Full moon fever --- Tom Petty --- 1989 (MCA)
What happens to Tom when you take away his Heartbreakers? Why, he records his most commercial and successful album ever. Which is not to say that the backing band were holding him back --- he achieved his fame up to this with them, after all, becoming a respected figure in the world of rock. But when he struck out on his own, pure gold resulted.
Well, in fairness, not entirely on his own. His success on “Full moon fever”, his debut solo album, was largely down to ELO's Jeff Lynne, who not only played on the album and co-wrote most of the songs, but arranged and produced it too, giving it an inescapable ELO feel. Although he had been going, at this point, for over thirteen years and released seven albums with the Heartbreakers, and had indeed had a number one single with “Jammin' me”, he was not that well known outside proper rock circles. Albums like “Damn the torpedoes”, “Long after dark” and “Southern accents”, great though they are, largely passed the public by, and even “Let me up (I've had enough)”, from which “Jammin' me” was taken, barely broke the top twenty on the album charts. Petty was a name people knew, but ask them to name a single by him, or even a track, and other than "Jammin' me" (and possibly even then), many were stumped.
But that all changed when he released “Full moon fever”. With a slicker, more commercial (and therefore bankable) sound, it spawned five singles, three of which were hits, and
now people knew who Tom Petty was! It's unfair and inaccurate to say that Jeff Lynne was the sole architect of Petty's solo success, but there's no denying he had a huge hand in it. The album is still regarded as one of Petty's best ever, and you'll find even people who don't have a single Heartbreakers album in their collection have this on their shelf. In 1989, it really became one of the must-have albums.
Petty (and Lynne) rarely puts a foot wrong from beginning to end. It kicks off with one of the big hit singles; “Free Fallin'” is a slow, moody song recounting Petty's conquests and laughing at the girls who fall for his charms:
”All the vampires/ Walkin' through the valley/ Move west down/ Ventura Boulevard/ And all the bad boys/ Are standin' in the shadows/ And all the good girls/ Are home with broken hearts.” Great song, but really one of the most selfish I've heard since Robert Cray's “Strong persuader”. Immediately you can hear the influence of Lynne, on the far more restrained guitar, the dominance of the keys and the vocal harmonies. Still, it got him a hit. And it's a great song.
Another hit comes next. “I won't back down” is sort of a hybrid of the sort of raw rock he purveyed with the Heartbreakers on albums like “Long after dark” and “Southern accents”, mixed with a very ELO-like feel. It's a song of defiance as Tom sings
”In a world that keeps on/ Pushin' me around/ But I'll stand my ground/ And I won't back down.” Maybe a little hypocritical, as although the album was extremely successful, Petty did consciously change his style in order to achieve that new sound, effectively handing the reins over to Lynne, who, it must be said, did a great job reinventing him.
“Love is a long road” is the first song on which Lynne has no writing input --- Petty writes it with his Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell --- and it sees a marked shift back to the way he used to play, a harder, rockier edge on it with nothing of the commercial appeal of the preceding two tracks. Naturally, it was not chosen as a single, but it's more
real Tom Petty, as his fans would see him, than either of the first two. Great guitar solo, possibly from Campbell, who does play on the album, though it's not made clear on which tracks.
Lynne tightens his control after briefly letting it slip, and the result is yet another hit, this time the ballad “Face in the crowd”, one of about four standouts on the album. It's a lonely, mid-paced lament, with great drawled vocals from Petty, really nice jangly guitar, and some really nice solos. Although it was not a big hit, chances are you know it, as it was played extensively on the radio and became a favourite from the album, so not too much point in my describing it that much more.
It's followed by the bombastic “Runnin' down a dream”, yet another big hit single. It's power and rockin' all the way, with energetic, excited guitars and layers of keyboards, courtesy of Lynne's production, and playing, and it's been said to be the ultimate driving song. Certainly, the lyric reflects this, as Petty sings about
”Felt so good/ Like everything was possible/ Hit cruise control/ Rubbed my eyes.” There's really unbridled joy and a sense of freedom about the song, and it could be theorised (and I do) that perhaps it's the freedom Petty felt from being released from the restrictions of playing with the Heartbreakers. It's the only one on which Lynne, Petty and Campbell co-write, and is in fact Campbell's last writing credit on the album.
