octane favorite that has appeared everywhere from NASCAR to the Super Bowl halftime show, “Runnin’ Down a Dream” is the best of Petty’s songs about small–town escape. Campbell’s Dick Dale-like motif adds a lick of danger; he nailed the song’s string-popping coda in one take. “He looked like a stone statue,” marveled Petty. “He didn’t even blink or move.” Petty sounds blissful, name-dropping his buddy Del Shannon, at home between the highway dividers”.
Apologies if there is some repetition regarding facts and story about the recording of Full Moon Fever. Albumism spotlighted Tom Petty’s debut solo album on its thirtieth anniversary in 2019. Even if it does sound distinctly like a Heartbreakers record, it is very much a Tom Petty solo album. However you regarded it, there is no denying its consistency. Such a strong effort from the magnificent Petty:
“Petty's solo album actually had most of the Heartbreakers on it. Mike Campbell, the Heartbreaker's lead guitarist, played across the album and even co-wrote two songs. Benmont Tench, Heartbreaker keyboardist, played on one track, as did bassist Howie Epstein. The only Heartbreaker not on the album was drummer Stan Lynch, with whom Petty had an often-contentious relationship.
The album came about due to Petty's friendship with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. Lynne helped Petty write and produce "Yer So Bad," which wound up on Full Moon Fever. A day later, the two wrote and recorded "Free Fallin'," another iconic track from the album, at Campbell's home studio. Petty tried to make the album a Heartbreakers’ LP, but the rest of the band wasn't interested, as Petty recounted in Paul Zollo's Conversations with Tom Petty: “So I got to [Campbell's] and Howie [Epstein] was sitting outside the door of the bedroom. And he seemed kind of preoccupied, like he could be in those days. He was waiting, almost like a doctor waiting in the waiting room. And he said, 'You don't really need me for this, do you?' And he said, 'I don't like it.' I said, 'Well, if you don't like it, I don't need you.' And he said, 'Okay, I'm gonna go,' and he left. Right then I went, ‘well, this is going to be a Tom Petty solo record because I like it.’”
By this time, Petty and the Heartbreakers had made seven albums. One could see how Petty might be ready for a break. As much as he liked the band, he seemed invigorated by his work with Lynne, as well as by another guest on the album, Beatle George Harrison. Harrison sang backup on "I Won't Back Down."
A simple mimed performance on a sound stage with some random backgrounds, the video for that song revealed some interesting armchair psychological insights. There's not much to it, however, what's interesting is the band. Petty is singing and playing guitar, with Campbell on lead, and Lynne on bass. Harrison plays guitar and sings background vocals and none other than Ringo Starr plays drums, even though he had nothing to do with the song or the album.
Perhaps Petty was ready for a new band, if only for an album or so, and the solo record presented the opportunity to explore a Heartbreaker-less life. Or perhaps, like so many of us, he wanted to be a Beatle for a day.
Of course, the irony of the album is that it sounds so much like a Heartbreakers record. Petty ran away from home but chose a new family incredibly similar to his old one. But even if the new family was remarkably similar, there were still slight differences. Like Petty covered a Byrds song for the first time on a studio record, giving "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" a Beatles-esque sheen. Perhaps he finally felt free to cover a band that very much influenced his sound because this wasn't a formal Heartbreakers release, but rather a personal, solo dalliance.
Petty seemed, on some level, tired of the Heartbreakers. Which is why it makes sense that the Traveling Wilburys, Petty's supergroup featuring Harrison, Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Roy Orbison, would come together after Full Moon Fever (although the Wilburys' debut, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released before Full Moon).
Petty was on a journey of self-discovery and Full Moon Fever documents the start of that adventure.
The Heartbreakers, other than Campbell, resented Full Moon and didn't want to play the songs live as the Heartbreakers. Petty was well aware of the tension. When asked about if the Heartbreakers would perform this material, back in 1989, Petty joked to Billboard, "If I find some women and money for them, maybe. I haven't asked them yet."
But of course the band would perform these songs. They were too big to not play live. The songs were seared into popular American culture. Can you imagine Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire belting out any song other than "Free Fallin'" as he looks for a celebratory tune on the radio? And while there were two post 9/11 concerts, the only thing I remember from either is Petty's defiant "I Won't Back Down," played with the Heartbreakers, of course, from America: A Tribute to Heroes. Full Moon was just too good to exist only on the record; it needed to be blasted in stadiums and arenas. In fact, the Heartbreakers would add guitarist/keyboardist/backup singer Scott Thurston to help flesh out the sound on the Full Moon Fever tour. The Heartbreakers resented Full Moon Fever but their professional life was intertwined with the album, for better or for worse.
Petty's career was defined by his great songwriting. It should come as no surprise that his first solo album would be a hit machine. It should also come as no surprise that the success of Full Moon Fever created tension in the band. But things eventually cooled down. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would make six more studio albums after Full Moon Fever and Petty would do another solo album, Wildflowers (1994), before he died in 2017.
The world considers Full Moon Fever a Heartbreakers record. The Heartbreakers came around to accepting it as one, but at its core, it’s a Petty solo work. In 2018, Campbell wound up touring with Fleetwood Mac after their guitarist, Lindsey Buckingham, was fired. On that tour, Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks performed a Tom Petty song every night as a tribute to her friend and colleague (Petty and Campbell had written and recorded "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," which became a hit for her). The song she picked? "Free Fallin'”.
I will end with a review from Rolling Stone. Before getting to that review, I want to bring in this feature from 2019. I am fascinated about the background and story of Full Moon Fever. How one of the all-time best debt albums came to life. It is a sadness that Tom Petty is not with us to see how people react to Full Moon Fever and its approaching thirty-fifth anniversary:
“Though relaxed and low-key, the Full Moon Fever sessions were also a hotbed of creativity. Primarily tracked in lead guitarist Mike Campbell’s garage studio, the songs were mostly laid down by a core group of Petty, Campbell, drummer Phil Jones and producer Jeff Lynne (who played bass and subtle textural keyboards), though the remaining Heartbreakers and two of Petty’s fellow Wilburys also pitched in. Roy Orbison made a brief cameo on quirky rocker “Zombie Zoo,” while George Harrison played guitar and added decisive vocal harmonies to the LP’s first 45, “I Won’t Back Down.”
Though defiant in tone, “I Won’t Back Down” was also eminently catchy. Its success on the Billboard Hot 100 (where it peaked at No.12) set Full Moon Fever on the road to multi-platinum success. Driven by Mike Campbell’s memorable, zig-zagging riffs, the Del Shannon-referencing road song “Runnin’ Down A Dream” quickly followed it into the US Top 30, while the yearning, nostalgic “Free Fallin” later peaked at an impressive No.7.
Long-term staples of all self-respecting classic rock radio stations, this evergreen trio of 45s have since dominated reappraisals of their parent album, yet in reality Full Moon Fever was refreshingly filler-free. Indeed, Petty and co were right on the money throughout. Whether they were treading well-worn ground on tough, Heartbreakers-esque rockers (“Depending On You”) or veering off on sublime stylistic departures such as the glorious, lullaby-style love song “Alright For Now,” nothing could detour them from the path of greatness.
On the back of its three hits and a string of positive reviews, Full Moon Fever outstripped the success of The Travelling Wilburys Vol.1, peaking at No.3 on the Billboard 200 and going quintuple platinum in North America. Despite stiff competition from 1994’s Rick Rubin-produced Wildflowers, it arguably remains the high-water mark of Tom Petty’s solo career, though its mainstream pop sensibility remained intact on 1991’s robust, Jeff Lynne-produced Heartbreakers reunion, Into The Great Wide Open”.
In 1989, Rolling Stone provided their thoughts about Full Moon Fever. They spotlight many highlights on an album that made an instant impact upon its release. A top ten in many nations – including the U.S. and U.K. -, Full Moon Fever has since gone on to be crowned one of the best albums ever. If you have not heard it in a while, go and spend time with it:
“Tom Petty picks his friends well. Touring behind Bob Dylan in 1986 helped him and his band, the Heartbreakers, make their most spontaneous and feisty record, 1987’s Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). And his tenure in the Traveling Wilburys let the usually straight-faced Petty loosen up even more: He came up with one of his funniest tunes — “Last Night” — but more important, his performances seemed to gain strength from the relaxed atmosphere. Instead of worrying about writing songs as barbed as Bob Dylan’s, playing guitar as tersely as George Harrison or singing as gloriously as Roy Orbison, Petty just casually leaned forward and played and sang as directly and freely as he could.