Terrific solo to end the song to fade!
The only cover on the album, Gene Clark's “Feel a whole lot better” is a mid-paced rocker with a lot of jangly guitar and a very Smokie sound about it, a la “Needles and pins” in the guitar riff. There is, of course, a whole lot of the Byrds in it too, and it's a nice change from the hard rockers and ballads we've had up to now, with some nice semi-country guitar from Petty halfway through. Hmm. Could be mandolin, in fact: it
is used on the album at some point by Campbell...
That's it for the hit singles, and therefore essentially the first part, or indeed side, of the album is better than the second, but there are still good tracks on “side two”. The boppy, uptempo “Yer so bad” is a simple song of love without being anywhere near a ballad, with some very tongue-in-cheek lyrics:
”My sister got lucky/ Married a yuppie/ Took him for all he was worth/ Now she's a swinger/ Dating a singer/ I can't decide which is worse!” Great fun all round.
Petty takes control of the songwriting for the next three songs, and they're in fairness a mixed bunch. There's the boppy, Beatles-like simplicity of “Depending on you”, with some sobering advice:
”Maybe you can't change the world/ Maybe you should just change yourself?” Not the first time such advice has been offered, true, but it doesn't make it any the less valid. “The apartment song” is also good fun, very rock and roll and dealing with the idea of the dreaded bedsit, probably best explored by Pulp on “Common people”. Again, nice jangly guitar and interesting drums make this song, and without Lynne's influence on the songwriting Petty can really stretch himself and let his own creative juices --- which are far from inconsiderable --- flow freely.
He really comes up trumps though on the last of his self-penned tracks, the gentle, introspective ballad “Alright for now”, almost a lullaby with its simple melody and even simpler but universally understood lyric. Beautifully understated acoustic guitar and lovely backing vocals help to craft a real gem. A short song, in fact the shortest on the album at exactly two minutes, its honesty and realism are implicit in even the opening bars, where Petty either deliberately or accidentally has to restart the song. It either gives a fairly rare insight into an artist allowing us to see a less than perfect side of them, or else it's a sly dig at those who record and re-record their songs until they consider them perfect, perhaps in the process bleeding out the soul and meaning of them. This is, in a word, perfect.
The next one is an out-and-out rocker, with acoustic guitar but harder than on “Alright for now”, again quite Beatles or even Monkees in feel, “A mind with a heart of its own” gets things moving again, and although Lynne is back collaborating on the writing for this one, it feels more like a Petty song than a Lynne one, or even a Lynne/Petty. And just where you expect there to be a guitar solo, there … isn't. Clever, and it really catches you off guard.
I could probably live without the closer. “Zombie zoo”. It's a rocker, and has a lot of keyboards and piano in it. It's not at all bad, I just find it a little below the quality of the previous tracks. But as I say, it's not bad. Just would rather have been humming something else when putting the album away.
After “Full moon fever” Tom Petty began to be taken as a serious, commercial artist, and his next effort, released in 1991, also did very well, spawning more hit singles. Although this was with the Heartbreakers, it was generally seen more as a Tom Petty album than a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers one, and it set him on the road to even more commercial and chart success. No doubt hardcore Petty fans will moan that he sold out on this album --- and maybe he did --- but there's no denying that after it, to many more people than before it Tom Petty was now a name that meant something to them.
TRACKLISTING
1. Free fallin'
2. I won't back down
3. Love is a long road
4. A face in the crowd
5. Runnin' down a dream
6. Feel a whole lot better
7. Yer so bad
8. Depending on you
9. The apartment song
10. Alright for now
11. A mind with a heart of its own
12. Zombie zoo
Suggested further listening: “Damn the torpedoes”, “Long after dark”, “Southern accents”, “Let me up (I've had enough)”, “Into the great wide open”, “Highway companion”