Full Moon Fever is another rewarding, low-key side project for Petty. Produced by fellow Wilbury Jeff Lynne, the record is technically Petty’s first solo outing, though all the Heartbreakers except for drummer Stan Lynch make an appearance. What’s more, all the Wilburys save one (Bob Dylan) also show up: Full Moon Fever has the same restless charm and barbed wit as the Wilburys’ LP.
Although Petty and Heartbreaker guitarist-songwriter Mike Campbell earn coproduction credits on the album, it is Lynne who holds sway. The former Electric Light Orchestra leader’s production technique often builds banks of keyboards and backing vocals so high it’s hard to see the song behind them, but on Full Moon Fever there are few of his characteristic excesses. In fact, the broader sound that Lynne brings to these twelve songs (most written by Petty and Lynne) usually fills them out without cluttering them. On songs like the brooding, deliberate rocker “I Won’t Back Down,” Lynne adds his trademark layers with a slightly lighter touch than usual; only on the grand-sounding “Love Is a Long Road” do the synthesizers and extra vocals beef up an arrangement with fat instead of muscle.
The opening song, the delicate “Free Fallin’,” is not only the standout on Full Moon Fever but also one of the most concise, well-rounded performances of Petty’s career. Over a spiral of acoustic guitars, Petty sings the tale of an abandoning lover. His story is full of internal inconsistencies — if he doesn’t miss her, why is the whole first verse about her? — that serve to underline the character’s misgivings. “I’m free!” Petty cries as he barges into the chorus, holding out some redemption for his narrator. But after a pause, he delivers the dark punch line: He’s not free, he’s merely “free fallin’.” Although Lynne’s smooth backing vocals cushion Petty as much as they can, this is one story that holds no happy landing.
“Free Fallin’ ” isn’t the only high point on this sprawling album. The hell-bent “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” which offers a bruising solo by Campbell, suggests that Petty picked something up from touring with the ferocious Georgia Satellites, and “A Mind With a Heart of Its Own,” a pop variation on the Bo Diddley beat, offers up offhand verses absurd and unexpected enough to make even Dylan smile. The barbs reach their peak on “Yer So Bad,” which burps up a hilariously understated opening couplet (“My sister got lucky/Married a yuppie”); it’s a track that could have fit on Beatles ’65. “The Apartment Song” — more folk rock, but with a Chuck Berry edge — also engages in some nostalgia, with a drum break swiped wholesale from Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue.”
Although Full Moon Fever doesn’t sound like a Petty-with-the-Heartbreakers record, there is much on the album to please longtime Petty fans. The chorus of “Depending on You,” with its cascading guitar and keyboard parts, is the most overtly Heartbreaker-like, and the hard-earned lullaby “Alright for Now” recalls “It’ll All Work Out,” from Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough).
The most inexplicable track is a note-for-note cover of the Byrds’ “Feel a Whole Lot Better” that’s all too obvious — Petty’s voice has always been a ringer for Roger McGuinn’s, and this song is the clear antecedent to Petty’s “Listen to Her Heart.” But Petty’s just-as-obvious love for the song steamrolls over most objections.
The whole point of Full Moon Fever, however, is that it makes room for something like “Feel a Whole Lot Better,” which would never find a place on a Petty-Heartbreakers record. The album is a chance for Petty to explore, play and maybe fall on his face without having much at stake. After all, he’s already at work on his next effort with the Heartbreakers. So even if Full Moon Fever isn’t Petty’s best record, it sure sounds like it was the most fun to make”.
On 24th April, we mark thirty-five years of Full Moon Fever. It is shocking to think that MCA Records, under Irving Azoff, originally refused to issue the album because it was felt there were not hits on Tom Petty’s debut album. In 2019, the album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. It is testament to the sheer strength and brilliance of Full Moon Fever. A true classic, I wanted to mark its thirty-fifth anniversary. We lost the amazing Tom Petty in 2017. By listening to albums such as Full Moon Fever, we will…
REMEMBER him fondly.